Re-reading the Role of Oman Within Its International Trade Relations: From the Sixteenth Through to the Nineteenth Centuries

Land and maritime realities before and after the European empires from the sixteenth century onwards have been crucial issues throughout the history of the Indian Ocean. The history of Omani international trade relations has been closely connected to the maritime routes across the Indian Ocean. Within this framework, the gradual emergence of new Omani dynasties resulted from the polarizations that followed the struggles against the Portuguese presence in the Persian/Arab Gulf and in the Indian Ocean during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This gave rise to gradual and discontinuous processes of unification among the Omani groups, traditionally divided and in conflict with each other, which came to the fore in the progressive affirmation of what we could define as the international power of the Omani Arabs in the Persian/Arab Gulf and in the Indian Ocean. This paper attempts to answer the following question: are we so sure that Oman was part of a global unity that long preceded the economic unification of the world from the sixteenth century and the more recent processes of globalisation?