A Forced Apology

I found a shop in the nearby Seeb Souq that sells workout equipment.  It is located on the second floor of Seeb Mall, tucked behind shops selling brightly colored, sequined dresses.  The shop was crowded with treadmills, weight machines, stacks and stacks of roller blades in boxes, ping pong equipment and pool cues, several varieties of slimming attire (sauna suits, form fitting undergarments, fat burner belts), and shapeup shoes.  It was an eclectic mix of items.  I bought a tower that can be used for pullups, dips, pushups, and situps and had to wait for about twenty minutes for the long salesman to finalize my purchase.  It was a Friday evening and a steady stream of people came in and out, many of them buying things.

As I sat there waiting, an Omani man walked in with his two small sons, dressed in identical jeans and plaid shirts, and probably aged 5 and 3, though I am bad at guessing kid's ages.  He was looking to buy a treadmill.  As he talked to the salesman, the boys wandered dreamily around the store, climbing on equipment and chattering to each other.  The older one walked past me without making eye contact and casually touched the top of my hand.  I was very shocked and looked up at his father with a mixture of surprise and amusement on my face.  The father did not look amused.

"Apologize to her!" He said sternly.  His son looked at the floor and tried to disappear.  "You insulted her.  Give her a proper greeting and then apologize to her."  The boy approached me, eyes still glued to the floor and whispered a soft apology.  "Say it boldly!" His father bellowed.  The boy realized he had better do it right, or his father would make him do it again and again, so he looked me in the eye, stuck out his hand to greet me and then apologized loudly.  His father nodded and said to me in English, "He said sorry."

Imam Nasir bin Murshid (1624-1649)

I am now going to summarize the rule of the Imams and Sultans of Oman from the Ya’aruba and bu-Sa’idi lines.  The first is Nasir bin Mushid (1624-1649).

Nasir bin Murshid is the first of the Ya’aruba dynasty, which ruled Oman for 118 years.  He was elected as Imam by the people in 1624.  In reality, he was elected by seventy representatives of the people, known as the learned elite (which is reminiscent the American electoral college).  At that time, Oman was sharply divided.  The cities and key areas were controlled by tribal chiefs, self-proclaimed kings, and even the occasional government of politically-minded villagers.  This lack of unity made the region easy prey for foreign ambitions, such as those harbored by the Portuguese and the Persians.  At the time of Imam Nasir’s election, the Portuguese controlled the key port cities of Sur, Sohar, Muscat, and Qariyat (taken by Alfonso de Albuquerque in 1508 CE), and the Persians (with a large Portuguese presence) controlled the port of Jolfar, in modern-day Ras al-Khaimah, UAE.

Imam Nasir was a shrewd and charismatic leader, and clearly understood the threats Oman faced, especially when weakened by divisions.  Using familial relations, diplomacy, and overwhelming force, Imam Nasir united the tribes and sufficiently subdued his opposition.  Then, he turned his attention towards the Portuguese and sent a large land army to attack the Portuguese at Muscat and the adjacent port of Muttrah.  The attack forced the Portuguese to pay a yearly tribute to the Imam in exchange for permission stay in Muscat and Muttrah without harassing the Omani residents.  The Portuguese also surrendered most of the town and lands surrounding Sohar, though not the fort.  Next, the Imam directed his forces to Julfar, which was under the control of the Persians, though heavily supported by Portuguese forces.  After a long battle, which concluded in a nighttime raid to take a key fort, Julfar fell to the Imam's forces.  They continued their victorious campaign and went on to retake the cities of Sur and Qariyat as well.  The Portuguese were not ready to give up on the strategic region, though and they shortly stopped paying the required tribute and reinforced their defenses at Muscat, Muttrah, and Sohar.

At the time of Imam Nasir’s death in 1649, the Portuguese only maintained control of a few key fortifications and the tribes, villages, and cities of Oman were united under the leadership of the Ibadi Imam.  Imam  Nasir bin Murshid was succeeded by his cousin, Imam Sultan bin Seif.  (There are two important things to note.  One, Sultan here is a name and not a title.  He held the title of Imam.  Two, this Sultan bin Seif is of the Ya’aruba line, not the bu-Sa’idi line, which also has a Sultan bin Seif.)


