Jeremy Jones (1)

When I read "Celestial Bodies" last year, I realized how little I know about Oman - I could find it on a map, I knew its capital and I knew that it is an Arab Muslim absolute monarchy and a non-OPEC oil producer. And that was about it. I could not even tell you if they are Shia or Sunni Muslims (as it turned out, the answer is none of the above - they are mostly Ibadi which unlike Wahhabism is not a Sunni or Shia sect (Wahhabism is Sunni) but on the same level as the two big ones). I don't remember if the novel mentioned Zanzibar or if I found about it being an Omani possession for awhile while checking other details from the book but that made me go and check my maps again - they are not exactly next to each other and Oman is not exactly one of the big colonizers that ended up with possessions all over the oceans. You don't need to know even that to enjoy "Celestial Bodies" but I feel uncomfortable when a war or an uprising is mentioned and I cannot figure out when in time it happened, at least down to a decade or 2 around the actual date (with Oman, I would have been hard-pressed to make a distinction between events in the 1950s from ones in the 1850s). So I looked around for a book about it, marked a few and got distracted. Then I read "By the Sea" which deals with the final expulsion of the Omani from Zanzibar and decided it is time to get un-distracted. Except that Oman is not exactly popular - they don't invade their neighbors, they seem to be getting along with everyone and most of the books I was finding were dealing with very specific events - and I really wanted a relatively modern general history (nothing against books such as Phillips's "Oman: A History" (and I may still decide to read it for the background) but it is from 1971 and the country had changed a lot since then and the western understanding of the region had changed a bit).

So where do you start the history of modern Oman? The authors settle on 1932 as the start of the modern history but they go back to 1749, the year when the first Al Bu Said Imam was elected as Imam (the dynasty which still holds the power) to fill in the background which is required to understand what happens post 1932. And even then they go back even from that - to the changes which the appearance of the Europeans brought to the Indian ocean and the internal struggles that led to the Al Saids taking power. Starting in 1932 means that modern Oman had had only 2 sultans in its history - Said bin Taimur (until he was deposed in 1970) and then his son Qaboos bin Said (now, they had had 3, Qaboos bin Said died in January 2020). After reading the book, that distinction makes sense - the history of these last 2 rulers is indeed very different from what came before that.

The history is interesting (even though if you are not used to the names, they can get a bit confusing but then the procession of Charles and Henry in Western European history is not much easier to untangle - at least here noone changes their name 3 times in the same year). I am still not entirely sure why the Omani ended up on Zanzibar initially (1698 is a bit before the scope of this book so it was just touched upon and it has to do with trade and wins and the Indian Ocean and the nearby African coast (and slaves)) but at least the later events on the island (or islands really) started making a lot more sense (the Omani Sultanate even moved its capital to Zanzibar for awhile in mid 19th century before the two countries were split (not without the help of the British - is there anything they had not partitioned?) and they were never again to be under the control of the same rulers. But that does not make the Zanzibari history less important for Oman - so the authors proceed to keep track of the double story until much later and well into the 20th century (and the expelled Omanis in the revolution of 1964 still had a role to play in the 1970 coup d'état in Oman (and its aftermath).

But that story, the story of Zanzibar and Oman, was the story of the merchants of the coastal areas in Oman. The interior belonged to the Imams - and the story developed differently. Since the mid 1850s, the country had been know as "Muscat and Oman" (or the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman in some eras), showing the internal division more clearly than anything else could; the name won't change to "Sultanate of Oman" until 1970.

And that's what made Oman so different from most of its neighbors - between the Ibadi Imams and the Sultans which were more merchants than politicians, the country went in a radically different direction than the rest of the Arab world through history. They never became British protectorate as pretty much anyone else in the area (although the British were there and interfered a lot). They kept their peace and diplomatic relationship with Iran through all the upheavals in the area. The Omani are one of the keeps of the Strait of Hormuz (and for big parts of their history, they actually controlled both sides, before selling the side that do not sit on the Arabian peninsula to Pakistan in 1958. Considering that the Strait of Hormuz is the only way for anyone from the Persian Gulf to leave and cross into the Indian ocean and the fact that all of the countries in the Gulf need the tankers carrying their oil out to actually leave the Gulf, that made Oman the mediator in the area more often than not. So it played its role - it kept the peace with Iran, it even tried to keep diplomatic relations with Israel when all other Arab countries cut them (and succeeded... for awhile).

But despite all the differences, it is still an oil state. They discovered it later than elsewhere but the country did change once that happened. It never got the high risers of some of its neighbors (partially because it was still working on its basic infrastructure, partially because it did not want to) and it kept its traditional dress even when they travel abroad (although as it turns out that is not exactly true - the "traditional" clothes we all are used to see were a modern invention designed to unify the country in the 1970s and make the different tribes and peoples appear less different).

And then there were some surprises - Oman had women in high positions before any other Gulf state. Its political structures are still getting changed and they are away from what you would call democratic as the West understands the term but the authors make the point that just because something worked elsewhere, it does not need to work here as well. Oman has its own traditions of consultation which don't exist in the same form almost anywhere. Despite the imams and the very heavy Ibadi influence, the Islam taught in schools is non-sectarian. Things are slowly moving towards a more modern state - one which probably won't copy its structure from the West but then... why should it.

Of course there is a lot in the book about the wars and rebellions which made the modern Oman - they don't exactly live in the most peaceful part of the world - Yemen next door had collapsed as a state (and Oman had had issues with them historically in the province closest to them) and the Saudis had always taken exception to the neighbor who does not like their brand of religion (aka the wahhabism) and does not want to adopt it.

At the end of the book, they try to make some predictions for the future in their 21st century chapter. The book was published in 2015, written mostly in 2014 and that is important to remember because this is when ISIS was consolidating its power (and declared its Caliphate up in the same area which had always been a problem in the region). Some of their prediction were spot on (they list 3 people as the possible next Sultan and one of them did succeed), they noted that the way succession works will probably change (this was the only Arab monarchy which did not have a Crown prince; the first thing the new Sultan did in 2020 was to declare one). Some were too vague or are still in play. None was wrong.

So at the end, I liked the book as it served its purpose although I do have two issues with it:
- there were 3 maps: Oman, Oman in the Gulf and Oman in the Indian Ocean. This book could have used a LOT more maps, especially historical ones showing the state of borders and cities and what's not.
- the authors have the very annoying habit to cite other books at length and to remind you that they talked about something in chapter 2 or that they will talk about in chapter 5 (while you are in chapter 3 for example). None of these is usually a big deal but there was a section in the middle of the book which felt as if that is all they were doing for pages upon pages.

The biggest problem I have now is that I want more details and I suspect I may end up reading more about Oman. But this history is a pretty good introduction and overview.… (mehr)