Oman

• 1. Introduction

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  In 2010, the United Nations Development Programme named Oman the most improved country in the world over the preceding 40 years. That is a striking verdict for a nation on the southeastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula, facing the Arabian Sea. Officially the Sultanate of Oman, it is also the oldest independent state in the Arab world, ruled without interruption by a single dynasty. Today about 5.46 million people live across 315,331 square kilometres, with Muscat as the capital and largest city. How did a place that Mesopotamia knew as a source of copper grow into a maritime empire stretching as far south as Zanzibar? Why did it spend much of the 20th century under British influence while remaining formally sovereign? And what does power look like in a state where one man still issues the laws?

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• 2. Copper and Names

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  In 2011, researchers working at Al Aybut Al Awal, in the Dhofar Governorate, found more than 100 scatters of stone tools lying on the surface. The tools belong to the late Nubian Complex, a style previously known only from northeast Africa and the Horn. Two dating estimates place the Arabian version at 106,000 years old. That supports the idea that early humans moved from Africa into Arabia during the Late Pleistocene. Surveys have since uncovered Palaeolithic and Neolithic sites along the eastern coast, including Saiwan-Ghunaim in the Barr al-Hikman. The richest remains come from the Bronze Age Umm an-Nar and Wadi Suq periods. At Bat, Al-Janah and Al-Ayn, wheel-turned pottery, hand-made stone vessels, metalworking artifacts and monumental architecture have survived.

  Around 2300 BCE, Sumerian cuneiform tablets described a land called Magan, which the Akkadians called Makan. Magan supplied Mesopotamia with copper and diorite, and it lasted as a source until 550 BCE. It covered parts of modern Oman and the United Arab Emirates. The Persians used their own name, Mazun, from a word meaning clouds and abundant flowing water. The source ties that name to the early success of farming in the region.

  The oldest known written mention of the name Oman sits on a tomb at the Mleiha Archeological Center in the United Arab Emirates. Pliny the Elder wrote of Omana and Ptolemy of Omanon, yet the name is believed to be older than both. Many Arabic accounts trace it to a word for settled people, as opposed to nomadic Bedouins. Other theories name founders such as Oman bin Ibrahim al-Khalil, or point to a valley in Ma'rib, Yemen, thought to be the homeland of an ancient Bedouin tribe called the Azd. The scholar Ibn Khaldun listed Oman among the Arab regions that became independent states and called it a "sole sultanic region."

  In the 1970s and 1980s, scholars such as John C. Wilkinson believed, from oral history, that the Achaemenids ruled the Omani peninsula in the 6th century BCE. They imagined a base at a coastal centre such as Suhar. The northern half may have belonged to the Maka satrapy. The scarcity of Persian archaeological finds argues against the idea. Better documented is the later Sasanian conquest under Vahrez, which left a 4,000-strong garrison headquartered at Jamsetjerd, now Jebel Gharabeh, also called Felej al-Sook. Meanwhile, from the second half of the 1st millennium BCE, waves of Semitic-speaking peoples were already moving east from central and western Arabia.

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• 3. Settlers and Imams

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  Around 120 or 200 CE, the collapse of the Marib Dam pushed a segment of the Azd tribe out of Yemen and toward Oman. A second group, the Nizari, arrived a few centuries before Islam from Nejd, in present-day Saudi Arabia. The newcomers fished, farmed and herded, and they had to compete with the indigenous population for the best arable land. One tradition credits Malik bin Fahm with leading the settlement, starting at Qalhat. According to al-Kalbi, he commanded more than 6000 men and horses and defeated a Persian king's Marzban at the battle of Salut. The source calls this account semi-legendary, a compression of many centuries of migration and conflict.

  In the 7th century CE, Omanis came into contact with Islam. The conversion is ascribed to Amr ibn al-As, sent by the Prophet Muhammad to meet Jaifer and Abd, the sons of Julanda who ruled Oman. They appear to have embraced the faith readily.

  Under the Umayyads, Omani Azd traders travelled to Basra and were granted a quarter of the city. Many grew wealthy, and under al-Muhallab ibn Abi Sufra they pushed their influence east toward Khorasan. In Basra, Abd Allah ibn Ibad founded Ibadism, a moderate branch of the Kharijites, who had broken with Imam Ali after rejecting arbitration at the Battle of Siffin in AD 657. Omani Azd in Iraq adopted this faith. When al-Hajjaj, the governor of Iraq, came into conflict with the Ibadis, they were forced back to Oman. Among them was the scholar Jaber bin Zaid, whose return greatly strengthened the movement.

