Traditions in Transition: The Meanings and Values of Vocal Heritage in Contemporary Omani Culture

Abstract

By virtue of its geographical location on the Arabian Peninsula, the Sultanate of Oman has lain at the intersection of networks of trade and exchange between Asia, eastern Africa and Europe since antiquity.This has given Oman a rich archeological and architectural heritage. However, what is less well appreciated beyond the Gulf Region is that the flows of people and ideas in which Oman has been engulfed for over two millennia have also produced an equally rich heritage of folksong and dance. This thesis is the first scholarly study of Omani vocal heritage. After tracing the origins and most significant aspects of the history of Omani singing and associated performative traditions, the thesis considers the part that this vocal heritage has played in Oman‘s emergence as an economically modern and politically stable nation. The foundations for Oman‘s robust economic development over the past five decades were created in the early 1970s by His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said. It has been the goal of His Majesty to ensure that modernization and the adoption of western technologies and ideas occur without diminishing social cohesion or any loss of cultural identity. In this respect Oman stands out amongst emerging nations in that the preservation of cultural heritage has been recognized as a high priority. Indeed, since the mid-1990s Oman arguably has had the most well-developed policy framework and legislation for the preservation of cultural heritage preservation in the Arab world.