Oman’s Transregional Connections to Sindh and Gujarat: Mobility and Material Heritage of the Lawatiya (original) (raw)
Zhiming Fu & Angeliki Ziaka (Eds.), The Silk Roads between China and Oman. Networks of Communication and Transmission of Ibadi Knowledge, Olms, Hildesheim, Germany, pp. 107-120, ISBN: 9783487159133, https://www.olms.de/search/Detail.aspx?pr=2009907., 2021
9th Conference on Ibadi Studies - China and the World: Development and Cooperation from the Perspective of the Belt and Road Initiative. Diachronic and Cross-Border Transmission of Ibadi Knowledge, University of Peking and School of Foreign Languages – September 2018. Along the shores of Oman, relations between the people of the Asian and Arabian coasts were innumerable and stretched back to time immemorial. Such links and relationships were to be sought in the multiple elements that constituted the equilibrium of the Indian Ocean, that is, in the monsoons, in the presence of commercial thalassocracies and mercantile laws, and in the many routes of people and goods. Two main distinct political realities were destined to co-exist along the coasts of South West Asia, in the desert region of Makran, Balochistan and in Oman: the multicultural societies of the coasts, and the tribal, pastoral societies of the interior where, from time to time, the former succeeded in prevailing and imposing its laws. The powers of the coasts thus created flourishing markets between the ports of South-Western Asia and the Arabian coasts. From the nineteenth century onwards, it was believed that it was the red flag of Omani that formed commercial, political and religious ties between the Omani enclave of the port of Gwadar in Makran-Balochistan, the principal ports of Oman itself, through the movement of peoples, ideas, and merchandise. Oman international activities during four centuries - 1500 to 1800 - saw numerous waves of political leaders, seafarers, merchants and adventurers in a competition between leaders and merchants from every part of Asia as well as of Europe. During the period that saw the rise of European powers in the Indian Ocean, according to available historiography, many mutations occurred from which new protagonists emerged along the Asian and Arabian regions. Against these backdrops, the gradual emergence of new Omani dynasties resulted also from the polarization that followed the struggle against the Portuguese presence in the Persian Gulf and in the Indian Ocean. This gave rise to gradually and discontinuous processes of unification among the Omani groups, traditionally divided and in conflict with each other, that came to the fore in the progressive affirmation of what we could define as the international power of the Ibadis of Oman in the Gulf and in the Indian Ocean.
Oman and Islamic Maritime Networks 632-1507
Oman A Maritime History, 2017
This chapter discusses Oman’s role in the rise of maritime activity during the Early through Middle Islamic periods (630-1507 CE), as it became integrated into a larger series of emerging maritime networks in the Indian Ocean and West Pacific. In particular, it emphasizes the shifting a series of relationships with East Africa, South Asia, Iraq and the Iranian mainland, highlighting the increasing cultural diversity of the Islamic Indian Ocean littoral societies reflected in Oman. Trade prospered as direct trade with China and India flourished, and Oman became increasingly integrated into both East African, Southwest Asian and Indian economies. It also examines the diverse political landscape as Islamic maritime societies became a dominant force in the Indian Ocean, and polities shifted from Caliphal tributary states and Imamates to merchant city states.
Coastal Contacts: Oman in the Indian Imagination
squ.edu.om
The last couple of decades of the last century and the first one of this one have, inarguably, witnessed a phenomenal rise in the studies of writing by Indians in various genres. A major aspect of this writing is the substantial production emerging from the Indian diaspora in various parts of the world. While the literary achievements of the Indian expatriates in the west have been exhaustively documented, there remains a wide vacuum where the Middle East is concerned. While it is a cliché to suggest that the host country of residence influences the creativity of a literary artist, the nature of this interchange in Oman remains largely under wraps. This paper attempts to fill that gap by introducing historical narratives of the Indian diaspora in Oman by tracing the earliest available works as well as focusing on contemporary Indian writers to explore the multitudinous ways in which Oman has become part of the consciousness of the Indian imagination.
2016
Along the shores of the Indian Ocean, trade relations between the people of the Asian, Arabian and East African coasts were innumerable and deeply interlinked for centuries. Such links and relationships of trade and power were in those elements that composed the close equilibrium of the Indian Ocean: the monsoons, the presence of commercial thalassocracies (the well known merchant-states), the predominance of mercantile laws, and the trade routes of numerous precious goods. Maritime coastal trades, as well as long distance trades, represented the expressions of an economy that was already highly sophisticated, developed and organized; therefore, the necessity of control of these sea trade routes was a crucial element: a political element. Starting from the eighteenth century onwards, groups from the interior gradually began to settle on the coastal new centres. Two clearly distinct political realities were destined to co-exist along the coasts of South West Asia and, in particular, in the desolate, desert region of Bal\u14d\u10dist\u101n , in \u2018Om\u101n and in Sub-Saharan East Africa: the complex, multi-ethnic mercantile societies of the coasts, and the tribal, pastoral societies of the interior where, from time to time, the former succeeded in prevailing and imposing its laws. In the ports of these maritime corridors, small city-states prospered, their gaze directed mainly seawards, while larger reigns turned towards the interior and the north. The city-states jealously preserved their independence and attempts to make inroads on their commercial predominance often ended in failure for their enemies. The Arab potentates of the coasts thus created flourishing markets between the ports of South Western Asia and the Arabian, Western Indian, and East African coast . And, from the nineteenth century on, it was the red flag of the \u2018Om\u101nis that formed numerous ties between the \u2018Om\u101ni enclave of the port of Gw\u101dar in Makr\u101n-Bal\u14d\u10dist\u101n, the principal ports of \u2018Om\u101n itself, the East African coast, and the Island of Zanzibar (Unguja in Kiswahili)
Risse - Bibliography - Dhofar Oman - 2019 (newer version available)
2019
Selected Bibliography of Works Consulted for Research on Dhofar, Oman including a few websites and texts from the fields of anthropology, archeology, fiction, geography, history, political science, tourism studies and travel writing - Dr. Marielle Risse updated version at: https://wordpress.com/page/mariellerisse.com/1150
Of Living Traces and Revived Legacies: Unfolding Futures in the Sultanate of Oman
2013
Author(s): Sachedina, Amal | Advisor(s): Mahmood, Saba | Abstract: Since its inception as a modern nation state in 1970, the Sultanate of Oman has actively pursued a policy of national integration and modernization, smoothing over the region's political cleavages through the practices of heritage. Oman's expanding heritage industry and market for heritage crafts and sites is exemplified by the boom in museums, exhibitions, cultural festivals and the restoration of more than a hundred forts, castles and citadels. The material forms of national heritage provide the context within which the very foundations of the nation take shape. But the construction of the heritage project in modern Oman has also necessitated the formulation of the public domains of history and Islam as seemingly separate and autonomous, erasing any awareness of the socio-political and ethical relationships that once characterized Ibadi Imamate rule (1913-1958) in the region. This dissertation is a study of...