Oman
Background
Oman’s location in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula has determined the country’s history. With some 3000 km of coastline extending along the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, Oman lies at the crossroads of the maritime trade between Iran, India, the Arabian Peninsula and Africa. The sea has always played an important role in everyday life in Oman. Such was the abundance of fish for local consumption that Western travellers visiting the country in earlier centuries noted in amazement that even horses were fed on dried fish here. In this dried form, fish was also much in demand as an export product. The country’s long coastline provided ideal conditions for local and international trade. As a result, the coastal region developed into a cosmopolitan world, with a mixed population including groups of Indian people, Persians and Baluchis (from what is now Pakistan) as well as Omanis. Merchants encountered numerous exotic goods on their travels, from Chinese porcelain and Iranian glazed pottery to Indian fabrics, purchasing them for the Omani market or as transit goods. Contact with other cultures and foreign objects provided a major source of inspiration for Oman's arts and crafts.
The mixture of international styles of architecture and decoration immediately strikes visitors to the Great Mosque in Muscat, which was commissioned by Sultan Qaboos and opened in 2001. The galleries round about the mosque contain niches decorated with Turkish Iznik tulips, flowers from the Indian Mogul repertoire, geometrical shapes from mediaeval Cairo, and the bright red geometrical design that is associated with the Bedouins of the Arabian Peninsula. Other alcoves have lotus flowers inspired by those of the Egypt of the Pharaohs and arches in the style of Byzantine mosaics, which are also found in the seventh-century Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and the Great Mosque in Damascus. This amalgamation of international styles is a modern translation of Oman’s receptivity to external stylistic influences. This eclecticism is palpable in De Nieuwe Kerk’s exhibition Oman, in which archaeological objects as well as jewellery, clothes and Korans made far more recently all recall foreign shapes and other influences. It arose directly from Oman's role as a seafaring nation, which encouraged imports of foreign merchandise and art and led numerous foreign craftsmen to settle here. In addition, the objects reflect a love of ornate decoration of jewels, household implements and weapons, a well-known feature of Islamic arts and crafts. Beautifully designed arabesques, cylindrical motifs, lozenges, zigzag patterns and calligraphy are all part of this Omani pictorial language.
History and religion
Maritime trade is at the heart of Oman's history. As far back as the third millennium BC, Sumerian documents record the presence in Mesopotamia of diorite, timber and dates from Magan, roughly speaking the region now known as Oman. The main export product then was copper, originating from the rich mines in Oman’s eastern mountain range. In the first millennium BC, the region’s revenue came largely from exports of incense from the southern province of Dhofar.
A few years after the rise of Islam in Mecca and Medina in AD 622, Oman too embraced this religion. The Azd tribe led the way, after which other tribes followed. Early on, the Azd embraced the Ibadi school of Islam, which is still one of Oman’s main religions today, along with the Shi’ism and Sunnism. Ibadism flourished most notably in the Iraqi city of Basra. From here, missions called hamalat al-ilm (bearers of knowledge) were despatched around the Arab world to disseminate this faith, culminating in Ibadi imamates in Yemen (AD 746), Oman (AD 749) and North Africa (AD 776). From the ninth century onwards, Ibadism was also propagated in East Africa, probably by Omani sailors. The Ibadi community spread in the coastal region of East Africa most notably in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when Oman was closely linked to large swathes of this region. Although Ibadi communities still exist in Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and the countries of East Africa, Oman is the only country where it is a leading faith, along with the Sunni and Shi-ite schools of Islam.
What makes the Ibadi movement different from Sunni and Shia Islam is the belief that the Koran is not eternal, that it was created by God but should not be seen as coequal with God. Another difference relates to the process of selecting the leader of the Islamic community, as a successor to the Prophet. Ibadis believe that the most devout and most intelligent Muslim should lead the community, regardless of ethnic origin, class or genealogy, while the Sunni choose their leader from the tribe of the prophet Mohammed and the Shia believe that their leader must be a descendant of the prophet.
