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The first traces of civilisation in the current Sultanate of Oman are 5000 years old and the Queen of Sheba is said to have had a palace here, the Prophet Job’s tomb is found near Salalah, the Three Wise Men’s frankincense probably came from Dhofar, and Alexander the Great is believed to have had his base on the island of Masirah. There were certainly settlements in the Hajar mountains, where the remains of tall stone tombs in the shape of beehives with vaulted roofs were found and identified as being built in the third millennium BC.
It is also certain that Oman had a maritime tradition dating back thousands of years before the birth of Christ. Its sailors went to sea, first in reed boats and later in teak dhows as tough and resilient as a Viking longship, selling copper and frankincense to ancient civilisations of Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, Phoenicia, Egypt, Greece, Rome and China . The wealth and success of Oman attracted jealousy and in 1507 the Portuguese who were seeking a route to India to corner the spice market, suddenly attacked Muscat and other ports on the Gulf coast. They remained in Oman for 150 years, adding to existing defences and building new forts.
In 1650 Muscat was reconquered by a naval fleet led by Sultan bin Saif Al Yarubi and the Portuguese were expelled. The Sultan extended his authority inland and built the magnificent fort of Nizwa and then his sons and grandsons followed suit and built the formidable forts of Jabrin, Hazm and Rustaq. Sea trade and colonisation began and the Omanis first captured Mogadishu and then Mombasa, increasing its interests in East Africa.
However, external interest in Oman was by no means over. In the 18th Century, the Persians, capitalising on civil unrest, besieged cities along the coast, and it was only the courage and resistance of the ruler of Sohar, Ahmad Al Bu Said, that saved them and he founded the dynasty of which the currant Sultan Qaboos is a descendant.
In 1783 Muscat became the capital and 15 years later, the British, who were increasingly active in the Gulf with the East India Company, signed a trade and navigation treaty with Oman. Almost a century later, by which time its empire had spread to Persia, Baluchistan and Zanzibar, a further agreement was drawn up, this time undertaking to protect the Sultan from external and internal danger.
Thus started the Anglo-Omani relationship which continues today, although after the First World War the Sultan Said Bin Taimur isolated his country from the outside world, closing it to foreigners. For more than 50 years Oman lived in a time warp, the people virtually unaware of what was going on in the first half of the 20th Century. In 1970 Sultan Qaboos took over after his father’s abdication, promising to take his people into the new world.
