Your search

The British Empire employed a diverse range of strategies to establish and then maintain control over its overseas territories in the Middle East. This new interpretation of how Britain maintained order, protected its interests and carried out its defence obligations in the Gulf in the decades before its withdrawal from the region in 1971 looks at how the British government increasingly sought to achieve security with great economy of force by building up local militaries instead of deploying costly military forces from the home country. Benefitting from the extensive use of recently declassified British Government archival documents and India Office records, this highly original narrative weighs the successes and failures of Britain's use of 'indirect rule' among the small states of Eastern Arabia, including Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the seven Trucial States and Oman. Drawing important lessons for scholars and policymakers about the limitations of trying to outsource security to local partners, Security in the Gulf is a remarkable study of the deployment of British colonial policy in the Middle East before 1971.

Pour les Zunûj d’Arabie orientale, le rite de possession ramsat-al-leiwah est une pratique à caractère thérapeutique. Il est supposé guérir les individus des maladies et des tourments infligés par des esprits nommés as-sawâḥili. Ainsi, il n’est pas rare, au cours de ses réalisations, que des actes agressifs soient perpétrés entre esprits de possession, entre participants humains, voire entre esprits et êtres humains. Dans ces situations, les Zunûj utilisent l’expression arabe rabsha pour qualifier ces actes répréhensibles. Ce terme renvoie simultanément à deux significations : la nuisance et le chaos. Or, de leur point de vue, il est essentiel que tous – humains et esprits – observent entre eux une attitude respectueuse et sans hostilité. Cela s’accorde avec le caractère festif recherché pour le bon déroulement du rite, d’autant plus que, pour être considéré comme réussi, il doit s’achever dans la bonne entente et l’harmonie entre tous les participants humains et les esprits. C’est à partir d’un exemple extrait d’une réalisation de ce rite datant de 2009 au Sultanat d’Oman que cet article propose d’explorer les expressions de l’agressivité en contexte rituel en se fondant sur une micro-analyse de l’engagement des différents acteurs et de leurs interactions.

Abstract Julfar was a major port town of the Persian Gulf during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries AD. A possession of the Hormuzi empire, it was a lucrative source of taxes and pearls, and a port of trade for northern Oman, tapping into maritime trading networks connecting the Middle East with Africa, India, Southeast Asia and China. The site is found north of modern Ras Al‐Khaimah, UAE. Julfar Al‐Nudud was previously considered to be a late suburb of an urban core, Julfar Al‐Mataf, and is located on a creek opposite the latter. However, excavations in 2010 indicated that Al‐Nudud was part of the original urban core, which had grown up on either side of the creek. Moreover, re‐examination of previous work in Al‐Mataf, where a large mosque and fortification were excavated (by British and French teams), shows that the two areas followed different trajectories. Significant occupation in Al‐Nudud and southern Al‐Mataf (revealed by previous Japanese excavations) ended before the start of the sixteenth century, while use of the mosque and fort in central Al‐Mataf continued into the seventeenth century, albeit discontinuously. A revised concordance of the phases derived from the work of various archaeological teams is therefore proposed.

Abstract Rapid growth coupled with the prevailing land allocation system in Oman led to a shift from compact dwellings typologies to detached single-family houses, arranged in monofunctional zoning systems that exclusively rely on cars. Due to the sprawled transformation, authorities are unable to provide new neighborhoods with basic infrastructure and attractive open spaces. Consequently, the level of non-communicable diseases is increasing, making urban regeneration programs promoting active lifestyles in built environments a matter of public health. In our research we explore participative-planning strategies to enhance pedestrian activity within existing neighborhoods and regenerate public spaces. We conducted a quantitative survey using a standard walkability scale and physical maps to identify barriers to pedestrian activity. Subsequently, we employed the data to frame culturally sensitive co-creation workshops, gaining in-depth knowledge to guide future redesign proposals. We found that mosques are walking magnets yet engender contrasting views with regard to walkability; finding solutions to the spatial problems could develop them into walkable cores. We also observed that residents were aware of health problems caused by lack of physical activity and how that links with the built environment they inhabit. They were eager to discuss solutions, including alternative governance models, as long as the process was short and produced immediate small interventions with high-level impact on their surroundings. We employed a fine-grained combination of methods to address site-specific challenges. Its quantitative data allows the insertion in a broader discourse and the linkage to a large body of research in walkability. Co-creation workshops, especially city games, proved to be a powerful tool to initiate dialogue on complex spatial negotiation, even in societies where participatory approaches do not have a well-established tradition.