All of this information is from "History of the Imams and Seyyids of Oman" by Salil ibn-Raziq; translated and edited, with notes, appendices, and an introduction, by George Percy Badger, F.R.G.S 

Resources in the DMV area

Today I visited two great resources in DC.  The first is the Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center (SQCC).  The center is “dedicated to educating the peoples of the United States and Oman about the breadth and richness of our two cultures.  SQCC promotes mutual respect and understanding between our nations and strives to educate a new generation of culturally sensitive and knowledgeable citizens in each society.  Through outreach programs, scholarships, lectures, educational resources, cultural partnerships, and our Cultural Center in Washington, DC, SQCC brings the culture, history, and heritage of our nations to audiences in the US and abroad.”

They have exhibits on Omani culture and heritage in the center, and work with various museums, universities, and schools around the country to fund additional exhibits, performances, and education exchange programs. 

From there, I went to the Middle East Institute, specifically their library, which is handsomely funded by the government of Oman and full of great resources.  I wish I had known about this months ago, but it’s never too late!  I got a year long membership for a mere $50, which includes the ability to check out up to 10 books at a time, as well as quarterly copies of their journal and access to exhibits. 

One of the books I checked out, Imams and Seyyids of `Oman by Salil Ibn Razik, is only registered to four other libraries, all of which are in Germany.  Pretty cool!

Lastly, since I’m on the topic of Arabic/Omani resources in the DC area, I started going to some events put on by Al-Hewar Center for Arab Culture and Dialogue.   They host lectures almost every Wednesday, usually in Arabic, discussing current events and topics relevant to the lives of Arab Americans.  It’s a good opportunity to hear an issue from a different point of view, and also to meet Arabs in the area.  

Oman, Culture and Diplomacy

Sultan Qaboos played the crucial role of mediator in the talks leading up to the nuclear agreement Iran signed with the G5 +1 countries last year.   Last week, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani visited Oman in his first official visit to an Arab country, to strengthen their good relations and expand trade.  The visit concluded with the signing of a contract to supply as much as 10bn cubic meters of Iranian gas a year to meet Oman’s growing energy requirements. 

Curious about Oman’s diplomatic character, I started reading Oman, Culture and Diplomacy by Jeremy Jones and Nicholas Ridout.  It is the most academic book I’ve read in a while (which isn’t actually saying much), is a bit redundant and circular at times, but is also pretty interesting.  

One complaint I have is that the two authors sometimes overlap their writing.  Once they used two different titles for the same sultan in the same chapter.  The sultans already have deceptively similar names, so when they mentioned Sultan Said bin Sultan on one page and Seyyid Said bin Sultan on the other page, next to the numerous other Sultans of the family (Ahmed bin Said, Said bin Ahmed, Sultan bin Ahmed, and Salim bin Sultan) I was naturally confused.

I’m only a few chapters in, but I wanted to outline some of the main points so far. 

The authors argue that Oman’s culture itself, the way that Omanis go through daily life, shapes the foreign policy and diplomacy of the country.  They describe three primary factors as having shaped this unique culture. 

The first is a long history of interaction with foreign entities through the flourishing Indian Ocean trade.  Since as long ago as 3000 BCE, merchants used the monsoon winds to travel and trade along the coasts of Africa and Asia.  Once Islam arrived on the scene, it also traveled the trade routes, spreading not only religion, but a written language, shared values, and social connections as well.  Omanis, being Arabic speakers and among the first to convert to Islam, helped to spread these new concepts, and subsequently benefited from them.  All this traveling created a class of Omanis with wide foreign experience. 

The second factor was the effect of the many migrants who settled in Oman’s port cities.  Even the Omanis who never ventured past their shores couldn’t help but interact with foreigners daily.  Migrants came from what is now Iran, Pakistan, India, and East Africa, bringing their languages, skills, and most importantly, their cultural differences.  And so Oman’s cosmopolitan character grew. 

The third factor is fairly recent.  Prior to 1970, there weren’t a lot of jobs or opportunities for Oman’s labor force, so a lot of the young people went abroad to find work.  Many of them did very well for themselves.  When Sultan Qaboos took over and started building up the country, he called on those experienced ex-pats to come back and contribute to the progress.  Many of them came back, bringing their widened outlooks with them and now occupy key government positions. 

