Kumzar
کمزارA fishing village reached only by sea
Kumzar is a village at the very northern tip of the Musandam peninsula, the Omani exclave that juts into the Strait of Hormuz opposite the coast of Iran. It lies at the head of a narrow bay between steep, bare mountains, and no road reaches it: everyone comes and goes by boat.
The village is known above all for its language. Kumzari is an Iranian language, related to the dialects of southern Iran, which has absorbed a great deal of Arabic vocabulary and has been shaped by centuries of contact across the strait. It is spoken by the people of Kumzar and by Kumzari speakers who live part of the year elsewhere in the region, and linguists regard it as endangered. Its existence is a reminder that the Gulf has long been a sea that joins its shores more than it divides them.
Life in Kumzar has traditionally depended on fishing, especially for sardines, tuna and kingfish, and on the date palms of the narrow valley. The houses are of stone, packed tightly into a gully below the cliffs, and in the hottest months many families move to towns on the coast. Visitors usually come on boat trips from Khasab, and the sight of the village, so isolated beneath its cliffs, makes clear why its language has survived.