  Al-Hajjaj then tried to conquer Oman, then ruled by the sons of Abbad bin Julanda. His commander Mujjaah bin Shiwah devastated the army of Said bin Abbad, who retreated to the Jebel Akhdar mountains. Mujjaah flushed him out of hiding in Wadi Mastall. Suleiman bin Abbad won a battle on the coast, but a second force under Abdulrahman bin Suleiman finally took the governance of Oman.

  After the fall of the Umayyads, around 750 or 755 CE, the first elective Imamate is believed to have begun with Janaħ bin ʕibadah Alħinnawi. Other scholars say Julanda bin Masud was the first elected Imam, in 751. The Imamate peaked in the ninth century, when its fleet controlled the Gulf and trade flourished with the Abbasids, the Far East and Africa. Power struggles, Abbasid interference and the rise of the Seljuk Empire then wore it down.

  The Seljuks were expelled in 1154, when the Nabhani dynasty took over from its capital at Bahla. The Nabhanis ruled as kings while the Imams became largely symbolic. They controlled the frankincense trade along the overland route through Sohar to the Yabrin oasis, then north to Bahrain, Baghdad and Damascus. During their time, ElFellah bin Muhsin introduced the mango tree to Oman. Some historians argue the dynasty ended as early as 1435, when conflict with the Alhinawis restored the elective Imamate.

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• 4. Seafaring Empire

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  A decade after Vasco da Gama reached India in 1497-1498, Afonso de Albuquerque captured Hormuz, and Portugal governed Oman for 143 years, from 1507 to 1650. The Portuguese needed an outpost to protect their sea lanes, so they built up and fortified Muscat. They also colonised several other Omani cities in the early 16th century as part of a web of fortresses running from Basra to Hormuz Island. Remnants of their architectural style still stand.

  In 1552, an Ottoman fleet briefly captured the fort at Muscat, then left after destroying its surroundings. At the Battle of the Gulf of Oman, the Portuguese routed another Ottoman fleet. Later in the 17th century, Portugal fought the largest naval battle ever staged in the Persian Gulf. Its opponents were a combined armada of the Dutch East India Company and the English East India Company, backed by the Safavid empire. The result was a draw, yet it cost Portugal its influence in the Gulf.

  In 1624, Nasir bin Murshid became the first Yaarubah Imam, elected at Rustaq. He and his successor expelled the Portuguese from Oman's coast in the 1650s. The Omanis then chased them out of every possession in East Africa and absorbed those lands. Mombasa's Fort Jesus held out for two years against Imam Saif bin Sultan before falling in 1698. He occupied Bahrain in 1700.

  After Imam Sultan died in 1718, rivalry within the house of Yaruba weakened the dynasty. Imam Saif bin Sultan II asked Nader Shah of Persia for help, and a Persian force arrived in March 1737. Based at Julfar, those troops rebelled in 1743 and tried to seize Oman's coast until 1747.

  Once the Persians were driven out, Ahmed bin Sa'id Albusaidi was elected Imam on the 20th of November 1744, with Rustaq as capital. His Al Bu Said dynasty still rules. Elections continued, though qualified members of the ruling family were preferred. Later rulers took the title Seyyid, and Said bin Sultan made Zanzibar the empire's capital in 1837. Zanzibar was the main slave market of the Swahili Coast and a major producer of cloves. Under British arbitration in 1856, Zanzibar and Muscat became separate sultanates. Another distant holding, Gwadar in Balochistan, stayed Omani for more than a century.

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• 5. Britain's Shadow

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  In 1798, Sayyid Sultan bin Ahmed signed the first treaty between the British East India Company and the Albusaidi dynasty. It aimed to block French and Dutch commercial competition and secured permission for a British factory at Bandar Abbas. A second treaty in 1800 placed a British representative at Muscat to manage all external affairs. In 1854, the sultan signed a deed ceding the Kuria Muria islands to Britain. Between 1862 and 1892, the Political Residents Lewis Pelly and Edward Ross secured British supremacy through indirect governance. With its African dominions and their revenues gone, Oman's sultans came to depend on British loans and promised to consult London on all important matters.

  The Hajar Mountains, including Jebel Akhdar, split the country into the coast around Muscat and the interior. British dominance of the coast revived the cause of the Imamate inland. In 1913, Imam Salim Alkharusi launched a rebellion against Muscat that lasted until 1920. Britain brokered the Treaty of Seeb, which gave the interior autonomous rule under the Imamate and recognised the Sultanate's sovereignty over the coast. Muhammad Alkhalili was elected Imam after Salim died that same year.

