Bathari

The Batahira (singular Bathari) are a small tribe of the eastern Dhofar coast of Oman. They call themselves Bait Bathā or Bait Bathār, which they link to baṭḥ, 'earth, dust'. Their land once reached inland toward Thumrait, but the Janayba and Mahra drove them east to a barren strip of coast facing the Khuriya Muriya (Al-Hallaniyat) islands, and they explain their small numbers by old wars with the Persians and the Portuguese. In the tribal order of Dhofar they were ranked ḍaʕīf, 'weak': they were barred from carrying weapons, and other tribes did not marry with them. Their own language, Bathari, is a Modern South Arabian language close to Mehri and Harsusi; Bertram Thomas recorded it in 1929, and by 2019 only 12-17 elderly fluent speakers remained. Most Batahira now speak Mehri and Arabic, and a few cattle-herding families in Wadi Ezdah speak Jibbali.

The Batahira were fishermen and shore gatherers. Men made hooks, lines, cast nets and gill nets, and hunted turtles and nesting seabirds; women gathered chitons, mussels, rock oysters, abalone, limpets and sea urchins, and carried water in goatskins from distant rock pools and brackish lagoons. Salted shark and dried fish were traded to passing boats for iron, cloth and grain. The diet was fish, turtle, camel and goat milk, and now and then rice and dates. Families lived in caves or small stone huts; the old settlements of Warkh and Mingiy are now deserted. Since the 1970s the state has resettled the tribe in new coastal towns with roads, schools, clinics and desalinated water.

The Batahira are Sunni Muslims. Miranda Morris recorded strong folk belief: ritual taboos on fishing and eating; women believed able to raise winds, call up concealing mists and steer fish; tales of Bathari sorceresses who turned enemies' drinking water to blood and wrecked their ships; and animal sacrifices to appease the spirits of the dead. Arabic is prized as the language of Islam, which pushed Bathari aside. How much of the old belief survives among the young is not documented.

No Scripture, JESUS Film or audio exists in Bathari, and the language is nearly gone. The Batahira speak Mehri, which has only Scripture portions from 1902, and Arabic, in which the Bible and many media are available. No believers or outreach are known.