Abstract
This chapter looks at how the modern state of Oman relates to the Christian Church today and looks at the particular mechanisms in play, especially the Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs. It also looks at the influence of the Sultan and the personal interplay between the monarch and the church.
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Notes
- 1.
Private letter from Sultan Qaboos sent to the Chief Administrator of the American Mission in Muscat dated 15 August 1970. A copy of this letter from the document collection of this researcher.
- 2.
Ibid., p. 2.
- 3.
B.R. Pridham, a former soldier and British Foreign Office diplomat turned academic, records the following: ‘Although the general charge against Sultan Sa’id is that medical services barely existed until 1970, there have been varying estimates of the scale of deprivation. We have statements that there were only two hospitals in the country, that there was only one, and that there was none at all run by the Ministry of Health. Estimates of health centres similarly ranged from nil upwards, Hospital beds were thought to be as few as 12, even though that figure seems excessive from a source which believes there were no hospitals or health centres. It is also maintained that there was no preventative medicine or public health facilities.
The reality was rather different. Only one post-1970 official publication out of many came closer to the truth by recording that in 1970 there were five hospitals, 39 clinics and dispensaries, 276 beds, 33 doctors and ancillary health workers. American missionaries of the Dutch Reformed Church opened their first hospital in Oman 1892 and continuously maintained one after 1907. By 1954 their hospital in Muttrah had 150 beds and their women’s hospital in Muscat 75 beds. There were in addition, the British Consulate Hospital in Muscat with 12 beds (a charitable foundation providing treatment to all), the hospital of the Evangelical Mission in Buraimi, two military hospitals and the oil company hospital with 20 beds’ (found in Netton, I.R. (1986) Arabia and the Gulf: From Traditional Society to Modern States. London: Croom Helm, 1986, p. 140).
- 4.
Bosch, D. (1989) Seashells of Southern Arabia. Dubai: Motivate Publishing. Also Bosch, D. (1982). Seashells of Oman . London: Longman Group.
- 5.
Historical documents in the Church archives contain the land deeds and a series of letters between the church leaders and the Sultan’s court—but there is no copy of a royal decree.
- 6.
Valeri, M. (2017). Oman : Politics and Society in the Qaboos State. London: Hurst & Company, p. 3.
- 7.
Herb , M. (1999). All in the Family: Absolutism, Revolution, and Democracy in the Middle Eastern Monarchies. New York: State University of New York Press, p. 145.
- 8.
Interview with DH 2014.
- 9.
Ibid.
- 10.
Interview with PK 2014.
- 11.
Phillips, W. (1971) Unknown Oman . Beirut: Librairie Du Liban.
- 12.
Beasant, J. (2013). Oman : The True Life Drama and Intrigue of an Arab State. Edinburgh & London: Mainstream Publishing. Page 172.
- 13.
Interview with BPH 2017.
- 14.
Limbert , M. (2010). In the Time of Oil: Piety, Memory and Social Life in an Oman Town. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Pages 173–174.
- 15.
Taken from Walsh, P.N. (Ed.) (2013). Right to Freedom of Religion or Belief in Muslim Majority Countries. A Comparative Analysis. New York: Nova. Pages unnumbered.
- 16.
Limbert , M. (2010). In the Time of Oil: Piety, Memory and Social Life in an Oman Town. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Page 41.
- 17.
Jones, J. & Ridout, N. (2012). Oman , Culture and Diplomacy. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Page 56.
- 18.
Interview with DL 2014.
- 19.
Interview with DH 2014.
- 20.
Interview with JM 2017.
- 21.
It is worth noting that the Omanis who did speak with me on this topic were reluctant to have their identities revealed in any shape or form. This reluctance was dressed in the concern that ‘their answers maybe incorrect’ as opposed to a sense of possible state oppression.
- 22.
https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/world-watch-list/oman/ Accessed 28/04/2019.
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Thompson, A.D. (2019). State Governance of the Church. In: Christianity in Oman. Christianities of the World. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30398-3_8
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