iii. Social structure. ʿUmān is overwhelmingly an Arab, Muslim society, and tribal organisation remains an important element in national identity. The country’s rapid development since 1970 has introduced a measure of physical and social mobility, as well as creating an influx of emigrants. The migration of Arab tribes into ʿUmān predates Islam, with Kahtānī or South Arabian tribes moving ¶ along the southern Arabian Peninsula from Yemen into ʿUman around the 2nd century A.D. They were followed several centuries later by ʿAdnānī or North Arabian tribes …

, conventionally Oman, a sultanate situated in the south-eastern corner of the Arabian Peninsula, with a second area, separated from the first by parts of the United Arab Emirates, at the tip of the Musandam peninsula. The country, with a population of some 2,000,000 inhabitants, occupies some 312,000 km2 in all, and has a coastline along the Gulf of Oman and the Indian Ocean of about 1,700 km/1,060 miles in length. The head of state is Sultan Ḳābūs b. Saʿīd, the fourteenth ruler of the Āl Bū Saʿīd dynasty [ q.v.]. The country is divided ethnically and culturally into two: the Ibāḍī …

[see hinā ; ʿumān ],

[see al-imārāt al-ʿarabiyya al-muttaḥida , [see in Suppl.; ʿumān ].

, “the rearwards region”, conventionally Dhahirah, the name given to the interior, landwards part of ʿUmān, that lying behind the D̲j̲abal Ak̲h̲ḍar range and merging into the desert fringes of the Empty Quarter [see al-rubʿ al-k̲h̲ālī ]. The term al-Ẓāhira contrasts with that of al-Bāṭina, the coastlands of ʿUmān. The religious and political history of this “inner ʿUmān”, and its social and cultural development, with local Ibāḍī elements mingled with Sunnīs, have frequently diverged from that of the Sultanate…

, Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh b. Muḥammad b. Baraka al-ʿUmānī , Ibāḍī author born in the village of Bahlā in ʿUmān. The exact dates of his life are unknown. However, an Ibāḍī writer of ʿUmān, Ibn Mudād, regards him as a disciple and supporter of the imām Saʿd b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Maḥbūb, who was killed in 328/939-40. He himself played a considerable part in political life in ʿUmān and wrote several historical and juridical works, of which only the following survive: (1) K. al-Ḏj̲āmiʿ . dealing with the principles of law; (2) K. al-Muwāzana , on the state of ʿUmān in the time of ¶ the imām al-Ṣalt b. Mālik; i…

, a tribe which has played an important role in the history of the Ibāḍiyya [ q.v.] in ʿUmān. Descendants of Yaḥmad, a branch of al-Azd [ q.v.], members of the tribe migrated to ʿUmān in pre-Islamic times and established themselves in a valley which came to bear their name. Wādī Banī K̲h̲arūṣ runs down from the heights of the western mountain range of al-Ḥad̲j̲ar to join Wādī al-Farʿ before debouching on the plain of al-Bāṭina and then ¶ into the Gulf of ʿUmān. On the right bank not far below the juncture of the two valleys is the famous Ibāḍī stronghold of al-Rustāḳ [ q.v.]. Yaḥmad provided most of…

was the chief of the Ibāḍī Azd in ʿUmān. During the caliphate of the Umayyad Marwān II al-D̲j̲ulandā supported the claims of ʿAbd Allāh b. Yaḥyā, known as Ṭālib al-Ḥaḳḳ, who was defeated and killed in 129/747. When the ʿAbbāsids came to power the Ibāḍīs tried to assert their independence in ʿUmān and elected al-D̲j̲ulandā as their first imām, but in the year 134/752 al-Saffāḥ sent an expedition under K̲h̲āzim b. K̲h̲uzavma al-Tamīmī against the K̲h̲ārid̲j̲īs in the ʿUmān region. He first drove the Sufrīs out of Ḏj̲azīrat Ibn Kāwān (Ḳis̲h̲m [ q.v.]); they took refuge in ʿUmān where they…

al-ʿUmānī , commonly called Ibn Baraka , Ibāḍite author from the township of Bahlā in ʿUmān. The precise dates of his life are not known, but an ʿUmānī Ibāḍite writer, Ibn Mudād, regards him as a disciple and partisan of the imām Saʿīd b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Maḥbūb, killed in 328/939-40. He himself played a considerable part in the political life of ʿUmān and composed several historical and juridical works, of which only the following are extant: 1. al-Ḏj̲āmiʿ , on the principles of law; 2. al-Muwāzana , on the condition of ʿUmān at the time of the imam al-Ṣalt b. …