The political history of Oman after the advent of Islam is characterised by periods of relative tranquillity alternating with times of internal conflict and foreign domination. In AD 749 an Ibadi imamate was founded in the Omani city of Nizwa, which endured, with a few interruptions, for almost four centuries. In this period and afterwards, Oman was invaded and ruled by a succession of foreign powers, including the Buyids from southern Iraq, the Seljuk Turks, and the Muzaffarids from Iran who occupied the coastal plains. From 1154 until the seventeenth century the interior was ruled by the Maliks (literally, ‘kings’) of the Bani Nabhan, interrupted by periods in which authority was in the hands of imams. The year 1624 ushered in the Ya’ariba dynasty of imams. The second imam, Sultan bin Saif, was ultimately responsible for driving the Portuguese out of Oman. Only once more, between 1737 and 1747, was Oman ruled by a foreign power – the Persians. In 1748, Ahmad ibn Said was elected imam. With him begins the Al Bu Said dynasty that still rules the country today. Today, Oman is a sultanate that is ruled by the fourteenth Al Bu Said leader, Sultan Qaboos. It has had a succession of capital cities: Muscat, Sohar, Nizwa, Rustaq and (in the nineteenth century) Zanzibar.
Over the centuries, Arab, Persian and Western travellers have written about their visits to Oman. Their observations, descriptions and comments on matters ranging from everyday customs to life at court provide a fascinating picture of the country’s customs and traditions.
The exhibition
On entering De Nieuwe Kerk, visitors will be struck by the splendour of the decorations and embellishments in the Omani tradition, in colourful garments, weapons and dazzling jewels. Brightly-coloured censers in various shapes combine with the fragrance of frankincense, an intrinsic element of Omani culture, to complete the initial impression. After this plush reception, visitors follow in the footsteps of ancient travellers, exploring five themes, each of which illuminates part of the country’s material history: the earliest settlements (illustrated by objects found in archaeological excavations); Islam in Oman; the importance of navigation and dhows after the advent of Islam; Oman’s ties with Europe; and objects from the court of Sultan Al Bu Said in the nineteenth century.
Entrance to the exhibition
The importance of incense to Omani hospitality was described as far back as 1715 by the British traveller Alexander Hamilton. He writes that after guests were received with coffee and the smoking of a pipe, a censer with myrrh and frankincense was brought in, gradually filling the room with perfume. Censers dating from the third millennium BC illustrate the long tradition of incense in Oman. Aside from domestic consumption, the ‘food of the gods’ was also an important export product in the Hellenic period. The many incense stores in the souk of Mutrah and the presence of censers in homes and other shops reflect the popularity and importance of scents to this day. For instance, a dishdasha (long, loose-fitting robe worn by a man) has a little tassel at the collar to be soaked in perfume. Hamilton also pointed out to the usefulness of wide sleeves: they are held over the censers, so that the wearer's arms, shoulders and neck are all permeated by perfume.
Omanis have always paid close attention to clothing. A striking feature of the fabrics in the exhibition is the bright colours of the women's garments, making a sharp contrast with the beige and white hues of the domestic surroundings, and the richness of woven and embroidered patterns. Other interesting features include regional diversity (coastal region as opposed to the Bedouin areas, for instance) and foreign influences, as reflected in fabrics from East Africa and India that were produced especially for Omani buyers. An indispensable accessory to clothing, of course, is jewellery, which was primarily made of silver until the first half of the twentieth century. Some of the marvellous showpieces exhibited here have strikingly rich surface decorations with geometrical and floral motifs. These motifs, which are specific to Oman, are also applied to a wide range of other materials, from wood, stucco and copper to woollen fabrics. We find them on wooden door panels, in open-work windows and on painted ceilings, on coffee-pots and basins, on penholders and censers. In short, these patterns link numerous different kinds of artistic expression.
Archaeological context
Among the earliest indications of human civilisation and culture in Oman are rock-carvings found in the mountain ranges in the northwest and southeast regions of the country. Most of these images are human and animal figures, chipped and scratched superficially in the stone. The human figures are often broad-shouldered, with cloth tied around their waists and swords and lances in their hands. Also depicted are wild animals (both predators and prey) as well as camels, which were used for transport. Camels and ships reflect Oman's role in international trade.
