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Howling over Yasab

“The old people say that since we didn’t have any utensils in the old days we used to drop the flour for the bread right on the floor,” says the wizened old man. And that’s how our village gets its name. Yasab means ‘to drop.’”

Yasab isn’t any ordinary village — its 14 houses and three tribes huddle against the cold rock, staring up at Oman’s highest mountain, howling back at the wolves that eat their goats.

Yasab is up here now.

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4 Comments

  1. bilquis alkhabori
    Posted January 19, 2010 at 11:33 pm | #

    Very informative.Places like Yasab I had not heard of before .I wonder why there is no mention of women and young girls.
    wish you good luck.

  2. Posted January 20, 2010 at 8:11 am | #

    Thanks Bilquis. Hope the knee is better. Yasab is on the other, non-touristy side of Jebel Shams, up a dead-end dirt road that’s possibly one of the steepest in the country. I didn’t see any women or girls there…

  3. nigel
    Posted January 20, 2010 at 8:12 am | #

    such places as yasab are fast disappearing pinaki. it’s good that someone at least is noting them before the go completely. it’s sad that, as bilquis says, there is no mention of women and young girls. hopefully soon they won’t jealously guarded.

  4. Posted January 20, 2010 at 8:18 am | #

    I don’t think they’re jealously guarded, but such communities are dying as people drive down into more urban areas: Wadi Sahtan, then Rustaq, then Muscat. So the settlements empty and now you just find their remnants.

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