, Banū ( Hināwī ), a settled tribe of inner ʿUmān, southeastern Arabia, in earlier times of considerable political and military importance and, since S̲h̲aʿbān 1373/May 1954, again prominent by one of its members, G̲h̲ālib b. ʿAlī b. Hilāl, becoming an Ibāḍī Imām of ʿUmān. Banū Hinā (mostly Ibāḍīs) were one of the two leading factions in the civil warfare of the early 12th/18th century in ʿUmān. Led by K̲h̲alaf b. Mubārak (known as al-Ḳuṣayyir, “the Short”) they and their allie…

, d̲j̲abal , also known by the Persian name Kīs̲h̲, one of the most important of the commercially-relevant islands in the Persian Gulf ( Baḥr ʿUmān ), especially following the ruin of Sīrāf. The island was some four farsak̲h̲s from the coast opposite the port of Huzū, and was four farsak̲h̲s in circumference; it contained a residence of the ruler of ʿUmān, and was characterised by garden areas and splendid constructions. Water was supplied by means of wells, and by rain water which was collected in cisterns. Ḳays was famous for its pearl fisher…

, Abū Bakr Aḥmad b. Sulaymān al-ʿUmānī , Ibāḍī scholar of ʿUmān who lived in the 6th/12th century (he was killed by K̲h̲ardala b. Samāʿa). He was the author of the Kitāb al-Daʿāʾim , a collection of poems on fiḳh of which two editions have been published (one of them in Cairo in 1351). Among his other works there should be mentioned an important Kitāb Silk al-d̲j̲umān fī siyar ahl ʿUmān (T. Lewicki) Bibliography A. de C. Motylinski, Bibliographie du Mzab, in Bulletin de Correspondance Africaine, iii (1885), 19, no. 21 ʿAbd Allāh b. Ḥumayd al-Sālimī, al-Lumʿa al-murḍiyya, printed in a collec…

(a. pl. ruʾūs / arʾus ), “head”, in geography the common word for “cape” (cf. Latin caput → cape), but it is also used with the meaning of “headland, promontory”. The Musandam Peninsula in ʿUmān is sometimes called Raʾs Musandam, while the small territory occupying the northern tip of the Peninsula is called Ruʾūs al-D̲j̲ibāl “the Mountain tops”. Raʾs Tannūra [ q.v.], the terminal of pipelines in eastern Saudi Arabia, derives its name from the tip of a small peninsula, at which the modern port is situated. In the name Raʾs al-K̲h̲ayma [ q.v.] “Tent Point”, the word raʾs …

, a strip of coast on the Persian Gulf. The Arab geographers are not agreed as to its exact extent. While Yāḳūt limits the name to the coast of al-Baḥrayn and ʿUmān, which is also apparent from the mention of al-Ḳaṭīf, al-ʿUḳayr and Ḳaṭar, al-Bakrī says definitely that al-K̲h̲aṭṭ is the whole coast between ʿUmān and al-Baṣra on the one side and Kāẓima and al-S̲h̲iḥr on the other. This difference of opinion is probably the result of the variation in extent of ʿUmān and al-Baḥrayn in the wider sense of these terms in course of time. There are in any case authors who allot al-K̲h̲aṭṭ to eithe…

