Qaboos bin Said

Qaboos was educated in Suffolk, England. After graduating from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst he served briefly in the British Army, and he returned to Oman in 1966. The Urdu article adds that after his return he spent much of his time studying Islamic law and Omani history. In Salalah he lived under considerable restrictions imposed by his father. ^{1 2}

On 23 July 1970 Qaboos acceded to the throne in a successful coup against his father, carried out with British support, aiming to end the country's isolation and use its oil revenue for modernisation. He declared that the country would no longer be known as Muscat and Oman but as the Sultanate of Oman. The first pressing problem was the Dhofar rebellion (1962–1976), an armed insurgency backed from South Yemen, which the sultanate eventually defeated with help from the Shah of Iran, Jordanian troops, and British special forces and the Royal Air Force. ¹

When Qaboos took power, Oman was poorly developed, severely lacking in infrastructure, healthcare and education, with very few paved roads and a population dependent on subsistence farming and fishing. Using oil revenues he modernised the country: schools and hospitals were built and a modern infrastructure created, living standards rose, slavery was abolished, and Oman's constitution — the Basic Statute — was promulgated in 1996. His foreign policy kept Oman neutral and made it a regional intermediary, and he financed places of worship for other faiths in Oman, including Catholic and Protestant churches and Hindu temples. In 2011, protests that began in Sohar demanded salary increases, lower living costs, more jobs and less corruption; his responses included dismissing a third of the governing cabinet, and the sources also report detentions of protest leaders and activists. ¹

The English article states that Qaboos was a Muslim of the Ibadi denomination, the tradition that has historically ruled Oman — recorded here as the article states it; the museum's data record sets out the attestation in full and explains why the school is not classified there. He was an avid fan and promoter of classical music: his 120-member orchestra, founded in 1986, consists entirely of young Omanis who audition as children, and the Royal Opera House Muscat was built under his patronage, as was his patronage of the folk musician Salim Rashid Suri. On 22 March 1976 he married his first cousin Sayyida Nawwal bint Tariq, renamed Kamila at the marriage; the marriage ended in divorce in 1979 and produced no children. ^{1 3}

Qaboos suffered poor health in later life and died on 10 January 2020. He had no children and no publicly named heir: he entailed the royal court to reach consensus on a successor, and, as a precaution, hid a letter naming his intended successor in case agreement failed. After his death the royal court named that successor — his cousin Haitham bin Tariq — as sultan. ¹

Following his death, international figures highlighted his role in Oman's development and foreign policy. A joint statement by the heads of the European Council, the European Commission and the EU High Representative said Oman had entered "an unprecedented era of reforms" under his leadership; Queen Elizabeth II said his "devotion to Oman, to its development and to the care of his people was an inspiration" and praised his "commitment to peace and understanding between nations and between faiths"; former US president George W. Bush described him as "a stable force in the Middle East and a strong U.S. ally" who had pursued "a modern, prosperous, and peaceful Oman". These judgements are quoted as reported, not as the museum's verdict. ¹

• The defined source entities cited above, recorded in data/source/.
• Revisions of this article must be dated, and must name the source that changed each fact.