Oman

Oman wraps around the south-eastern corner of Arabia, facing the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. In the north the Hajar Mountains rise to Jebel Shams, and on the cool terraces of Jebel Akhdar villagers grow pomegranates and roses. Inland lie gravel plains and the dunes of the Wahiba Sands, and the detached peninsula of Musandam faces the Strait of Hormuz. In the far south, the khareef monsoon wraps the Dhofar hills in summer mist, and frankincense trees grow on the dry slopes beyond.

Sumerian tablets speak of Magan, which sent copper from these mountains to Mesopotamia over four thousand years ago. Oman became the heartland of Ibadi Islam, a school distinct from Sunni and Shia. The Portuguese held Muscat from 1507 until 1650, and under the Al Said dynasty, founded in the 1740s, Omani sultans ruled Zanzibar and the Swahili coast until the realms divided in 1861. In 1970 Sultan Qaboos replaced his father and spent oil wealth on roads, schools and hospitals.

A curved silver khanjar appears on the national emblem and is worn at the waist on formal occasions. Guests receive kahwa, coffee flavoured with cardamom, with dates and saffron halwa, and at Eid families bury marinated lamb in an underground oven to make shuwa. Shipwrights at Sur still build dhows by hand. Oil and gas, the gas liquefied at Qalhat, pay for most of the state, while Sohar and Duqm handle containers, aluminium and petrochemicals.