Trade and Empire in Muscat and Zanzibar
Trade and Empire in Muscat and Zanzibar examines the role of Oman in the Indian Ocean prior to British domination of the region. Omani merchant communities played a crucial part in the development of commercial activity throughout the territories they held in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, especially between Muscat and Zanzibar, using long-established trade networks. They were also largely responsible for the integration of the commerce of the Indian Ocean into the emerging global...
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M. Reda Bhacker looks at the role of Oman in the Indian Ocean prior to British domination of the region. Omani merchant communities played a crucial part in the development of commercial activity throughout the territories they held in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, especially between Muscat and Zanzibar, using long established trade networks. They were also largely responsible for the integration of the commerce of the Indian Ocean into the nascent global capitalist system.The author, himself a member of an important Omani merchant family, looks in detail at the complex relationship between the merchant community and Oman's rulers, first the Ya'ariba and then the Albusaidis. He analyses the tribal and religious dynamics of Omani politics both in Arabia, where he looks especially at the Wahhabi/Saudi threat, and in Oman's sprawling 'empire', with particular reference to Zanzibar where the Omani ruler Sa'id b Sultan had his court from 1840. His aim is to consider all Oman's overseas territories as a single entity, without the usual misleading compartmentalisation of African and Arab history.Dr Bhacker finds that despite their prestige and influence in the region neither the merchant communities nor the government were able to respond to Britain's determined onslaught. Bhacker traces the local and regional factors that allowed Britain to destroy Oman's largely commercial challenge and to emerge by the end of the nineteenth century as the commercially and politically dominant power in the region.
List of Figures, Maps and TablesPrefaceAcknowledgementsConventions and AbbreviationsIntroductionPt. IPrelude to the rise of the Albusaidi Dynasty in East Africa11Oman's links with India and East Africa: historical problems and perspectives32The importance of commerce to the early Albusaidi rulers153The emergence of British policy towards Oman: 1798-1804314British policy towards Oman under the first Wahhabi threat: 1804-1445Pt. IIThe Albusaidi move to Zanzibar: exercise in empire building or survival?655Commercial, political and strategic attractions of East Africa676The suppression of Omani interests in the Gulf and the Albusaidi move to Zanzibar88Pt. IIIThe development of Omani commerce and British reaction1017The re-emergence of British policy towards Oman: post-18331038The 'Omani' and the 'Indian' roles in the nineteenth-century commercial expansion1169Beginnings of the integration of Muscat and Zanzibar into the world economy138Pt. IVInternal and external factors in the subjugation of Oman14910Commercial and political rivalry and British encroachments in East Africa15111The subordination of Muscat's rulers and their associates from India16412Post-1856 succession dispute and British intervention179Conclusion194App. 1 1750 Letter from the Ruler of Anjouan to Ahmad b Said Albusaidi199App. 2 Said b Sultan's 1844 letter to Aberdeen200App. 3 Said b Sultan's will, 1850201Glossary203Notes205Bibliography247Index270
