Oman

The Gulf state with an empire of its own, and a religious tradition found almost nowhere else. Oman's position at the mouth of the Gulf made it a seafaring power, and in the seventeenth century it expelled the Portuguese and built a maritime empire down the East African coast, taking Zanzibar and Mombasa and dominating the ivory and slave trade of the region - the sultan moved his capital to Zanzibar in 1840, an African seat for an Arabian state. Most Omanis follow Ibadi Islam, a school older than the Sunni-Shia split and dominant nowhere else, which is part of why the country has historically avoided the region's sectarian alignments. The empire divided in 1856 and the country became isolated and desperately poor under Said bin Taimur, who banned radios, sunglasses and travel. His son Qaboos deposed him in 1970 and spent fifty years building schools, roads and hospitals, using modest oil revenue carefully. Oman has since made itself the region's mediator, hosting talks between the United States and Iran. The frankincense trail is a World Heritage site. Muscat is the capital. The country has about five million people and a coastline of over three thousand kilometres. Arabic is official and Swahili is still spoken by families returned from Zanzibar. The aflaj irrigation channels, some over a thousand years old, are a World Heritage site. Oman controls the southern side of the Strait of Hormuz. Its interior includes the Empty Quarter's eastern edge. Oman was the first Arab state to establish relations with the United States, in 1833.

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