Aside from these rock-drawings, objects found in excavations also give a picture of local material culture and the trade with neighbouring countries that resulted from the early development of navigation in this region. Delicately worked bowls, vases and spouted basins, decorated with geometrical patterns, illuminate the labour-intensive local technique of hollowing out stone. There is also an abundance of jewellery, made of diverse materials: examples include strings of carnelian beads imported from the valley of the River Indus, frequently combined with shells, symbolising the region's close relationship with the sea. Metal alloys were used for heavy armbands and rings. The shape of the armbands, decorated with grooves, is still found in jewellery originating from the Arab world and India.
Religion
Although Islam was adopted as the state religion shortly after its birth, no Korans dating from the early Islamic period have been preserved. In fact the oldest Koran in the manuscript collection of the Ministry of Heritage dates from the mid-seventeenth century. This raises certain questions: were there no clients to commission Korans before then, and did Oman have no professional group of calligraphers and manuscript illuminators? Research on the subject is still in its infancy, but one thing is clear: of the Korans that been preserved in Oman, very few can be linked to a specific calligrapher or client. And in this handful of cases, the copyist was a relative of the person for whom the book was intended, rather than a professional calligrapher. This is very different from the situation in Cairo or Istanbul, for instance, where rulers approached professional calligraphers from whom they commissioned Korans richly illuminated in gold and cobalt blue, for mosques and mausoleums that were yet to be built. Whether this kind of patronage was absent from the early Islamic and mediaeval Oman is not clear. It is possible that manuscripts were lost, as a result of internal and external conflict or merely because of the high degree of humidity. The few extant Korans from Oman are characterised by highly legible lettering (in the Arabic italic script known as naskh) and the decoration of frontispieces with red, green and blue geometrical and floral patterns.
The early traditional mosques in Oman display a striking simplicity, with their undecorated external walls of beige-coloured clay, a local product, and their frequently small dimensions. This austerity continued in the interior, with massive stuccoed columns supporting the roof and unadorned niches in the wall accommodating Korans. It may have been influenced by the utilitarian architecture of forts, but other possible explanations include budgetary constraints or traditional views enshrined in Ibadism. We do find a certain exuberance, however, in the magnificent mihrabs (prayer niches), many of which are decorated with geometrical and floral patterns in stucco, skilfully applied in deep relief. In some cases little bowls of Iranian or Chinese origin bricked into the walls of mihrabs add a touch of distinction - a tradition reflecting the Omanis’ appreciation of foreign objects, and which was also applied in traditional houses. Although the artists who decorated mihrabs developed a unique Omani style, influences derived from Egypt, Iran and Yemen are also discernible.
Navigation: The dhows of Oman
A few can still be found floating in the harbour of Mutrah, near Muscat: dhows made quite recently in the style of the traditional vessels that once sailed the seas and that symbolise Oman’s past as a seafaring nation. A tenth-century Arab ship is currently being reconstructed, using traditional methods, in a small bay near Muscat. The original ship, which was discovered as a wreck just off the coast of Singapore towards the end of the twentieth century, probably came from Oman. The reconstructed vessel will be sailed to Singapore in 2010 and exhibited there. Looking at it, we are immediately struck by the strands of coconut fibre that were used to fasten the ship's planks together. This procedure started with countless holes being made in the planks, after which two boat-builders, working as a team, would tighten the strands on the outside and inside of the vessel and then fix them with plugs. Not a single nail was used. This absence of nails was constantly remarked upon in the travel literature, for instance by Pliny the Elder, writing as long ago as the first century AD. These sewn-plank boats (marakib khaytiyya) are also recorded in thirteenth-century miniatures from an important Arabic prose text (entitled al-Maqamat, The collections). These illustrations clearly show the stitching with which the strands were drawn through the holes. Twentieth-century Omani manuscripts contain drawings of various types of Omani ships.
Of Oman’s main ports of Muscat, Sur, Qalhat and Sohar, the last of these is currently undergoing vigorous development, in collaboration with the port of Rotterdam. Sohar’s industry was already attracting praise in the tenth century: the geographer al-Muqaddasi called it the gateway to China and the storehouse of goods from the Orient and Iraq. Evidence of trade with these areas is provided by shards of Chinese porcelain and Iranian pottery excavated in Sohar. Shards of this kind continue to wash up on the shores of Sohar today. Unfortunately, however, few intact foreign objects from this period have emerged from excavations in Oman. Many of the country's own exports were simple food items: dates, dried fish, and limes. But Omani horses too were much in demand. In the eighteenth century, coffee became an important export product, symbolised in this exhibition by coffee-pots with beak-shaped spouts. From Africa, Omani seafarers brought slaves, ivory, amber and leopard-skins, which they sold in the Orient.
