Introduction: Buying time -- Drought and new mobilities in the Omani interior -- The customs masters and customs of credit in Zanzibar -- Sultans at sea : mobility and the Omani states -- Halwa and identity in the western Indian Ocean world -- Tippu Tip's kin, from Oman to the eastern Congo -- Freed slaves : manumission and mobility before 1873 -- Acts for consuls and consular acts : documents, manumission, and ocean travel after 1873 -- A dhow on Lake Victoria -- "Everything is pledged to its time" : Salih bin Ali, debt, and rebellion in the Omani interior -- Epilogue.