Introducing Sultan in Oman – Sara Wheeler Shares This Month’s Hay Festival Book Club Pick.

Why It Matters

The book illuminates how mid-20th-century British influence and local power plays shaped state formation and oil-era geopolitics in Oman, offering historical context for contemporary Middle East developments. Understanding this episode helps explain present regional alignments and governance legacies.

Summary

Sultan in Oman recounts a six-week 1954–55 expedition led by the Sultan of Muscat and Oman into the interior to reassert control over independent imams and consolidate sovereignty. Journalist Wilfred (or Morris?) accompanied the Sultan in American trucks, filing censored dispatches while the British Foreign Office closely monitored and influenced the mission. The expedition culminated in a ceremonial meeting at Nizwa, where local leaders both paid obeisance and asserted their own agendas, exposing the complex power dynamics. Sara Wheeler frames the journey as revealing the colonial and early-oil-era roots of modern Gulf politics.