The Magan of which he was king need have been no further afield than the Oman peninsula.
Notwithstanding this, the French republic had issued to certain native dhows, owned by subjects of the sultan, papers authorizing them to fly the French flag, not only on the Oman littoral but in the Red Sea.
This province, which skirts the Persian Gulf from the mouth of the Euphrates to the frontiers of Oman, is low and hot; its shores are flat, and with the exception of Kuwet at the north-west corner of the gulf, it possesses no deep water port.
It has two important branches - at the south-west the Gulf of Aden, connecting with the Red Sea through the strait of Bab-elMandeb; and at the north-west the Gulf of Oman, connecting with the Persian Gulf.
On the north-east and east the plateau shelves gradually to the Euphrates and the Persian Gulf; only in the extreme east is this general easterly slope arrested by the lofty range of Jebel Akhdar, which from Ras Musandan to Ras el Had borders the coast of Oman.
