An Arabian Utopia The Western Discovery of Oman

by Hamilton, Alastair

• ISBN13: 9780199581603
• ISBN10: 0199581606
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-07-29
• Publisher: The Arcadian Library

Summary

Even though Oman had always been familiar to travellers sailing between Europe and India or Persia, it was its coast alone that was known. Greeks and Romans had charted it, medieval merchants traded on it, and in the early sixteenth century the Portuguese

Author Biography

Alastair Hamilton, Former Louise C. Thijssen Schoute Professor of the History of Ideas at Leiden University, is currently the Arcadian Visiting Professor at the School of Advanced Study, London University, attached to the Warburg Institute. He has worked for many years, and published extensively, on relations between Europe and the Arab world. His more recent works include The Copts and the West 1439-1822 (2006) and (with Francis Richard) Andr+¬ Du Ryer and Oriental Studies in Seventeenth-Century France (2004).

Table of Contents

Introduction
Chapter 1 The Land of Heat, Perfumes and Sailors from Antiquity to the Renaissance
Chapter 2 The 'Good Towns' of the Coast: The Portuguese Occupation of Oman
Chapter 3 The New Era: Independence and Foreign Wooers
Chapter 4 An Arabian Utopia: Enlightened Impressions
Chapter 5 The Growing Friendship: the British and Oman
Chapter 6 'The Wealthiest and Most Popular Prince throughout Arabia'. Sa'id, the Sultan of Muscat
Chapter 7 Imperialism and Humanitarianism: the Attraction of Zanzibar
Chapter 8 The Palinurus Period: the Exploration of the Omani Coast and Interior
Chapter 9 The Unpenetrated Country: Exotic Muscat and its Inaccessible Hinterland
Chapter 10 The 'Dearth of Information' Remedied
Chapter 11 Muscat in Decline
Chapter 12 Arcadia in the South. The Exploration of Dhofar
Conclusion
Introduction
1. The Land of Heat, Perfumes and Sailors: from Antiquity to the Renaissance'
2. The 'Good Towns' of the Coast: The Portuguese Occupation of Oman
3. The New Era: Independence and Foreign Wooers
4. An Arabian Utopia: Enlightened Impressions
5. The Growing Friendship: the British and Oman
6. 'The Wealthiest and Most Popular Prince throughout Arabia'. Sa'id, the Sultan of Muscat
7. Imperialism and Humanitarianism: the Attraction of Zanzibar
8. The Palinurus Period: the Exploration of the Omani Coast and Interior
9. The Unpenetrated Country: Exotic Muscat and its Inaccessible Hinterland
10. The 'Dearth of Information' Remedied
11. Muscat in Decline
12. Arcadia in the South. The Exploration of Dhofar
Conclusion