  Oil soon complicated the arrangement. On the 10th of January 1923, the Sultanate agreed to consult the British political agent and obtain approval from the Government of India before extracting oil. On the 31st of July 1928, the Red Line Agreement tied together Anglo-Persian, Royal Dutch/Shell, Compagnie Française des Pétroles and Near East Development Corporation, each with 23.75 percent. Calouste Gulbenkian held the remaining 5 percent. In 1929 they formed the Iraq Petroleum Company.

  Sultan Taimur bin Faisal abdicated on the 13th of November 1931, and Said bin Taimur became sultan on the 10th of February 1932. The source calls his British-backed rule feudal, reactionary and isolationist. British officers held the posts of defence secretary and chief of intelligence, and every minister but two was British. In 1937, he granted oil concessions to the Iraq Petroleum Company. When the company found no oil, it grew interested in formations near Fahud, inside the Imamate, and offered money for an armed force to face any resistance.

  On the 10th of September 1939, the sultan declared war on Germany. Oman guarded British trade routes and was never attacked. In 1943, the Royal Air Force opened stations on Masirah Island and at Ras al Hadd. On the 16th of October 1943, a Bristol Blenheim of No. 244 Squadron sank the German submarine U-533 with depth charges in the Gulf of Oman. Fifty-two crew died. The sole survivor, Günther Schmidt, was picked up by HMIS Hiravati near Khor Fakkan and held as a prisoner of war. The wreck lies at 108 metres off the Fujairah coast and is now a popular diving site.

  A December 1951 treaty with Britain recognised the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman as fully independent. On the 8th of September 1958, Pakistan bought the Gwadar enclave from Oman for US$3 million.

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• 6. Mountain Wars

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  In 1946, the British government offered arms, ammunition and officers to prepare Sultan Said bin Taimur to attack the interior of Oman. The British political agent believed the only way to reach the interior's oil was to help the sultan take over the Imamate. After Imam Alkhalili died in May 1954, Ghalib Alhinai was elected Imam, and a dispute over oil concessions soured relations with the sultan.

  In December 1955, troops of the Muscat and Oman Field Force occupied Nizwa, the Imamate's capital, and Ibri. Defending the Imamate were Imam Ghalib, his brother Talib, who governed Rustaq, and Suleiman bin Hamyar, governor of Jebel Akhdar. By July 1957, the sultan's retreating forces were being ambushed and suffering heavy casualties. Two companies of the Cameronians, British armoured cars and RAF aircraft turned the tide. The Imamate's fighters withdrew to the inaccessible Jebel Akhdar.

  On the 4th of August 1957, the British Foreign Secretary approved air strikes without warning to residents of the interior. Between July and December 1958, the RAF flew 1,635 raids, dropping 1,094 tons of bombs and firing 900 rockets. Targets included insurgents, mountaintop villages, water channels and crops. Colonel David Smiley, seconded to organise the sultan's forces, isolated the mountain in autumn 1958 and found a route to the plateau from Wadi Bani Kharus. On the 27th of January 1959, the sultan's forces took the mountain in a surprise operation. Ghalib, Talib and Sulaiman escaped to Saudi Arabia and promoted the Imamate's cause there into the 1970s.

  The exiles took their case to the Arab League and the United Nations. On the 11th of December 1963, the General Assembly created an Ad-Hoc Committee on Oman to study the Question of Oman. Resolutions in 1965-1966 and 1967 called on Britain to end repressive action and British control, and affirmed the right of the Omani people to self-determination.

  In 1963, a second conflict began in Dhofar, the Dhofar War, pitting pro-Soviet forces against government troops. As the rebellion threatened the sultan's hold on Dhofar, his son Qaboos bin Said deposed him in a bloodless coup in 1970, with British support. Qaboos expanded the armed forces and modernised the administration. The uprising was finally crushed in 1976 with help from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan and Britain.

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• 7. The Sultan's Oman

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  Slavery, once a cornerstone of the country's trade and development, was outlawed in 1970, the year Qaboos took power. He also dropped "Muscat and" from the country's name and raised spending on health, education and welfare. Saudi Arabia sent teachers at its own expense to help build the school system. In 1971, Oman joined the United Nations alongside Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. In 1981, it became a founding member of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council.

  In 1997, a royal decree gave women the right to vote and stand for the Consultative Assembly, and two women were duly elected. In 2002, voting rights were extended to all citizens over 21, with the first elections under those rules in 2003. In 2004, Sheikha Aisha bint Khalfan bin Jameel al-Sayabiyah became the first woman appointed minister with portfolio, taking the National Authority for Industrial Craftsmanship. Still, the Sultan kept ruling by decree.

