What you do not know about the Sultanate of Oman, It took control of the Arabian Sea and fought the Portuguese invasion

Despite the Portuguese occupation, which lasted for nearly 140 years, the Sultanate of Oman was not only able to defeat the occupation, but also managed to acquire the Portuguese areas of influence, turning into a major empire whose lands stretched from the coasts of Pakistan to the coasts of East Africa.

On this day two years ago, Sultan Qaboos bin Said, the ninth sultan in the history of Oman and one of the longest-serving rulers of the Middle East since he took power in a bloodless coup in 1970, died, while his cousin Haitham bin Tariq took over as his successor.

The roots of the dominance of the Al-Busaid family, which still rules Oman to this day, go back to the civil war that swept the country in the early eighteenth century, which led to the Persian occupation of Oman in 1737 until the allegiance of Imam Ahmad Al-Busaid, who was the ruler of Sohar, an imam in 1744, who With his political, commercial and military expertise, he succeeded in uniting the banner of the Omanis and expelling the Persians.

Since the late fifteenth century, Oman has become a powerful commercial and maritime empire that competed with both the United Kingdom and Portugal for influence in the waters of the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea along the eastern African coast. Through the regions of the Arabian Sea until Zanzibar.

Portuguese occupation

In the wake of the Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama's voyage around the Cape of Good Hope in 1497, the Portuguese began their plans to control the trade routes in the Indian Ocean.

In order to tighten their control over the waters of the Indian Ocean and the exclusiveness of trade with India, the Portuguese, led by Alfonso de Albuquerque, decided to attack and destroy the Omani fleet, which was managing the trade movement between India and the Persian Gulf, so they began to seize the Yemeni island of Socotra in 1506.

Despite the naval campaigns sent by both the Ottoman Empire and the Mamluk State in Egypt, the Portuguese succeeded in occupying Muscat in 1507, and soon consolidated their control over the entire Omani coast and the Strait of Hormuz, all the way to Goa on the Indian coast.

Ya'ariba and Tahrir

Taking advantage of the popular revolutions against the occupying forces and the preoccupation of Portugal in its naval wars with Holland, England and France, Imam Nasir bin Murshid Al Yarubi, the founder of the Ya’ariba state, began mobilizing the Omanis under his banner and building an army and naval fleet in order to confront the Portuguese occupation.

In the first quarter of the seventeenth century, the Ya’ariba forces were able to expel the Portuguese admiral Ray Frere da Andrada from Khor Fakkan, thus launching the torch of Omani liberation that managed to escape the Portuguese’s grip on Julfar and Dibba in 1633, and then Sohar in 1643.

The fighting of the Omanis continued under the leadership of the new imam Sultan bin Saif, who took power the previous year after the death of his cousin, Imam Nasir bin Murshid, until the liberation of Muscat, the last Portuguese stronghold, in 1650.

After the liberation, the Portuguese tried to restore Oman, but the Omani fleet succeeded in repelling them twice in a row between 1650 and 1652.

Empire in Asia and Africa

After the Portuguese occupation, which lasted nearly 140 years, the Omanis were not satisfied with liberating their country, but also took advantage of the ships they had taken from the Portuguese and began attacking their bases on the Indian and African coasts, in order to dispossess them of them and annex them to their empire.

In the years that followed the occupation, the Omani empire became encompassing lands located between the continents of Asia and Africa, especially after the Omani fleet was able to tighten its control over Mombasa in Kenya in 1661, and then Zanzibar (in present-day Tanzania) in 1696.

The Omani fleet was also able to impose protection on the ports located on the Indian coast, in addition to all the coasts of the Arabian Sea, extending the territory of the Omani Empire from Kawadir in the east (presently southern Pakistan) to Madagascar in the south.

After the civil war that engulfed Oman at the beginning of the eighteenth century and the Persian occupation that followed, Imam Ahmad Al Busaid came to power and was able to defeat the Persians, while his grandson Saeed bin Sultan managed to regain Zanzibar in 1828 and made it the capital of his empire, so his title became Sultan of Oman and Zanzibar. .

However, the Omani Empire was divided after the death of Sultan Said in 1856 into two parts: an Asian who was ruled by Thuwaini bin Said, and an African who was ruled by Majid bin Saeed.

The Omani rule of Zanzibar continued until 1891, after which the British guardianship of Zanzibar was granted, which was granted independence in December 1963, and it became a constitutional monarchy under the rule of Sultan Jamshid bin Abdullah, the last Omani ruler in Zanzibar, who was overthrown a month later during The Zanzibar Revolution, which ended with the union of Zanzibar with Tanzania in April 1964.