[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Regarding Sohar it is perhaps worth a note ~ From Eduardo Kol de Carvalho; I Quote"When Afonso de Albuquerque captured Sohar on 16th September 1507 it was, in the words of Brás de Albuquerque, “very large and beautiful with fine houses”. It had a square fortress with six towers and two other large towers by the fortress’s gate. The wall was quite high and reasonably thick. This fort was situated by a wide cove, although the port was “had many reefs, with ships anchored at six fathoms; from there to land was half a league”. That observer was so impressed by the fort’s size that he thought at least 1,000 men were needed to defend it. He also noted the houses of the local ruler, which stood out for their beauty, and others exclusively meant for the garrison. Indeed, Sohar was the only fortified city on the Omani coast at the time of Afonso de Albuquerque’s campaign, as it was then the chief city on the entire coast. This place had long played an important role in settlement of that coast, as the region had numerous palm groves that ensured a sufficient food supply for local residents; the sands enabled easy access to the sea, where fish abounded. In the 10th century Sohar was already considered one of the Indian Ocean’s main ports; it was then occupied by the Seljuk Turks, who seized it from the Azd, a Yemeni tribe who introduced Islam in Oman, expelling the former Persian colonisers. António Bocarro mentions the discovery of Roman coins from the time of Emperor Tiberius, attesting to the city’s regional importance. But the Portuguese occupation resulted in Muscat becoming the main strategic port on this coast, thus sealing forever the decline of Sohar’s primacy".Unquote.

Another description by the same author goes on to talk about the Fort; Quote. Fortress
Sohar [Soar, Suhar], Persian Gulf | Red Sea, Oman
Military Architecture.

As it was built on a plain close to extensive sands, Sohar was not suitable for use as the main port for the large-draught Portuguese ships – the largest operating at that time. The sands gave no shelter from the winds, nor did they favour the easy movement of men and goods. But the city was still important. This is proven by the Portuguese crown’s concern about its preservation and fortification, as indicated in the Livro das Plantas de Todas as Fortalezas, Cidades e Povoações do Estado da Índia Oriental by Pedro de Barreto de Resende/António Bocarro, who inform us that “the Fortress of Sohar is situated on the forecoast of Arabia, at 24.5 degrees north”. The fortress had the shape of a perfect square with four corner bastions equipped with “traverses” and bombards. To defend each other, each wall quarter shall measure 70 paces, not counting the size of the bastions, which are also square, each the size of a house spanning 10 paces; the wall is made of fired adobe and clay, making it very strong”. Inside the fort were several fresh-water wells and the garrison quarters; one of the bastions was used as a warehouse located “along one of the walls. It is entered through the door on the right which is used to collect food for the soldiers. The walls also have a defence system which the Parsees call bugios, which are adobe shields placed on wooden stakes outside facing the base of the wall”. The fortress had six artillery pieces installed in the bastions and a square outwork whose dimensions corresponded to the fortress and bastions.

(Some clarity as to timings and who had control of the fort at the time because inside a church was built. The latter could hold between 50 and 60 people and was overseen by an Augustinian friar.)

Proof of this fort’s importance is that it was recaptured from the Persians during a 1623 campaign waged by the captain-general of the Red Sea, Rui Freire de Andrade, as mentioned in the Comentários by Rui Freire, though according to António Bocarro, this occurred in 1616, using a fleet comprising one galley and five fustas led by Francisco Rolim, who arrived from Muscat with help from the Strait fleet’s captain, Vasco da Gama, and five ships under his command. Whether by Francisco Rolim in 1616 or Rui Freire de Andrade in 1623, the recapture of the fortress followed the Persian takeover in 1602 after the fall of the fort at Bahrain, captured by Shah Abbas I of the Safavid dynasty, which seriously affected custom house revenues in Hormuz and Muscat. Satellite imagery now shows the following situation: the fortress has disappeared; the outwork built by the Portuguese and depicted by Barreto de Resende/Bocarro is a rectangle whose smaller side is parallel to the beach, not the contrary; the cuirass extending to the shore has also disappeared. Another tower on the east side has been added to the five original round towers, while at the angle of a slight wall inflexion near the central tower on the wall’s west side a quadrangular donjon-style tower stands. The satellite imagery also enables identification of vestiges of the back part of the inner fortress. Images from the Ministry of National Heritage and Culture of the sultanate of Oman show that the wall near the donjon was outfitted with buttresses during consolidation work after 1982. Like the Qurayat Fort, the one at Sohar is totally whitewashed. The surrounding area has also changed in the two last decades; the nearby quarter of “huts”, certainly resembling what was there at the time of Albuquerque or Gomes de Andrade, has disappeared. But the intensely green area of palm groves depicted by Barreto de Resende/Bocarro is still there. The fort’s main gate, set back in the wall facing the sea, has maintained the same structure, i.e. adjoining a building. The fortress measures approximately 75 x 135 x 80 x 132 metres, clockwise from the wall fronting the sea. In 1643 Sohar definitively fell into enemy hands when it was conquered by Imam Nasir ibn Murshid; on that occasion its Augustinian church was naturally lost as well. This fort located on the Batinah coast was restored in 1985.
Eduardo Kol de Carvalho''. Unquote.

Please note the interesting remarks about the Fort having been totally whitewashed and that was just recently removed see earlier posts...It is also interesting that this Fort was the first place from which cannon were fired in Oman though it is unclear who by or who at !!

For an Ethnographic flavour of the Ships including Fustas and Caravel etc and even a look at clothes worn by Portuguese at the time...see below..