  Nearly 100 suspected Islamists were arrested in 2005, and 31 people were convicted of trying to overthrow the government. They were ultimately pardoned that June. In early 2011, inspired by the Arab Spring, demonstrators demanded political reforms, better living conditions and more jobs. They did not call for the regime's ousting, yet riot police dispersed them in February. Qaboos promised jobs and benefits and, in October, held elections to the Consultative Assembly with a promise of greater powers. The Basic Statute was amended that year in response. In 2012, trials began of activists accused of posting "abusive and provocative" online criticism, and six received jail terms.

  The Basic Statute of 1996 acts as a constitution, and all legislation since 1970 has come through royal decrees. The Sultan appoints ministers and judges and can grant pardons. Freedom House has routinely rated Oman "Not Free." The Council of Oman has two chambers. The Council of State has 71 members appointed by the Sultan, with only advisory powers. The Consultative Assembly has 84 members elected by universal suffrage for four-year terms. Political parties are banned. The last elections were held on the 29th of October 2023, and the next is due in October 2027.

  Human Rights Watch reported in 2016 that an Omani court sentenced three journalists to prison and permanently closed their newspaper over an article alleging corruption in the judiciary. Police do not need search warrants to enter homes. Women face legal discrimination, including exclusion from housing loans. Until April 2023, Omani citizens needed government permission to marry foreigners, when a royal decree removed that requirement. In foreign policy, Oman has stayed on friendly terms with Iran, which very few Arab countries have done. In 2020, it devoted 11 percent of GDP to military and security spending, the highest rate in the world that year, ahead of Saudi Arabia at 8.4 percent.

  Qaboos, then the Arab world's longest-serving ruler, died on the 10th of January 2020. His first cousin Haitham bin Tariq succeeded him and gave the ministers of defence, foreign affairs and finance the full titles that Qaboos had withheld. On the 12th of January 2021, Haitham named his eldest son, Theyazin bin Haitham, as the country's first crown prince.

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• 8. Land and Livelihood

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  On the Strait of Hormuz, the Musandam peninsula is cut off from the rest of Oman by the United Arab Emirates. Halfway between Musandam and the main body lies another exclave, Madha, covering about 75 square kilometres. Its boundary was settled in 1969, and its north-east corner comes within 10 metres of the Fujairah road. Inside Madha sits Nahwa, a UAE enclave belonging to Sharjah, about 8 kilometres west of New Madha. It holds roughly forty houses, a clinic and a telephone exchange.

  Most of central Oman is gravel desert, flanked by the Hajar Mountains in the north and the Dhofar Mountains on the southeast coast. On the 26th of June 2018, the village of Qurayyat recorded 42.6 degrees Celsius, the highest minimum temperature ever measured over 24 hours. Near Salalah, monsoon winds from the Indian Ocean bring rain and heavy fog from late June to late September, so summer temperatures stay between 20 and 30 degrees. Parts of the Jabal Akhdar probably exceed 400 millimetres of rain a year, and snow falls once every few years. Near Masirah, some stretches of coast sometimes get no rain for a whole year.

  Coconut palms grow on Dhofar's coastal plains, and frankincense is produced in its hills. The Hajar Mountains shelter the Arabian tahr, while leopards, oryx and ibex also live in Oman. In 2007, the government cut the Arabian Oryx Sanctuary by 90 percent to make way for oil prospectors, and it became the first site ever deleted from UNESCO's World Heritage List. Whale watching has grown popular, with Arabian humpback whales, sperm whales and pygmy blue whales among the sights.

  In 2018, mineral fuels made up 82.2 percent of Oman's product exports, and oil and gas supplied 71 percent of government revenue. Production fell by more than 26 percent between 2000 and 2007, then recovered to 930,000 barrels per day in 2012. Oman has twice drawn up long-range plans to cut its dependence, the 2020 Vision of 1995 and then the 2040 Vision. Foreign workers send an estimated US$10 billion home every year, and more than half earn less than US$400 a month. Workers from Indian states such as Kerala and Tamil Nadu make up more than half of the entire workforce.

  Dates account for 80 percent of fruit crop production, and in 2016 Oman produced an estimated 350,000 tons, ranking ninth in the world. Its 3,165 kilometres of coastline support a fishing industry whose exports grew from US$144 million to US$172 million between 2000 and 2016, with Vietnam as the largest buyer. Tourism contributed 2.8 percent of GDP in 2016, and Lonely Planet named Muscat the second best city to visit in the world in 2012. At Ras al-Jinz, known as Turtle Beach, visitors come each year to watch hawksbill, green, olive ridley and loggerhead turtles nest.

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