Word: muscat
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Under the despotic reign of his father, Sultan Said bin Taimur, Muscat and Oman* as the country was known before Qabus shortened the name-was not far removed from the 15th century. Fearful that social and economic development would corrupt traditional Islamic values, Said turned his land, perched on the southeastern hump of Arabia near the gates of the Persian Gulf, into a 112,000-sq.-mi. jail...
...Muscat and Oman had only six miles of paved roadway, and the Sultan's red 1955 Chrysler Imperial rusted in the palace courtyard for lack of any place to go. Music and dancing were forbidden and women were compelled to wear mid-calf skirts despite summer temperatures of 130° F. Electricity and running water were unknown to most people. The xenophobic Said permitted few foreigners in and fewer Omanis out, but an estimated 200,000 subjects managed to flee during the past ten years. Cannons sounded curfew after sundown. With only three schools in the entire sultanate...
Double Sessions. As the 14th Sultan in the Al Bu Said dynasty, Qabus is dedicated to a crash program in modernization, using $98 million in annual oil revenues from fields at Fahud to finance it. Qabus has approved contracts for 242 more miles of paved road, begun deepening Muscat harbor and building docks to handle large ships. An 18-room hotel is going up to house visiting businessmen in Muscat. Radio stations have been opened in Muscat and Salala. A weekly newspaper will soon be published, but it will be printed in Beirut for the time being because there...
From Algiers to Aden, Marrakech to Muscat, Nasser's death united Arabs in grief. Everywhere the plaintive cry went up: "Why do you leave us alone, Gamal?" From loudspeakers atop minarets in a thousand towns and cities wafted the reedy, lugubrious voices of muezzins chanting verses from the Koran...
...first visit to Muscat town in many years, Qabus ordered the release of 19 political prisoners. He offered full amnesty to the Dhofari rebels in the southwest who had opposed his father's regime; one group responded by congratulating him on his accession. He still faces opposition from Dhofari extremists, backed by the South Yemeni government in Aden and half a dozen Chinese advisers, but the rebel pressure will be sharply reduced. Even if Britain withdraws its 300 R.A.F. regulars by the end of 1971, as presently planned, Qabus appears capable of rallying enough support from his subjects...