Oman

Oman

The sultanate of Oman is located in the south-east corner of the Arabian peninsula and borders on the Indian Ocean.

Definition

It is the third largest country in Arabia after Saudi Arabia and Yemen and comprises five distinct geographical regions, the Musandam peninsula, the Batinah coastal strip, the Hajjar mountains, the Naj desert and Dhofar. The Musandam peninsula is separate from the rest of the country and comprises a rocky headland adjacent to the straits of Hormuz. The Batinah coastal strip is located between the sea and the mountains in the northern part of the country and varies between 20 and 25 km wide, this is the most densely populated region of Oman. The Hajjar mountains are a very distinctive feature; running in a belt parallel to the coast in the northern part of the country, they are the source of most of Oman's water. The Naj desert, comprising several areas including the Wahiba sands, separates the northern mountains from those of the south and its population is mostly nomadic. Dhofar is a mountainous region in the south of the country with a tropical climate and is the only part of Arabia to experience a summer monsoon.
Until the discovery of oil Oman's economy was based upon a number of natural resources, the most important of which were copper from the mountains in the north and frankincense from Dhofar. Also Oman's position on the Indian Ocean meant that it was able to establish a long-distance maritime trade based on the monsoons of the Indian Ocean. In addition, fishing and dates have remained important components of Oman's economy even after the discovery of oil.
The earliest settled communities in Oman have been dated to 5000 BCE and by 2000 BCE copper was being exported to Mesopotamia. In the fourth century BCE Oman was occupied by the Persians who remained in control of the country until the advent of Islam in 650 CE. Under Islam Oman's trading network flourished and included East Africa, India and the Far East. During this period various coastal towns grew up, the most important of which were Sohar, Qalhat and Dhofar (al-Balid). In 1503 the coastal towns were captured and occupied by the Portuguese. As a result the towns of the interior, the most important of which were Nizwa and Bahla, grew in power and influence. By 1650 the Portuguese had been expelled by the Ya'ariba leader, Sultan bin Sayf, who rebuilt the fort at Nizwa. Internal conflicts allowed a Persian invasion in 1743 but this was brought to an end by Ahmad ibn Sa'id governor of Sohar who was elected imam in 1743. He was the founder of the Al Bu Sa'id dynasty which continues to rule Oman today.
In 1730 Oman had acquired the island of Zanzibar and by the 1830s Sultan Sa'id ibn Sultan had built a new capital in Zanzibar. From 1856 Oman and Zanzibar were ruled by two branches of the same family.
For various reasons Oman was not modernized until the 1970S, which has meant that traditional architecture has survived here better than in most of the other Gulf states. The main building materials employed in Oman are mud brick, baked brick, stone, mangrove poles, palm trees and lime (used for mortar and plaster). The particular combination of materials employed depends on the region and type of building.
Baked brick is used fairly infrequently in Oman and is confined mostly to the port of Sohar. Baked bricks were first used in the early Islamic city and were also used in houses of the nineteenth century although it is not certain if bricks were still made in nineteenth-century Oman or imported from elsewhere. Occasionally baked bricks are found incorporated into buildings outside Sohar such as the arches of the Great Mosque in Bahla or in the columns of the mosque of the Samad quarter in Nizwa. Mud brick on the other hand is more common and is frequently used in the oasis towns of the interior. It is usually used in conjunction with mud mortar and plaster sometimes mixed with lime. Mangrove poles imported from East Africa are frequently used for roofing in the houses of the coast. Palm trunks are also used for roofing there and for inland parts of the country. Palm fronds and trunks are also used for less permanent structures on the coast. Several types of stone are used for building in Oman; amongst the more common types are coral blocks on the north coast, coastal limestone in Dhofar and roughly hewn blocks of igneous rock in the mountains. Lime for use in mortars is either made from burning limestone or coral blocks.
The architecture of Oman can be divided into several types based on the type of building, the materials used and the location. The main groups are houses, mosques, forts and mansions.
Until recently the most common form of architecture on the coast was the palm-frond house which may take several forms from a single-room temporary dwelling used for the date harvest to a large enclosure incorporating winter and summer rooms. The basic unit of construction is a rectangular room measuring approximately 3 by 5.5 m. The walls are made from stems (zur) tied together to form a panel whilst the main form of support are palm trunks placed externally. The winter houses have flat roofs whereas the summer houses have pitched roofs and are called Khaymah (tent). Often houses made of other materials have palm-frond roofs or verandas.
Mud-brick houses are found throughout Oman, although they are most common in oasis towns. They are usually built with very shallow foundations or directly on to the ground, and the first metre or so is often built out of irregular stones to serve as a base for the mud-brick superstructure. Simple mud-brick houses have pitched palm-frond (barristi) roofs whilst the larger houses have flat earth roofs supported by palm trunks or mangrove poles. Some of the larger mud-brick houses are three storeys high. Stone-built houses are common on the coast or in the mountains. One of the simplest forms is a type of coral house found in the Batinah. These are built out of rough lumps of coral rag which are plastered over with mud; the roofs are usually made of palm fronds; locally these are called kerin. In Salalah and the Dhofar coast houses are made out of roughly squared limestone blocks which are laid in courses and interspersed with wooden tie-beams. Usually, however, stone buildings in Oman are made out of rough-hewn stones laid in successive bands approximately half a metre high and covered with a plaster surface, producing walls with layers of overlapping plaster coats.
Mosques are mostly built out of stone or mud brick with flat roofs. Minarets are rare in Oman before the nineteenth century. A fairly common feature in Omani mosques is the combination of mihrab and minbar, where the minbar is entered through an opening in the mihrab (this feature is also found in other parts of the Indian Ocean littoral such as East Africa and Yemen). In the north of Oman mosque roofs are usually supported by arches resting on cylindrical columns, in Dhofar the columns are usually octagonal. Built shrines do not occur in the Ibadi region of the north but are fairly common in the predominantly Sunni region of Dhofar where they usually have pointed domes.
Fortified buildings are one of the most noticeable features of Omani architecture. Most settlements, however small, have some form of fortified structure. There are two main types of fortified building in Oman, the sur or fortified enclosure and the citadel. A sur is a fortified enclosure which is used on a temporary basis during raids or other disturbances, consequently the design of such enclosures is fairly simple and consists of a roughly square enclosure which may or may not have a tower. On the other hand the citadels or forts of the main towns are fairly sophisticated structures designed for use with artillery. The most famous forts in Oman are at Nizwa, Ibra, Izki, Mudhairib and al-Rustaq. These buildings were influenced by the Portuguese forts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, although they also included local developments such as the use of two diagonally opposed towers linked by thick curtain walls.
One of the consequences of Oman's vast trading links was the growth of a wealthy mercantile class who were able to build mansions. Some of these are located within coastal cities such as Sur or Muscat, whilst others are rural dwellings set in their own grounds such as Bayt Na'man on the Batinah plain. Common features found in mansions and in more important houses include elaborately carved doorways, pre-cast stucco mouldings around doorways and recesses, and painted wooden ceilings. Such buildings often have a private prayer room, a light well (shamsiya) and ventilation slits above the windows.