BEFORE OIL23Oman fell into decline toward the end of the 1800s as the British crack-
down on the slave trade deprived it of revenue and surging British-
Indian trade sapped Oman’s fleet. Muscat lost Zanzibar and its African
possessions to Britain and other European powers by 1900, amid a cen-
tury of domination by the British.^22 Oman managed to hold onto one
overseas colony, the Baluchi port of Gwadar, until 1958, when it sold the
enclave to newly independent Pakistan.
Starting in the 1930s, Sultan Said bin Taimur— the father of the cur-
rent ruler— colluded with the British to hold Omanis in stark isolation
and severe underdevelopment. Said understood that his absolute rule was
easier to defend if his subjects remained uneducated and impoverished.
This state of affairs continued until 1970, when Said’s only son, Qaboos,
overthrew him and seized power. In 1971, Oman reemerged as an inde-
pendent country and reopened itself to the world— becoming the last of
the Gulf monarchies to modernize.
Oman remains the most absolute of the monarchies and one of the
more potentially volatile. It persists as the poorest of the six (see fig-
ure 1.3) and is still governed by Qaboos, who— after more than four
decades in power— has neither publicly named an heir nor institution-
alized his family’s role in governance. Oman’s fast- growing and young
population lacks the plentiful resource base that provides for its richer
neighbors. Omani oil and gas fields are small, geologically complex, and
scattered far from export terminals. Oman is not a member of OPEC,
and, although it is a member of the GCC, it balances its somewhat cool
relationship with Saudi Arabia with cordial ties to Iran.
BAHRAINThe hulking stone fort on Bahrain’s northern coast provides a taste of
the island kingdom’s long, multicultural history. Now known as the
Qal’at al- Bahrain, the enormous pile of stones was erected by the Por-
tuguese and added onto by the Persians. But the stronghold sits atop
layers of previous buildings dating to 2300 BC that provide evidence
of prior waves of migrants, including Greeks and Babylonians. Even