, banū , also and perhaps originally Riʾām, a tribal grouping in ʿUmān [ q.v.]. The tribe would appear to have originated in the coastal area of southern ʿUmān and in the 4th/10th century al-Hamdānī ( Ṣifa , 52) refers to them as a baṭn of al-Ḳamar, which Ibn Manẓūr’s LA (v, 115) states is a baṭn of Mahra b. Ḥaydān, not the main group of Mahra which remained in southern Arabia. Kaḥḥāla ( Muʿd̲j̲am , ii, 458), relying on the 5th/11th century geographer, al-Bakrī, says Banū Riyām themselves are a baṭn of Mahra b. Ḥaydān b. ʿAmr b. al-Ḥāf, that they live in the coastal area of southern ʿ…

al-ʿUmānī , Ibāḍī historian and lawyer, native of Bahlāʾ in ʿUmān. His exact dates are not known; but he is counted among the Ibāḍī scholars of the second half of the 3rd/9th century. He left valuable literary materials, especially in the field of history, and also took an active part in the political life of his time, being a zealous partisan of the imām al-Ṣalt b. Mālik, deposed in 273/886-7. Among his works, the following are worthy of note: (1) al-Aḥdāt̲h̲ wa ’l-Ṣifāt , devoted to events in ʿUmān at the time of al-Ṣalt b. Mālik, and to the circumstances of his deposition; (2) al-Bayān wa ’l-Bu…

( Ḥabsī ), a tribe, for the most part settled, of al-S̲h̲arḳiyya district in ʿUmān, southeastern Arabia. Al-Ḥubūs belong to the Hināwī ¶ political faction (see hinā , banū ) of ʿUmān, and members of the tribe are adherents of the Ibāḍiyya [ q.v.]. They, together with al-Ḥirt̲h̲ and al-Had̲j̲ariyyūn, formed the tribal block upon which the Imāmate relied in al-S̲h̲arḳīyya until the events of 1377/1957 [see ʿumān ]. Al-Ḥubūs are settled in a group of villages, known collectively as Balādīn al-Ḥubūs, in upper Wādī ʿAndām. Their tribal capital is Muḍaybī, which since …

, Ṣāliḥ b. ʿAlī (1250-1314/1834-96), prominent Ibāḍī leader of the second half of the 19th century and paramount s̲h̲ayk̲h̲ ( tamīma ) of the confederation of tribes of Eastem ʿUmān known as the S̲h̲arḳiyya Hināwīs. This regional grouping began to crystallise under Ḥirt̲h̲ leadership during the civil war that marked the collapse of the Yaʿāriba Imāmate in the first half ¶ of the 18th century and continued to develop as one of the major political groupings around which the loyalties of the tribal moiety divisions within ʿUmān tended to polarise in times o…

, the reigning dynasty of ʿUmān and Zanzibar, of Azdī origin. The founder, Aḥmad b. Saʿīd, became Wālī of Ṣuḥār under the Yaʿrubī Imām of ʿUmān, Sayf b. Sulṭān II. He defended Ṣuḥār successfully against Nādir S̲h̲āh’s general, Muḥammad Taḳī Ḵh̲ān S̲h̲īrāzī, who came to terms. Within a few years, by force, diplomacy and treachery, Aḥmad made himself master of ʿUmān. The S̲h̲āh was preoccupied with a Turkish war and did nothing to retrieve his position. The date of Aḥmad’s formai assumption of the…

(a., pl. Yaʿāriba, sing. Yaʿrubī), a dynasty of ʿUmān [ q.v.] who ruled the country, mostly from al-Rustāḳ but also from D̲j̲abrīn [ q.vv.] and al-Ḥazm, ca. 1024-1164/1615-1749. There are a number of different versions of the date on which the first imām of the dynasty, Nāṣir b. Murs̲h̲id, was given the oath of allegiance: al-Sālimī (ii, 4) suggests it was 1024/1615, whereas Nāṣir’s biographer, ʿAbd Allāh b. K̲h̲alfān b. Ḳayṣar (13), and the author of Kas̲h̲f al-g̲h̲umma , Sirḥān b. Saʿīd b. Sirḥān (Ross, Annals , 46), give 1034/1624. The origins of the dyna…