In later chapters, the authors get into some very specific aspects of Omani culture, one of the most important of which is Ibadi Islam.  One of these days I hope to write a little bit about that. 

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8bdf1daa-aaba-11e3-be01-00144feab7de.html

http://www.mepc.org/journal/middle-east-policy-archives/oman-culture-and-diplomacy

Oman: The Death of the Last Feudal Arab State

http://www.chris-kutschera.com/A/Oman%201970.htm

I found this article "Oman: The Death of the Last Feudal Arab State" from 20 Dec 1970, five months after the coup in which Sultan Qaboos took over from his father.  It was written by Chris Kutschera, a French journalist and author who covered the Middle East for over 40 years.  It’s a pretty detailed article, covering the background to the coup, the challenges the new Sultan faced from ambitious relatives and a rebellion in the South, as well as the general difficulties of building a country up from a level comparable to the Middle Ages.  I've included a few excerpts I found particularly interesting.

First, a description of the state of backwardness that characterized Oman at that time:

“In this country of more than 80.000 square miles -- the second largest Arab country east of Suez after Saudi Arabia -- with 750.000 inhabitants, the clock of history was stopped somewhere in the Middle Ages. Everything, it seemed was forbidden. The inhabitants of the coast were forbidden to travel inland, and those of the inland valleys could not go to the coast, or even from one valley to another. No one was allowed to go to Dhofar, in the extreme southwest.

There were, in all Oman and Dhofar, three primary schools and not a single secondary school. Students who wanted to pursue their studies had to leave their country illegally and start a long life of exile in the Persian Gulf or Kuwait. It was forbidden to build new houses, or to repair the old ones; forbidden to install a lavatory or a gas stove; forbidden to cultivate new land, or to buy a car without the Sultan’s permission.

No one could smoke in the streets, go to movies or beat drums; the army used to have a band, but one day the Sultan had the instruments thrown into the sea. A few foreigners opened a club: he had it shut, “probably because it was a place where one could have fun”, says one of his former victims. Three hours after sunset, the city gates were closed.

Then, the new Sultan’s philosophy on how best to build up his country, which I found very interesting.

Qabus first task since the take-over has been to lift all the feudal personal restrictions and to set up the beginning of a government. As of now, there is a prime minister -- Tariq -- and five ministers: education, health, interior, justice and information. But as far as the writing of a constitution or the formation of a parliament is concerned, Qabus is blunt.

“”It would be a mistake, a big mistake. Most of the people do not even know what a vote is... In these conditions to draft a constitution, to set up a parliament would be like building a huge dome without either walls or foundations. It might perhaps give a nice impression to the outside world, but it would be nothing but a big show. Look how people vote in Egypt. They are driven to the polls in army trucks. If there were a parliament now, I would have to choose its members among the sheikhs and a few others. What would be the significance of such a body”?

"My mission is not to interfere with daily government but to give a direction, an orientation, and also to keep an eye on the ministers to see that they do not usurp too much authority and to prevent corruption."

Of note, it wasn't until 2003 that every Omani over the age of 21 had the right to vote.  Prior to that, only a select number of Omanis could vote, though I haven’t been able to find out what the qualifications were.  As it is, they are only voting for representatives in the consultative council, which is exactly what it sounds like.  It is a council that advises the Sultan, but ultimately he is the one who makes the final decision.

The article is especially interesting to read with 44 years of hindsight.  Oman today is worlds apart from the Oman of 1970.

On the Sultanate, Ibadism, and the Indian Ocean

Here is a little bit of what I have learned about Oman so far:

Oman is an absolute monarchy, which means that its ruler, Sultan Qaboos bin Sa’id al-Sa’id ultimately has control over all the decision making that happens in the country.  He took over from his father in a coup in 1970 and has been in power ever since.  His father, Sultan Sa’id bin Taimur rejected modernity, forbade most technological advancements, and in spite of the discovery of large oil deposits, he refused to use the oil revenues to build up the country.  After the coup, Sultan Qaboos exiled his father to England, where he died a few years later.  

