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Oman- You will enjoy it

© Mubashar Ahmad Baig

Introduction

Long protected by her mountain barriers the Sultanate of Oman has developed independently from her Middle Eastern neighbors, avoiding the problems that have recently marred the region. Everywhere you go in Oman you'll be welcomed with real friendship and old world hospitality. Building on these virtues, Oman has recently opened her borders to sensitive tourism, offering western visitors a rare opportunity to explore her romantic past and captivating present - this is unspoiled Arabia!

History

The Omani civilization dates back many thousands of years. In biblical times the country was the hub of the rich frankincense trade. Long famed for their seafaring tradition, from the 16th to 19th centuries the Sultans of Oman ruled over a wealthy trading empire that stretched from the coast of East Africa, via trading colonies like Zanzibar, to the tip of the Indian subcontinent. The wealth this trade attracted soon caught the attention of European powers, particularly the Portuguese, who invaded the country in the 16th century to protect their own eastern trade routes. Two centuries later the expanding British Empire pushed the Portuguese out of their many footholds around the Indian Ocean, establishing a treaty of friendship with Oman which survives to the present day.

Through the late 19th and first half of the 20th centuries Oman's fortunes declined and the Omanis became impoverished. During the 1950's the present sultan's father, Sultan Said bin Tamur, held the country in isolation preventing the development of the Omani economy. Fueled by resentment against his harsh regime a rebellion broke out in the northern mountains which the sultan was only able to surpress with reluctant British assistance. Trouble erupted again in the late 1960s as his people again grew weary of his spartan rule. This time the rebellion centered on the southern province of Dhofar where Marxist backed forces from neighboring Yemen attempted to annex the southern oil fields. The was the last straw for the old sultan's western educated son, Qaboos bin Said, who overthrew his father in a bloodless palace coup.

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