Muscat and Oman
Muscat and Oman (Arabic: مسقط وعمان) was a country that encompassed the present day Sultanate of Oman and parts of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It existed from about 1856 until about 1970. The country is not to be confused with either the Trucial States or Trucial Oman.
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[edit] Muscat and Oman
Historical differences always existed between the more secular, rich, seafaring coastal Sultanate of Muscat and the interior Imamate of Oman, whose rulers were leaders of the Ibadi sect of Islam and were highly conservative.
The Sultanate of Muscat possessed a powerful naval force, which enabled the creation of a short-lived empire, encompassing modern Oman, the United Arab Emirates, southern Baluchistan, and Zanzibar and the adjacent coasts of Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique. The Sultanate of Muscat also engaged in a very lucrative slave trade across east Africa. Recently, a claim was made by an Omani minister, suggesting that the Sultanate controlled the distant Mascarene Islands as early as the 15th century.
In the early 1820s, the Sultanate lost most of its territories in the Persian Gulf, which later became the Trucial States under British protection. The fifth Sultan of the Al Said line of rulers, Said bin Sultan, consolidated the Sultanate's territorial holdings and economic interests and Oman prospered. However, the Omani fleet was unable to compete with the more technically advanced European fleets and the Sultanate lost much of the trade with India. Pressure by the British to abandon the slave trade further led to the loss of political and economic clout of the Sultanate.
On June 4, 1856, the Sultan died without appointing a heir to the throne and the Al Said clan could not agree on a ruler. Through British mediation, two rulers were appointed from the Al Said clan; one, distinctly for the interior (influenced by the Imam of Oman) and the other for the Sultanate of Muscat. This led to the country being called Muscat and Oman. Zanzibar became independent.
The Sultanate of Muscat was regularly under attack from the devout Ibadi tribes who resented the influence of the more secular coastal people. The Sultanate was however, able to defend itself with British help.
This historical split continued throughout much of the twentieth century with Sultan Said bin Taimur granting limited autonomy to the Imamate of Oman.
The discovery of oil in the Persian Gulf exacerbated the dispute of territory between the Sultanate of Muscat and the Imamate of Oman. Most of the oil fields lay in the Imamate and the Sultan granted licences to European oil companies in that area, although the Imam claimed sovereignty over the area. The oil companies therefore encouraged the British government to extend their support to the Sultan. The Seeb treaty recognised the pre-eminence of the Sultan over the Imam.
With British assistance, the Sultan was able to establish pre-eminence over most of Oman. In 1957, the Sultan's forces captured the town of Nizwa, but the Sultan took little interest in the stability of the nation after that. The last overseas possession, the port of Gwadar across the Gulf of Oman, was ceded to Pakistan in 1958. The frequency of uprisings such as the Dhofar Rebellion aided by the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen motivated the British to supplant the Sultan. The British chose the Western-educated son of the Sultan, Qaboos bin Said who was locked up in the palace, because his father feared a coup. On his release, Qaboos bin Said, with the help of the British, staged a successful military coup d'état and was proclaimed Sultan of Muscat.
Shortly thereafter, again with British help and fierce army fighters from Baluchistan, the Sultan consolidated his hold over the entire interior and suppressed the Dhofar rebellion in 1976. The Imamate of Oman fell and the newly consolidated territories along with the territory of Muscat, became the Sultanate of Oman.
[edit] Sohar Sultanate
The Sohar Sultanate lasted from 1920 until about 1932. In 1920, Sheik Ali Banu Bu Ali, a relative of Sultan Taimur bin Faisal, rebelled in the northern town of Sohar and proclaimed himself Sultan but was deposed by the British in 1932.
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This article incorporates public domain material from the Library of Congress Country Studies document "Oman" by William Smyth (retrieved on 2010-08-08).
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