Abstract
An independent State in South-eastern Arabia extending along a coast line—S.E. and S.W.—of almost 1,000 miles from the Gulf of Ormuz and inland to the deserts. Area, 82,000 square miles; population, 1,500,000. The capital, Muscat (60,000 inhabitants), was occupied by the Portuguese till the seventeenth century. After various vicissitudes it was taken in the eighteenth century by Ahmed bin Sa’eed, of Yemenite origin, who was elected Imam in 1741. His family have since ruled. The present Sultan is Seyyid Feysal bin Turki, second son of the late Seyyid Turkibin Sa’eed bin Sultan, who succeeded his father June 4, 1888, and has now been formally recognised by the British Government. In the beginning of the present century t h e power of the Imam of Oman extended over a large area of Arabia, the islands in the Persian Gulf, a strip on the Persian coast, and a long strip of the African coast south of Cape Guardafui, including Socotra and Zanzibar. On the death of Sultan Sa’eed in 1854 Zanzibar was detached from Oman and placed under the rule of the second son, and subsequent troubles curtailed the area of the state in Asia. The closest relations have for years existed between the Government of India and Oman, and a British Consul or Political Agent resides at Muscat. The authority of the Sultan does not extend far beyond Muscat.
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© 1896 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
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Keltie, J.S. (1896). Oman. In: Keltie, J.S. (eds) The Statesman’s Year-Book. The Statesman’s Yearbook. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230253254_37
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230253254_37
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-25325-4
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