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The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are all Islamic countries with different public policies and attitudes to the presence of other religions. This has major implications for the Hindu community, often seen as consisting of migrant workers, which normally bases its religiosity on highly public, participatory and performative rituals. This chapter focuses on how the diverse Hindu community in Oman negotiates its religious identity in an Islamic country by strategically using its past mercantile relations with the ruling families, creating and participating in transnational networks, as well as imaginatively using public-private spaces to engage in rituals and festivities and overcome state restrictions. It suggests that the Hindu diaspora in Oman can be problematised as being more than just a minority community with few religious freedoms in a conservatively Muslim nation. Focusing on the Hindu community in Oman adds to emerging studies on diaspora and transnational mobilities, de-essentialising the binary relations of the state with its religious minorities in this part of the world.

This study focuses on the multiple ways in which the Hindu community in Oman negotiates its religious identity in an Islamic country by strategically using its historic mercantile relations with the ruling families, maximising the use of public-private spaces, and creating and participating in transnational networks as ways to cope with state restrictions. Using Vertovec’s notion of ‘complexifying complex diasporas,’ this study examines how Hindus, while being publicly ‘invisible,’ have been able to possess a continuing cultural platform which is leveraged to acquire opportunities for religious performance. However, challenges to such strategic belonging have been rising rapidly with the rise of right wing Hindu ideology within and outside India. The repercussions of the establishment of a Hindu state in India on its diaspora, particularly in an officially Muslim country, are rife with challenges. Alternative strategies may have to be explored by the community to assert its identity and religious practices, as well as secure its future in Oman.

‘We sent our sons across the seven rivers and we let them go because we need food, because we don’t have enough. Here, they have no work and we have no land. […] If they were getting their fair share, it would be enough for us. If those [Omani] people were thinking that they have crossed so many rivers out of need, they would help them, but they just don’t think about it.’¹ Except for the extensive work by M.M. Rahman, little research until now has been done, especially of a qualitative nature, on the situation of Bangladeshi migrants in

This book explores how houses are created, maintained and conceptualized in southern Oman. Based on long-term research in the Dhofar region, it draws on anthropology, sociology, urban studies and architectural history. The chapters consider physical and functional aspects, including regulations governing land use, factors in siting houses, architectural styles and norms for interior and exterior decorating. The volume also reflects on cultural expectations regarding how and when rooms are used and issues such as safety, privacy, social connectedness and ease of movement. Houses and residential areas are situated within the fabric of towns, comparison is made with housing in other countries in the Arabian peninsula, and consideration is given to notions of the 'Islamic city' and the 'Islamic house'. The book is valuable reading for scholars interested in the Middle East and the built environment.

Scholarship on the Arab Gulf region often links heritage production with technologies of state pedagogy in its efforts to fix the spatial boundaries of a nation and entrench authoritarian rule. Yet, such a modular explanation ignores pressing questions regarding how statist narratives domesticate heterogeneous populations and regulate social difference. This paper explores the ways in which official accounts of the historical past have interpellated the material traces of diasporic communities, specifically the enclave of a minority community in Oman, the al-Lawati with links to the Sind region of the Indian sub-continent. The Sur al Lawati, a fortified residential enclosure of the Al Lawati community, draws from Gujarati traditional architecture rather than the surrounding Muscat cityscape. The sur (enclosure) has been mobilized as a token of the nation's pluralist history as an Indian Ocean trading power. This is consistent with Oman's expanding culture industry, which since the 1970s has generated history-making practices to sediment a homogenous Arab and general Islamic identity. However, using archival and ethnographic research, I argue that the enclave's material presence has presided over the complexities of a more entangled history in which the boundaries of this community of merchants and retailers have been reconfigured over the course of the 20th century. The very act of incorporating the sur and its residents into the history of a national people is grounded on the one hand in celebrating a cosmopolitan past as a sea-faring nation that traversed the Indian Ocean waters. On the other hand, it is also tethered to a sense of the past shaped by such categories as the "Arab tribe" and a "generic Islam" Both histories become an exercise of selectivity. They involve gaps, disjunctures, and diversity at the core of what passes as a unifying history of a sovereign nation.

