History. Archaeology in Oman is still very much in its infancy. Prior to 1970, only one excavation had been sanctioned in the south of the country. However archaeologists are currently in the process of making exciting discoveries in the Ras Al Hadd area, with remains dating back to the fifth millennium BC and possibly even earlier. It is felt that from this area, perhaps for the first time anywhere in the world, man started to embark on ocean travel. By the third millennium BC, the harbours on the northern coast were on the margins of the trade routes linking Mesopotamia to the Indus Valley. This area then known as Magan was the original source of copper to the ancient world. It supported large communities whose only visible remains now are the plethora of hill top tombs still easily viewed today, if one knows where to look.

It is still not known what led to the decline of this area, but one prime suspect is environmental degradation, caused by overpopulation and deforestation due to the need to smelt the copper ore. Trade with Mesopotamia seems to have ended by 2,000 BC, and this isolation in the north continued for more than a millennium until the region became incorporated into various Persian empires.

The area in the south of modern Oman however, together with what is now part of Yemen, became the source of most of the world’s Frankincense. At that time this product was as valuable as oil is today and led to the region becoming a major centre of commerce and great wealth, until its decline after the third century AD. (Pliny writing in the first century AD, stated that control of the Frankincense trade made its people the richest in the world at that time!)

The Arabisation of Oman began around the first century AD, with the migration of Arab tribes from what is now Yemen to south-west Oman. This was caused by the collapse of the Ma’rib dam, and the civilisation it had encouraged. Omanis pride themselves on being among the earliest converts to Islam around 630 AD, and Omanis played a vital role in the spread of Islam to southern Iraq and the conquest of the Persian Empire.

A major theme in Omani history has been the split between the coastal and inland areas. The ancient capital was at Bahla, and by the ninth century, this had shifted to Nizwa. However after this the capital shifted to Sohar and from then until the present, the coast has remained politically and economically more important. After Sohar, Qalhat to the north west of Sur became the next capital and was visited by Marco Polo. During this time, the country was torn by civil war, and control of the coastal areas passed to dynasties from Persia and later the Portuguese who occupied the major coastal cities in 1507. At this time, Rustaq became the capital city under Omani control. (Ironically it was an Omani navigator who helped cement Portuguese power by guiding Vasco da Gama to India from the coast of east Africa). This power however was in decline by 1622, when Muscat was made the major base in the area, and the Portuguese were finally expelled from the country by the Omanis in 1650. (Incidentally contrary to popular belief, the only major remaining Portuguese buildings are Mirani and Jalali forts in Muscat. All the other forts in the country are totally or mainly of Omani origin). Four years before the expulsion of the Portuguese in 1646, the first treaty of co-operation with the British was signed. This and subsequent treaties marked the beginning of the special relationship between the two countries, that has continued to the present day. The Persians still remained powerful however, and they weren’t finally expelled until 1747, by the founder of the present Al bu Said dynasty.

During all of this time, the Imamate based inland around Jebal Akhdar controlled much of the country. During the latter part of the 18th century, there was a rapid growth in Omani military and commercial power, which allowed it to regain and extend the control of key ports in Persia, India, and Zanzibar that it had enjoyed several centuries earlier. Eventually by the start of the 19th century, the Omani empire had extended to control several parts of coastal East Africa as well as Zanzibar, and whole provinces in Persia and Baluchistan in present day Pakistan. (In fact control of the last Omani toehold in Pakistan didn’t end until 1958). The Omani empire reached its peak in the middle of the 19th century, under Sultan Said bin Sultan, who made Zanzibar his second (and preferred capital). Dhofar was added to Oman at this time, and Omani control extended far down the coast of East Africa to the Portuguese colony of Mozambique. On his death in 1856, the empire was split in two, one of his sons becoming sultan of Zanzibar (this line continuing there until1963). Oman itself then went into a period of rapid decline cut off from its most lucrative domains.