Cultivating the Past, Living the Modern: The Politics of Time in the Sultanate of Oman

Abstract

Amal Sachedina has written an essential book on heritage processes in Oman. Oman’s deep and complex history has resulted in its omission from many of the scholarly debates that have emerged since the 2010s, at which point the Gulf states began their conspicuous investment in high-profile heritage projects. Sachedina’s successful inclusion of Oman into these heritage discussions allows Oman’s distinct identity and specific religious and political history to emerge with great clarity. Indeed, the strength of this book lies in the author’s deep immersion in Omani traditions and culture. Sachedina uses the integration of culture and traditions as a frame to interrogate the function and significance of the state heritage project that has taken place over the last fifty years.Sachedina is an Arabic-speaking anthropologist, allowing for a depth of access to her subject of study that is lacking in some recent publications on Gulf heritage. On occasion, these studies replicate the experience of some Western expatriate residents in the Gulf who experience a limited integration with the national population and the countries’ culture and history. In such circumstances, often all that is understood of the heritage projects in process is an interpretation of the output, rather than a deeper interrogation of the historical and political processes that lie behind the—often spectacular—physical manifestation: the museums, heritage festivals, and events. This output is frequently interpreted within a Western heritage framework, as if the production of museums in the Arabian Gulf were a natural next step of the museum development process in Europe.I include myself in the ability to provide only a partial analysis in my own work, aware that in my five-year study of museums in the Gulf my perspective could not be deeper than that of an interested observer—a resident in Qatar and well-traveled in the region, but always an outsider.1 More extreme in this direction are works produced by scholars predominantly based elsewhere who visit for short periods of time and capture a zeitgeist that may, however accurate in the moment, lack depth—a popular example would be miriam cooke’s Tribal Modern: Branding New Nations in the Arab Gulf (2014).I prefer to compare Sachedina’s analytical approach to that of Alexandre Kazerouni’s study of museums in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.2 Kazerouni, a politi-cal scientist, situates the selection of heritage projects and narratives within a deep study of domestic and regional politics and the role of Islam, including tribal and family hierarchies, alliances within and between the Gulf countries, and relationships with Iran and the West. This deeply contextual analysis serves to illuminate state choices that might otherwise seem arbitrary or driven by attention-seeking directed at the West.Sachedina notes her positionality early in the book: “my being Pakistani and Muslim greatly facilitated the community’s acceptance of my long-term residence and the ease with which I was enfolded into the daily activities of my host family” (11). Her study focuses on two communities: the old Arab scholarly and mercantile families of the city of Nizwa and the al-Lawati community, Khoja and Shiʿa trading families of Sind origin based in Muscat. Through her immersion in the communities, Sachedina is not only able to explore a community’s day-to-day engagement with heritage and concepts of history and contrast these to the state heritage project but also to reconstruct elements of Oman’s complex past that still circulate and shape contemporary ethical and social behavior. A prominent example is the case of the Ibadi imamate (1913–58), which, as she argues, has been largely excluded from the approved state narratives: “The construction of the heritage project in modern Oman has thus also necessitated the reconfiguration of the public domains of history and Islam as seemingly autonomous, erasing any awareness of the sociopolitical and ethical relationships that once characterized Ibadi Islamic rule (1913–1958)” (9).The book is structured into seven core chapters. The first two essential chapters present in detail the political and cultural history of Oman and the role of the Ibadi imamate, providing the reader with the necessary context for the subsequent chapters. It is these two chapters that really set the book apart, filling out the often-missing historical and cultural background and localized frames of reference—the ethics, values, traditions, modes of knowledge transmission, and material culture of the Ibadi Imamate in the first half of the twentieth century. These chapters allow an informed reading of the following chapters that present the selective presentation of history in Oman’s museums; the roots and challenges of an ethical construction of history; two chapters on the particular history of the city of Nizwa, how it informs social life today, and how it contrasts with the state heritage project; and the role of slavery in society, hierarchy, and memory. The final chapter focuses on the al-Lawati community as a non-Arab, non-Muslim community and the challenges this creates for an integrated national narrative focused on cultural and ethnic unity.In chapter 3, “Museum Effects,” Sachedina compares Oman’s museum presentation to that of its neighbors. The author closely situates her study within the existing scholarly Gulf heritage discourse, which has focused extensively on these new museum projects. She argues that Oman’s museum projects can be compared to that of the neighboring countries as central to nation building but that any analysis must go beyond this superficial comparison:Sachedina identifies the shared characteristics of museums as tools to create a progressive and unified citizenry, which include the need to inspire contemporary youth with the hard work of previous generations and the omission of key narratives such as the social and ethical particularities and political influence of the twentieth century Ibadi imamate. Sachedina writes:Similarly, Qatari tribal histories have been largely occluded in the national museums of Qatar, denuding the nonruling families of recognition and power in the public domain. One difference in the museological narrative’s emphasis and structuring of the past can be found in the presentation of the discovery of oil—celebrated in Qatar and the UAE as signifying the effectiveness of the ruling families and entry into modernity yet barely mentioned in Oman due to the link between oil, the Al Said, and the British, a political history many prefer to ignore. Sachedina argues that unlike the neighboring ruling families, who are legitimized in their national museums through links to the ancient past and presented as responsible for the present-day wealth, “the Al Said dynasty is recognized but continues to be conceived as a niche in a much longer and richer history that defines Oman” (106). The “Oman through the Ages Museum” in Nizwa, conceived during his lifetime to celebrate the reign of Sultan Qaboos (r. 1970–2020) and the nahda, or renaissance, may have been intended to adjust this perception and present Sultan Qaboos as much more central to Oman’s rich history (the museum is not yet open).Aside from the museum narratives, there are other processes that Sachedina documents that do reflect similar processes at work in the wider region, such as the growing emphasis on Arab purity rather than acceptance of diversity (176); the attempts to manage the slavery heritage at a societal level to encourage equality (186); the challenges of managing tribal hierarchies within the nation (194, 196); or the relocation of Omani families from city centers to the suburbs and subsequent habitation of these spaces by migrant workers, creating a narrative of locales of impurity and danger (166).As noted at the start, the strength of this book lies in Sachedina’s deep immersion in Oman’s lived reality and history that has created this present moment. Throughout the discussion, Sachedina returns to Ibadism and its role in informing social life at an ethical level as well as its political significance. She speaks to a huge range of interlocutors from diverse social, ethnic, and educational backgrounds in locations that speak to social structures and processes no longer recognized in the official heritage narrative and approved civic identity—the old majales and mosque libraries, for example. As with any good anthropological writing, the place, the people, and the moment are effectively conjured. There is an evident nostalgia in many of the conversations captured—a nostalgia for a recent past that maintained values perceived to be under threat in contemporary modernity—and a warning from the author: in the latter half of the book, the discussion turns to the romanticization and capitalization of heritage—the creation of a “Western fantastical utopia” (164). The author notes that this process is welcomed by many Omanis as a means of rehabilitating Nizwa as a place of sociocultural significance and a source of learning for young people—despite the heritagization project failing to reference key historical events such as the colonial history and associated violence. As Sachedina notes, such a sanitized heritage environment dovetails precisely with the depoliticized national narrative; in such a process, entire histories can be lost.