Cut off from its Indian Ocean possessions, Oman traversed a relatively obscure period that lasted until 1970. Unlike other Gulf states, it never became a full British protectorate, although the British did influence local politics and maintained good relations with the rulers of Muscat. A treaty of friendship signed between the two countries in 1800 (when the UK was hastily building a system of alliances to avoid French encroachments of its profitable Indian trade routes – these were the years of Napoleonic wars) states that friendship between the two countries should “endure till the end of time or the sun and moon cease in their revolving careers.” Indeed, when the Sultan of Muscat faced the rebellion of the ‘Imamate of Oman’ in the 1950s, and in Dhofar in the 1960s and 70s, the British sent troops and the RAF to support him quell the uprising.
Oman has always been split between its coast and its interior. The coast receives more rainfall and is shielded from the interior by mountains and a plateau. The interior of Oman is dry, rocky and sparsely populated. The Arabs there are mostly Bedouin, partially settled and partially nomads that venture across the Empty Quarter towards central Arabia. It is considered that the Arab spoken in the highlands is the purest in the Peninsula, unaffected by the Persian pronunciation and foreign words that mark the ‘Khaleeji’ (Gulf) Arabic, and without the grammatical simplifications of colloquial Arabic as spoken elsewhere in the Peninsula (and indeed the rest of the Arab world).
The capital of Oman’s interior is Nizwa, which is also the seat of the Ibadi Imam. Ibadism is a school of Islam that took root in Oman in the early days of Islam, but which only spread to Zanzibar and some small communities in North Africa. Although it may technically be heretic (or a sect) because it doesn’t conform to one of Sunni Islam’s four schools, it has never drawn much animosity from other Muslims, not even from Saudi Arabia’s Wahhabi clerics. This is probably due to its lack of missionary zeal, its tolerance of other forms of Islam, and its rather conservative interpretation of the Holy Quran. The Ibadi Imamate was strictly based on sharia, for example.
The main differences between Ibadism and Sunni and Shia Islam, is that they disagree on who the fifth caliph was after the prophet Muhammad’s death. While Sunnis hold that the Muawiya line that went on to form the Umayyad caliphate is the legitimate one, and Shias say that Ali was the rightful heir to the title, the Ibadis follow a third candidate, Abdullah ibn Wahb al-Rasibi. They also accept less hadith and disagree on some other doctrinal points, such as how long sinners must burn in hell and whether those that will rise on Judgment Day will see the face of God or not.
Nizwa became a seat of learning and jurisprudence, and the Ibadi Imam that ruled from there commanded the respect from the surrounding population. Faced with the decline of the Omani coast, the interior began to affirm its autonomy, leading to the Treaty of Seeb in 1920 that split the country between the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman, and the Imamate of Oman. When oil was found in the interior in the early 1950s, the Sultan of Muscat, however, broke the treaty, leading to five years of uprising that was quelled by the Sultan with British help. The last Ibadi Imam fled to Dammam in Saudi Arabia where he died in 2009, apparently still an oft-consulted and much respected figure.
The region of Dhofar along the Yemeni border has also been a source of unrest. Separated from the rest of Oman by large expanses of rocky plains that stretch until the sea, Dhofar itself catches part of the monsoon rains, making it the greenest area of the whole Peninsula. It is the world’s main producer of frankincense, traditionally traded through Yemen. Home to many tribes speaking a variety of south Semitic languages, it was independent throughout most of its history, until being incorporated into Oman in the early 19th Century. Although its capital Salalah is now a major tourist destination, the population has long felt sidelined by Muscat. The most serious uprising in Dhofar took place from 1962 to 1975, and it prompted the current Sultan Qaboos to stage a coup against his father in 1970.
Sultan Qaboos instated a modern system of governance, leading to a long period of peaceful development that continues until today. During the 2011 ‘Arab Spring’, Oman was also affected, with small-scale uprisings in Sohar, Haima (the oil-producing region) and Salalah. The reaction of Sultan Qaboos was to mostly meet the demands of the protestors, including higher wages and a better distribution of public wealth, thus maintaining peace. Sultan Qaboos’ leadership has been rewarded, among others, by the UNDP designation of Oman as the country that has most developed in the past 40 years.