Though an absolute monarchy sounds like a bad recipe for governance to my Western ears, the Sultan is well loved, and is responsible for the impressive developments Oman has seen in education, health care, industry, jobs, and foreign relations.  Over the past forty years, he has used Oman’s oil revenues to build up infrastructure and services for Omani citizens, as well as investing in alternative forms of revenue for the fast-approaching day when the oil runs out.   

The primary religion in Oman is Ibadi Islam, or Ibadism.  This is a sect that originated very early on in Islamic history and is different from both Sunni and Shia Islam.  Ibadism is characterized by tolerance and non-involvement in politics, among other things, which I will write about as I learn more.  Oman grants freedom of religion to all of its minorities, which include Hindus, Christians, Baha’is, Zoroastrians and Sikhs as well as Shia and Sunni Muslims.  The diversity in religions is one of the results of centuries of trade with the countries of the Indian Ocean.

The monsoon winds blow like clockwork across the Indian Ocean, northwest in the summer months and southwest in the winter months.  Sailors used these reliable currents for thousands of years to move goods from the shores of the Arabian Peninsula and East Africa to the archipelagos of Southeast Asia and even as far as China.  Because of its location on the tip of the Arabian Peninsula, Oman is in a key position to benefit from this trade.  At one time, Oman established a Sultanate on the East African island of Zanzibar, where they grew rich off of the selling slaves and cloves to the rest of the world.

Centuries of cross-cultural interactions have shaped Omani culture to be truly unique, with a blend of races, languages, religions, and cultures, all in one small country. 

I am excited to learn more, and ultimately, to see how the things I am learning now stand up to the things I will learn once I finally arrive. 

First Steps

I move to Oman in four months.

Six months ago, I knew next to nothing about this unassuming country sitting on the gateway between the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean.  As a country, Oman does a remarkably good job of staying under the radar of world news.  That’s especially commendable considering Oman’s location in a region that makes headlines almost daily.  But, time is flying by at an alarming pace, and before I know it I will be Oman’s newest resident.  So I had better start learning!

This is my fifth year studying Arabic and I finally feel like it has started to sink in.  My first four years were in college and I confess, I wasn’t nearly as focused as a beautifully complex language such as Arabic requires.  I didn’t like memorizing vocabulary, which happens to be the key to mastery.  This is the language that has countless words that seem like synonyms at first glance, but in reality are incredibly nuanced and have very specific uses.  Eloquence is still prized among Arabic speakers, unlike here in the US, where use of a 'vocabulary word' in common conversation will likely get you blank stares and a little ridicule (or maybe that's just in my circles...) I finally realized that if I didn’t sit down and commit words to memory, I would forever be stuck at the level of being able to order food and tell a cab driver my life history, but never progress beyond that. 

I don’t think it is possible for a foreigner to ever truly master Arabic, but I sure am going to try.  At the very least, it is my goal to be able to carry on intelligent conversation with peers and to never stop learning.

God willing, I will be studying for my master’s degree at Sultan Qaboos University, in a curriculum taught largely in Arabic.  So, I don’t really have a choice when it comes to gaining proficiency.  I have to, or I will fail.  I have submitted my application for their history program, and now I just have to wait for the decision.

In addition to studying Arabic intensively, I’ve been trying to learn what I can about Oman’s history, and what to expect.  In this day and age of internet marketplaces where the world is a key stroke away, I was surprised at how much digging I had to do before I found some quality resources.  There are the travel books, like Lonely Planet and Culture Smart, which offer a very brief overview of Omani history before going into topics more relevant to the casual traveler.  But I have yet to find a comprehensive history of Oman.  I must be looking in the wrong places.  Most of the academic books I’ve seen are textbooks, which are really expensive, like more than one hundred dollars per book expensive.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that Google Books has electronic copies of many older books that would be impossible to find in print these days.  I found several travel accounts from British officers who were in Oman in the 19^th century.  Finding the books is one thing.  It is another to read them all.  I'm working on that part.  

I’m still very early in my self-education of all things Omani, but I plan to use this blog to document some of the things I’ve learned.  I can’t rely on my shoddy memory to hold onto all the new things I’m learning these days.  Once I get to Oman, I will also write about my experiences and impressions, but for now, I am limited to the things I read.