This paper presents a study of the memoirs and letters of Princess Sālima bt. Saʿīd (d. 1922), whose father, Saʿīd b. Sulṭān (d. 1856), was the ruler of Oman and Zanzibar from 1832 to 1856. One hundred and fifty years ago, the princess entered into a relationship with a young German man, Rudolph Ruete. After the princess fell pregnant, putting her in conflict with the stipulations of her Islamic religion, she decided to elope with her lover and to bet on him. The paper argues that the princess was a revolutionary woman in opposition to traditional Zanzibari culture, and that her story highlights clearly the issue of women and the crisis of freedom in Arab and Islamic culture during that time.

This book is the first coursebook to deal with the Modern South Arabian language, Mehri. Focussing on Mehri as spoken in Central Dhofar, Oman, the work results from several years' close collaboration with four native speakers of Mehri. The book is multimodal, supported by a large number of audio and audio-visual texts from the Mehri archive housed at the Endangered Languages Archive (ELAR) at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. It comprises twenty lessons and a glossary of all terms occurring in the lessons. Dialogues within the lessons focus as far as possible on aspects of the traditional culture of the Mahrah, thus introducing the student not only to the language, but also to issues of cultural importance.

This article investigates the use and functions of the active and passive participial forms in the Omani vernacular spoken in al-'Awābī district, in al-Bāṭina region of northern Oman. This dialect was first described by Carl Reinhardt in 1894. No sections of his work, however, deal with the analysis of functions of participial forms in the dialect, although they are common in his texts. The data presented in this article aim to show the uses of the active participle in the everyday speech of my participants living in al-'Awābī district and the different syntactic and semantic functions it conveys. The syntactic functions of the participle in Arabic linguistics has long been debated since it is neither completely a verbal form nor a nominal. This article fits into this discussion as it brings new data and analysis of active and passive participles in Arabic dialectology with regard to the Omani vernacular spoken in al-'Awābī district.

Les réinterprétations critiques des travaux en anthropologie de la parenté ont remis en question les idées antérieures selon lesquelles les relations de parenté reflètent et reproduisent un ordre social dominant. Pourtant, les études consacrées aux nouvelles formes de parenté tendent à montrer que celles‐ci peuvent reproduire des idées traditionnelles concernant la famille, les valeurs et les hiérarchies sociales. Pour résister aux tendances actuelles liant la parenté à une reproduction sociale conservatrice, une piste prometteuse est la meilleure compréhension des circonstances dans lesquelles les relations de parenté reproduisent un ordre social anti‐hégémonique. Parmi les anciens militants du mouvement de libération révolutionnaire, aujourd'hui vaincu, de Dufar, dans le sultanat d'Oman, les pratiques de parenté visualisent des réseaux et relations entre anciens combattants qui transgressent les hiérarchies tribales, ethniques, raciales et genrées dominantes. Ces pratiques montrent comment, même dans les circonstances peu propices de la défaite politique et de la marginalisation, les relations de parenté peuvent reproduire un ordre social anti‐hégémonique, tout en offrant une rémanence sociale à la révolution vaincue.

