The Sultanate of Oman, or Muscat and Oman, as it was formerly known, was at mid-century one of the least known and backward countries on earth. In the 1950s life in Oman had probably changed less since Biblical times than that of almost any other country.
Oman lies on the southeastern coast of the ArabianPeninsula. To the north and northeast are Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates; to the south, the North Arabian Sea; to the west, the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen; and to the east the Gulf of Man which connects with the Persian Gulf through the strategically important Strait of Hormuz. The Hajar Mountains, of which the Jebel Akhdar, or Green Mountain, is a part, separate the country into two distinct regions: the interior, known as Oman, and the coastal area dominated by the capital, Muscat. The internal geography of Oman has had the effect of dividing the country into an outward-looking society of merchants and seamen along the coastal area and, in the interior, and inward-looking, conservative, frequently xenophobic society.
During the 1950s, indeed from 1932 until his ouster in 1970, the ruler of Oman was Sultan Said bin Taimur Al Bu Said. Although the Sultan was the absolute ruler of Oman, religious factors and tribal loyalties limited his real power to govern.
The Ibadhi sect of Islam predominates in Oman. It originated in 657 during the reign of the fourth caliph, Ali. A group called the Kharijites, or seceders, emerged who believed that the principles of Islam were being forsaken. Ali defeated the heretics at Nahrawan in 658 but two of them escaped and settled in Oman. Ibadhism developed from these two fugitives and managed to root itself impregnably in the mountains of Oman even though it was rooted out from the rest of Arabia.
Ibadhis hold the belief that a leader, or imam, must be elected from among the believers. This belief along with the conservative nature of Ibadhism has
occasioned numerous confrontations and conflicts between the coastal-oriented sultans and the conservative imams whose power rests on the tribes of interior Oman. In 1866 a British-supported, coastal-oriented sultan fought and defeated a tribal-backed, interior-oriented imam.4 In 1931, the accession of Taimur bin Faisal to the position of sultan provoked a general rising of the tribes. The Imam regarded Sultan Taimur's cooperation with Great
Britain to restrict the sale of arms and to limit slavery as subservience on the part of Oman. More importantly, the Imam regarded attempts to limit slavery as contrary to the teachings of the Qoran. The conflict proceeded mtermittently for seven years with the tribesmen at one point besieging Muscat only to be defeated by a British force. Finally in 1920, the interior tribes and the Iman reached accommodation with the Sultan through the Treaty of Seeb.
The Treaty of Seeb established the paramountcy of the Sultan and consolidated his control of foreign affairs. It also recognized a measure of autonomy on the part of the tribal leaders including their right to adjudicate internal affairs as they saw fit and the right to elect an imam.6 The treaty successfully established a peace between Muscat and Oman that lasted from 1920 until the 1950s.
In the 1950s Oman's population could not have exceeded 750,000. The vast majority of the population was illiterate, in poor health, fiercely independent, and willing to defend that independence from any attempts to impose even the slightest limitations on it. John Townsend has written, "Throughout the Arabian Peninsula, and certainly in Oman, it is essential for a man to be armed. A man who does not carry a weapon is
not a man. His virility is in question. A boy at puberty is circumcised and given a rifle or khanjar, both acts are important badges of manhood."
The vast majority of the population was in poor health. Colonel Hugh Boustead wrote of Oman in the 1950s:
Muscat was in deplorable condition....I had seen what could be done in the Hadhramaut and in the Qu'aiti State in particular, with a revenue about
one half of what the Sultan of Muscat drew in customs duties; yet here there were no medical services in the whole country. I made a tour soon after my arrival with an economic expert and a representative from the Development Division at the British Embassy in Beirut. The latter told the Sultan after the tour that, in twenty years experience of most of the countries of the Middle East, he had never seen a people so poverty stricken or so debilitated with disease capable of treatment and cure.
At this stage of historical development Oman was an economical and political anachronism. Its only revenue was from customs duties. Roads, hospitals, and schools, other than the Qoranic schools found
throughout Islam, were nonexistent. The Sultan ruled as an absolute ruler, but in actuality he was obliged to recognize the real power of the interior tribes.
In the 1950s the influences of mid-twentieth century anti-colonialism and the modern impact of petroleum development were to clash with the traditional, even medieval, factors prevalent in the tribal society that was Oman.
this is just an introduction, and to start reading it as a whole
click here
*copied from http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita...t/1985/MJB.htm
Hybrid Mode
