Historical and Cultural Background

According to tradition, in the first six centuries of the Christian era, Oman was peopled by two streams of Arab tribes. One, known as Yemeni, coming direct from south-west Arabia and the other as Nizari, coming via Nejd. The initial invasions displaced the Persians, who were at that time in control of the country.

About 570 AD, Oman was again overrun by the Persians. The Julanda Kings of Oman, however, continued to rule in the interior against payment of tribute to the Persians, who remained on the coast and maintained a viceroy near Sohar.
Oman accepted Islam voluntarily at the time of the Prophet Mohammed (Peace be upon him), and it was also ruled by the Islamic State during the fourth Caliph. At the Ummayad time, it was ruled sporadically by them.

Later, Oman fell at various periods under the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad. From the tenth to the thirteenth centuries, it was subjected to a number of invasions - Carpathian, Persian (perhaps the most noteworthy is that it included subjugation of the Jebel Akhdar), Kirmani, Seljik, Ghuz and Moghul. The position in the fifteenth century appears to have been that a King of Nabahina tribe ruled in the north, the Imam ruled Oman proper (i.e. the area around Nizwa) and the Persian governors ruled the coastal towns.

The sixteenth century saw the arrival of the Portuguese, who maintained themselves for varying periods in several places on the coast including Muscat, where they built the forts Jalali in 1586/87 and Mirani in 1588. By 1650, however, they had been ousted by the Ya'ariba Imams, who, ruling from Rustaq, extended Oman's influence to East Africa and the coast of India. Civil wars in the first half of the eighteenth century brought the dynasty to an end in 1744. Ahmed Bin Sa'id, the first ruler of the present ruling family, was declared Imam.

Overseas trade and colonisation continued and Omani influence in East Africa increased. Said bin Sultan (1807-56) spent much time in Zanzibar, but after his death the empire divided, with one of his sons ruling Oman and the other ruling Zanzibar. Oman's loss of control over her African dependencies led during the late nineteenth century, and the twentieth century until 1970, to a period of isolation and economic stagnation.