Perhaps, however, the old city is to
be looked for about ten miles to the westward, where there is another
place bearing the same name, "once a thriving town, but now a desolate
group of houses with an old fort, formerly the residence of the chief of
the Kasaidi tribe." (J.R.G.S. IX. 151-152.) Shehr is spoken of by
Barbosa (Xaer in Lisbon ed.; Pecher in Ramusio; Xeher in Stanley; in
the two last misplaced to the east of Dhofar): "It is a very large place,
and there is a great traffic in goods imported by the Moors of Cambaia,
Chaul, Dabul, Batticala, and the cities of Malabar, such as cotton-stuffs
... strings of garnets, and many other stones of inferior value; also much
rice and sugar, and spices of all sorts, with coco-nuts; ... their money
they invest in horses for India, which are here very large and good. Every
one of them is worth in India 500 or 600 ducats." (Ram. f. 292.) The
name Shehr in some of the Oriental geographies, includes the whole coast
up to Oman.
NOTE 2. - The hills of the Shehr and Dhafar districts were the great source
of produce of the Arabian frankincense. Barbosa says of Shehr: "They carry
away much incense, which is produced at this place and in the interior; ...
it is exported hence all over the world, and here it is used to pay ships
with, for on the spot it is worth only 150 farthings the hundredweight."
See note 2, ch.
