German and International Research on Oman 1998
The Ya'ariba Dynasty in Oman, 1624-1744: a Khaldunian Perspective
by Abdulmalik A. al-Hinai [abstract]
Ibn Khaldun, the great Arab scholar of the fourteenth century, and the
author of al-Muqaddimah, developed a theory on the rise and fall of the
state. Although his book describes the history of the states that
emerged in the Maghrib region, he stresses that his theory has equal
relevance to the Arabs, the Berbers, the Turks, and the Kurds.
The main theme of the Khaldunian theory is the asabiya, which simply
means the social solidarity among specific group of people. It argues
that while the strength of the asabiya is the driving force behind the
rise of the state, its weakness could bring the state to its downfall.
The theory also asserts that all states develop through five stages
before they enter into senility leaving them vulnerable to conquest by
another asabiya.
This paper is an attempt to give a Khaldunian interpretation to the
Ya'ariba dynasty that emerged in Oman in 1624, and became an extended
and prosperous empire. Like all states described by Ibn Khaldun, the
driving force behind the rise of the Ya'ariba dynasty was the asabiya,
but in its religious form. It also passed through five stages before its
final collapse in the mid-1740s. The first stage, which started with the
election of the first Ya'arubi Imam, has many of the features described
in the al-Muqaddima for the stage of zafar (success), and lasted until
the mid-1650s shortly after the expulsion of the Portuguese from the
Omani coast. At that period of history, the Ya'ariba dynasty started the
second stage, which ibn Khaldun terms as the istibdad (complete
control), and it lasted until the early 1680s. During this stage the
dynasty established several institutions, that helped her to expand
outside the Omani territories. When the Omanis started to enjoy the
benefits of that expansion, the Ya'ariba dynasty entered the third stage
known as the feragh wa de'ah (leisure and tranquillity), which ended at
the beginning of the first decade of the eighteenth century. Towards the
middle of the decade, the dynasty began to experience the beginning of
the decline of the asabiya, and it entered the qunoo wa musalama
(contentment and peacefulness) stage. By then the dynasty drifted into
the final stage, which is the israf wa tabthir (waste and squander).
Having reached that stage, the asabiya among the Ya'ariba was at its
lowest level, and a civil war raged the country for more than twenty
years. By then the Ya'ariba dynasty has come to senility, where the
country became under foreign invasion, and the dynasty finally collapsed
to be replaced by a new asabiya by the end of the 1740s.
Index of Papers presented at the Oman Conference 1998
Oman Conference 1998 - Main Page
Oman Studies Centre - Main Page
Last updated on 20 May 1998.