Omanis lining up for the cinema (?), Salalah, Dhufar Province, 2005/2006.
- Unlike the other Gulf states, Omanis do not have a lot of disposable income, by and large. There are reasons for this—large, disparate country, few resources to begin with—but it is also “by design,” the government intentionally avoiding the creation of an overly coddled populace.
- Most of us have our eyes fixed on the Mediterranean, comparing ourselves to Europe and coming up short (and getting trampled by the French, the British, the Israelis, etc). In contrast, the Omanis have long been masters of a vast seafaring empire stretching across the Indian Ocean, from Gwadar to Zanzibar. Even on their home turf, the Omanis managed to push back the Portuguese, becoming, I guess, the only Arab state to defeat a European power during the (early) modern era.
The view either from the Sayyeda Hotel or the Bait Al Ajaib in Old Stone Town, Zanzibar (I can’t remember exactly). August 2012.
The turrets at a fort which must have been in Sur, the eastern coast of Oman, around December 2005/January 2006.
- A related aspect is the established, formalized Islamic religious institution. Contrary to Christianity, Islam was never successful at institutionalizing the religion. In order to be successful empire builders however, the Omanis had to build a formal structure, an Imamate, for their own flavour of Islam, Ibadi Islam. The Ibadi Imam was a real force in Omani politics for centuries, eventually becoming a parallel dynasty to the temporal power of the Bu Saidi sultans. The present Sultan managed to coopt the Imamate, but Ibadi Islam as an idea is really serious even today. To me, it seems kind of “protestant” in its ethic: Muslims in Oman are very, very serious about their religion but they also respect privacy and are very tolerant. It’s amusing because the Ibadis hold on to a principle which most other Muslims abandoned centuries ago, seeing it as bizarre and overly zealous; specifically, the idea that a person guilty of one of the “Great Sins” is an apostate (most other Muslims insist that you must publicly profess your abandonment of religion to be considered an apostate).
The shrine/tomb of the Prophet Job in Dhufar Governorate. Religion is pretty serious in Oman but people have a “live and let live attitude”. The smoke/haze is from frankincense. Also, this was on a camera phone from 2005, so …
- One curious thing I noticed: Ibadis generally frown on smoking, and Oman has the lowest smoking rate of any Arab country I’ve ever visited (this is my anecdotal/personal observation, I have no data but I would be surprised if any Arab country smokes less than Oman; maybe Mauritania).
- There are some real linguistic quirks in Oman. The people sound a bit like Yemenis, a little like Hejazis but they also have their own thing going on. There are at least three or four “proto-Arabic” (or whatever you want to call it) languages spoken in Oman, in addition to the many people who speak Swahili or Baluchi. It’s pretty funky. One thing I find cool is that Omanis in formal documents add the ta suffix to make the surnames/tribe names of women feminine. So a woman whose brother has the surname Mawlawi would herself have the surname Mawlawia.
- On the point of women: it’s the weirdest thing ever in Oman. Women seem to have a huge level of independence—like I notice that a lot of businesses in Muscat are owned by women, and have a woman’s name on the sign—but there seems to be very little by way of sexual liberation a la Tunisia or Lebanon.
- One thing which really needs to be mentioned: I have never been made more comfortable or more welcomed than in Oman. Omanis are definitely, by far, the nicest people I have ever met. Just genuinely, honest-to-goodness nice people who will invite you into their homes and show you around their country for free.
Omani dude who just kind of drove us around, December 2005/January 2006, just because he had free time and wanted to. This was Jabrin Fort. I (jeans and t-shirt) was much thinner then (sigh).
No comments:
Post a Comment