In the Dhofar Mountains of Oman stakeholders are concerned about the social and ecological sustainability of pastoralism. In this study we used interviews with pastoralists to examine the prevailing drivers of pastoralism and how they are changing. We find that people are committed to pastoralism for sociocultural reasons but also that this commitment is under pressure because of husbandry costs and changing values. We find that capital investment in feedstuff enables pastoralists to overcome the density-dependent regulation of livestock populations. However, high production costs deter investment in marketing and commercialization, and there is little off take of local livestock. Our study reveals how pastoral values, passed down within households, motivate pastoralists in the face of high husbandry costs, modernization and social change.

Oman is a country under severe water stress. Currently Oman produces around 1 Mm3/day of desalinated seawater for urban purposes to expand supply. This policy was partially imposed by the irregularity of rain and the concentration of the population on the coastal areas. Most of the conventional water resources are in the form of groundwater and are used in the agricultural sector. Abstractions from wells are subject to licenses. But licenses so far do not carry any limits. The result is a race for water with overabstractions in the coastal areas causing seawater intrusion and damage to the aquifers. The government is planning to introduce progressively water quotas to farmers and monitoring through smart meters and online system. Large volumes of tertiary treated wastewater are produced daily and are only partially reused for landscaping. There is a mismatch between the willingness of farmers to pay for treated wastewater and the price set by the public authority leading to a limited demand. The actual context of free and unlimited access to groundwater does not encourage to shift the demand toward high-quality treated wastewater. Plans are being considered for recharging some of the aquifers with the treated wastewater. Irrigation efficiency improvements have been observed mainly for vegetable producers where the adoption of irrigation technology resulted in higher revenues and lower labor costs. Urban water prices are at 1/3 of their costs discouraging water saving and adoption of water saving/recycling devices at homes or industries. Urban water security is being addressed by aquifer storage and recovery techniques using excess winter desalinated water.

En 1970, Qābūs devient sultan d’Oman par un coup d’Etat qui renverse son père avec l’appui des Britanniques, principalement en vue de moderniser le pays : cette politique est qualifiée de « renaissance bienheureuse » ou « Nahḍa ». La politique du logement est le levier majeur de cette action, et prend la forme principale de la promotion de la maison individuelle sur parcelle de terrain octroyée par le souverain. Ce choix est au cœur de la redistribution de la manne pétrolière et de l’objectif de justice sociale qui légitime le pouvoir royal. S’il a des points communs avec ceux des pays voisins, le dispositif omanais se distingue en ciblant l’ensemble de la population de nationalité omanaise. Cette politique du logement a permis de faire accéder la population à une vie urbaine moderne, mais elle n’est pas sans poser de nombreuses questions aujourd’hui, en particulier sur le plan de la cohésion sociale ou d’un étalement urbain problématique face à l’objectif de développement durable.

With over 1700 km of coastline, the inhabitants of Oman have had a deep and enduring relationship with the sea for millennia. Located between the Arabian Gulf and the western Indian Ocean, its fishermen have relied on the sea for sustenance. Its mariners were involved in developing long-distance maritime trade from at least the Bronze Age and continued sailing the monsoonal trade routes well into the twentieth century. Periodically, its rulers have established maritime polities extending to Zanzibar and the Makran coast, creating sea-based migrations in the process. With such a rich and enduring seafaring past, it is therefore not surprising that the modern nation-state of Oman has had an active interest in studying and preserving its MUCH.

In Oman, Bangladeshis are now the most important community of migrants among South Asians. Among them are fishermen who represent a paradigmatic example of the difficult situation most low skilled workers have to face in the Gulf countries. Based on fieldworks in Hatiya, a small island of the Bay of Bengal from where these fishermen are originating, and in several harbours of Oman, I intend to highlight the different mechanisms which make migration a very risky gamble for these men. From the recruitment process through local networks, the conditions of work and salaries, the unavoidable path to an irregular status and eventually the arrest and deportation of most of these workers, I propose to show how, structurally, their migratory experience almost always leads to failure and increased poverty.