Samuel Barrett Miles – författare

In a long career in the Indian army and political service, colonel Samuel Barrett Miles built up an unrivalled knowledge of the countries and peoples of the Persian Gulf. travelling overland on camels and by sea in dhows, often one of the first foreigners to visit the gulf's remote places, he observed and recorded social conditions, architecture, agriculture, fishing, commerce including the fabled pearl fisheries, tribal traditions, local customs and dynastic histories, providing material for this authoritative work. to his ethnographic observation based on direct experience, miles added a knowledge of classics and history that enabled him to show that many current practices, such as methods of measurement, had their roots in the ancient past. he was also able to demonstrate that the gulf had played an important role in commerce a thousand years before. above all, he helped to establish the study of the early history of Eastern Arabia, which until then had been veiled in obscurity, also providing detailed accounts of successive waves of colonisation, and current political events in the area. this work is arranged two volumes. the chapters in Volume One are concerned with the history of early colonisation. the Persian Gulf under Islam; the Portuguese in eastern Arabia and the Yaareba dynasty. the chapters in Volume Two are devoted to the Al-Bu Saeedi dynasty; the history of the commerce of the Persian Gulf; description of the country and the pearl fisheries; the tribes of the Persian Gulf; Arabia eastern and south-eastern and the Kooria Mooria Islands; and the history and geography of Dhofar and Beraimi. these classic volumes are essential reading for anyone who seeks to better understand Eastern Arabia and the Persian Gulf in the past and in the present.

This book deals with the ancient and modern tribes and peoples of the countries around the Persian Gulf generally and Oman in particular. It records many environmental factors of the Persian Gulf, such as religious influence, social conditions, commerce, geography, agriculture, and fishing.

This book is a collection of the notes of S.B. Miles, longtime British official in the Persian Gulf, and covers pre-Islamic history, pointing out that the inhabitants were masters of maritime commerce where trade included slaves, spices, gold, precious stones, and textiles from Asia and Africa.