This study seeks to analyze the implications of Oman’s participation in the Maritime Silk Road, which is the maritime component of the Belt and Road Initiative, announced in 2013 by the President of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping. Sultan Qaboos has transformed Oman from an isolated and backward country to an active political mediator in the region. Oman’s neutral stance and diplomatic connections with every political actor in the region differentiate Oman from the rest of the Gulf countries. Geographically, Oman is situated in the intersection of the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. Historically, Oman ruled South Asian and East African coasts, extending its influence. The geographical position and historical legacy make Oman as a key country for the Maritime Silk Road. Thus, participation of Oman in the Belt and Road Initiative is invaluable in the eyes of the Chinese policymakers. Omani policymakers, who want to diversify Oman’s economy, welcome Chinese investments. However, increasing Chinese involvement in Oman’s economy might harm Oman’s sovereignty because of Chinese practice of using debts as exerting pressure on the lending states’ sovereignty. Moreover, the intensified competition between the USA and China in the Indian Ocean could compromise Oman’s neutral stance. Yet, Sultan Qaboos’ legacy is followed by Omani policymakers. While benefiting Chinese economic investments, Oman performs balancing acts against China.

This book marks the first comprehensive examination of contemporary British influence in Oman and Bahrain, analysing Britain's legacy since the official withdrawal from the Gulf in 1971.

The importance of the medieval city of al-Balīd and its harbour was mentioned in many different sources, and mirrored by a large number of finds and pottery that confirm a primary role of the port as a pivotal hub in Indian Ocean trade during the pre-modern Islamic period (tenth–fifteenth century AD). This paper will examine maritime activities at al-Balīd from a different perspective, combining recent data from the study of ship timbers discovered at the site with the archaeological record, along with evidence of possible harbour facilities. The study of the ship timbers has provided invaluable information about the technology, size, material, type, and function of the watercraft involved in the trade at al-Balīd. The reuse of these timbers in a terrestrial context also alludes to a variety of activities carried out at the site, such as boatbuilding, maintenance, repair, and salvaging. Collectively, this data yields useful insights into the relationship between the different vessels operating at al-Balīd and the structure of the site itself, mainly in connection with one of the most lucrative commercial activities at the port city — the trade of Arabian horses.

During the global COVID-19 pandemic, the Omani government relied heavily on circulating information and entertainment through multiple forms of social media to keep citizens informed and to promote social distancing. This study explores the 2021 Ramadan Instagram campaign created by Be’ah, the Oman Environmental Services Holding Company, which blended performance genres and Omani traditional storytelling. This case study examines ‘multiplex’ hybrid styles of verbal art that mirrored governmental policy and practice across social media and created a forum where citizens discussed identity, national heritage and what it means to be eco-conscious. A central question in this research concerns the possibilities for social media as a space to communicate, preserve and archive local linguistic diversity and vernacular performative genres.

Abdulaziz Al-Busaidi was the younger son of the Omani ruler Said bin Sultan. He devoted all his life to gain power and secure a source of income for himself. To achieve this, he formed alliances and sought powerful protectors. Among them were the British who supported him for almost fifty years, both as a potential heir to the thrones of Oman and Zanzibar and as a tool in their imperial policy. Although Abdulaziz’ political projects failed because of the British and his inability to cooperate with prospective allies, his actions greatly affected the history of Oman and Zanzibar in the second half of the nineteenth century.

"Muslim marriages have been the focus of considerable public debate in Europe and beyond, in Muslim-majority countries as well as in settings where Muslims are a minority. Most academic work has focused on how the majority Sunni Muslims conclude marriages. This volume, in contrast, focuses on Twelver Shi'a Muslims in Iran, Pakistan, Oman, Indonesia, Norway, and the Netherlands. The volume makes an original contribution to understanding the global dynamics of Shi'a marriage practices in a wide range of contexts--not only its geographical spread but also by providing a critical analysis of the socio-economic, religious, ethnic, and political discourses of each context. The book sheds light on new marriage forms presented through a bottom up approach focusing on the lived experiences of Shi'a Muslims negotiating a diverse range of relationships and forms of belonging"--

This article looks at a specific southern Arabian sailing vessel named the Wolf (al-Dhi’b), in order to better understand the life of a coastal trader on the southern Arabian coast that lived in the last days of commercial sail. Vessels such as the Wolf carried local products such as sardines, abalone and frankincense to northern Oman and Yemen, returning with dates and necessary foodstuffs shipped to Aden from India and East Africa. The article examines the remains of the Wolf, based on data from multiple documentation surveys, in conjunction with information gained from oral history interviews in order to highlight the central role that vessels such as the Wolf played in the maritime economic and social networks of the region.

This book makes a substantial and extremely timely, relevant contribution to discussions on energy security in Oman