Mediaeval Oman was also known for its navigators, the most famous of all, perhaps, being Ahmad Ibn Majid. A great sea-captain of legendary fame, who mainly sailed the Arabian Sea and the Red Sea, he wrote a fifteenth-century handbook entitled The Book of Useful Information on the Principles and Rules of Navigation. One later writer from Mecca wrote that Ahmad Ibn Majid had brought the Portuguese to Oman, which dealt a severe blow to the trade conducted by Omani sailors.
Contacts with Europe
When Vasco da Gama became the first European to sail to the East Indies, in 1497, he was guided by a navigator from Oman for the last leg of his journey. Whether this captain was Ahmad Ibn Majid is impossible to establish with certainty, but European writers too have speculated on the possible connection between the two illustrious figures. Portugal’s rapid expansion of its territory, as a great maritime power, had an immediate impact on Oman. The Portuguese occupied major ports such as Muscat, and seized power in commercial cities along the coast of East Africa that were within Oman’s sphere of influence. Their supremacy did not come to an end until the Dutch and British both set out to clip Portugal’s wings. First the British triumphed over their Portuguese rivals, taking Hormuz, an island in the Persian Gulf that was of immense strategic importance to trade. Then the Dutch brought pressure to bear on the Portuguese from their base at Bandar Abbas, seeking to oust them from Muscat. Sea-charts dating from this time, on view at the exhibition, testify to the European powers’ interest in this region, as do ships’ passports and reports written by Dutch sailors and visitors to Oman. In the end, it was the Arabs who drove the Portuguese out of Muscat, in 1650. The first trading relations between the Netherlands and Oman were forged in the latter half of the seventeenth century.
In the eighteenth century, the port of Muscat enjoyed another heyday: it was from here that the annual coffee-fleet sailed to the port of Basra, which was then under Ottoman rule. Muscat also regained its position as the main storehouse and entrepôt for trade with India and the countries on the Gulf and the Red Sea.
Testimony to the former Portuguese presence exists in the form of the forts that they erected along the coast. But Oman had an ancient tradition of its own in building fortifications, not only to defend its ports; local rulers also built strongholds to protect date-palm gardens (dates were a major export product) and the vital water in Oman’s hinterland. Some of these forts are very sparsely decorated and evoke the Spartan conditions in which people must have lived there at times. But others, such as Jabrin Fort, boast gloriously decorated reception rooms, the most striking features of which include their brightly-coloured ceilings, decorated with geometrical, floral and calligraphed motifs, the geometric open-work windows, through which the light is filtered to splendid effect, and the doors carved in deep relief. The decorations combine local styles with Persian, African and Indian influences.
Al Bu Said dynasty: the tastes of the nineteenth-century court
The Al Bu Said dynasty, to which the present sultan Qaboos belongs, dates from 1748, when Ahmad ibn Said was proclaimed imam. Under his leadership, trade with East Africa expanded, and Mombasa, Zanzibar and Kilwa actually came under Omani rule in this period. Said bin Sultan, who ruled from 1804 to 1856, consolidated the sultanate’s power by designating Zanzibar his second capital city (after Muscat). He introduced cloves and rice plantations there, both of which proved highly profitable. Meetings with this sultan are recorded in numerous Western travel journals. Again and again one is struck by the references to the Omanis’ love of objects imported from India and Europe, a preference that permeated to the highest ranks of society. The French diplomat Fontanier described the home of a member of the Omani élite in the first half of the nineteenth century: ‘Truly, the house was furnished like the houses of the British in India, with splendid carpets, tables and chairs, clocks and trinkets. Lamps hung all around.’ To emphasise this love of imported furniture, the exhibition features objects belonging to the nineteenth-century sultan’s family. Also exhibited are items of clothing and jewels belonging to Princess Salma, one of Sultan Said bin Sultan’s daughters, who would later marry a German and settle in Germany under the name of Emily Ruete. Early photographs of her and brothers have been preserved, immortalising them in Omani costume and with Omani jewellery and weapons next to imported pieces of furniture.
