Dhofar

Dhofar ( Arabic ظفار Zufār , DMG Ẓufār ) is a governorate ( Arabic محافظة, DMG muḥāfaẓa ) in the south of the Sultanate of Oman with 407,033 inhabitants (estimate July 1, 2017) and an area of ​​99,300 square kilometers. The capital of the governorate is Salalah .

Dhofar Governorate

geography

Dhofar is located in the southwest of the Sultanate of Oman and is one of the nine administrative districts of the country. It borders in the north on the province of Ash-Sharqiyya of Saudi Arabia and in the west on the al-Mahra governorate of Yemen . It borders the al-Wusta region in Oman to the east and the Arabian Sea to the south . Its area covers almost a third of the sultanate. The Churiya-Muriya Islands , about 40 km off the coast in the southeast, also belong to Dhofar.

To the north is the desert Rub al Khali , which comprises the largest part of the administrative district, but rather geographically belong to the inland. The fertile coastal plain around the capital Salala , the coastal mountains and the immediate mountain hinterland are counted as historical frankincense land . The frankincense tree finds its natural habitat in this area . Behind the coastal plain of Salala rises parallel to the coast, the Dhofar Mountains, which drop to the north to the Rub al-Chali. The peaks do not form a chain, but rather a high plateau. The mountains merge into Jeddat al-Harasis in the east and into the Yemeni landscape of Mahra in the west . Overall, the natural area is more similar to that of neighboring Yemen than the rest of the Sultanate. Most of the time, the mountains in Dhofar come close to the coast before breaking steeply into the sea. As a result, the coastal inhabitants have little opportunity to practice agriculture and have therefore mainly switched to fishing. Only the capital region is climatically favored by the Charif . The plain and the seaside slopes of the Dhofar Mountains can thus be used for agriculture.

In the last few years, the Dhofar desert has become a place where meteorites have been found (example: Dho 280 ), some of which have been there for millennia, but were preserved by the drought.

climate

Mountain region around Salala during the monsoons

Climatically, there is a subtropical climate in the coastal region, which is influenced by the Charif . During the monsoon season, the temperature drops and plants sprout from the ground. Then there is a desert climate again. Behind the mountain ranges that run parallel to the coast there is always a desert climate. Dhofar is the only area of ​​the Arabian Peninsula that is affected by the monsoons (mid-August to late September). During this time it is therefore a popular travel destination for Omanis from Muscat, who want to escape the summer heat.

population

Dhofar is closely connected to the neighboring regions to the west, which today belong to Yemen . The connection to the Omani heartland was poor because of the large sand and scree deserts to the east of Dhofar. This explains the great cultural and social differences between Dhofar and the rest of the sultanate. It is believed that the inhabitants immigrated from what is now Ethiopia . This is supported by the fact that their phenotype is more similar to that of the Habesha ("Abyssinians") or Somali than the Arabs of the north. As with the Somali, the Dhofarers' pride and joy is their herd of cattle. They also build round houses out of stone and straw that resemble Somali manyattas . Older men can be seen leaning against a staff while standing on only one leg. The sole of the other foot is leaned against the inside of the leg knee. This stork stand is a typical Somali behavior.

language

Arabic is the predominant language spoken in Dhofar today. In addition, five so-called New South Arabic languages ​​are indigenous: mainly Mehri, furthermore Harsusi, Schehri ( Jibbāli ), Bathari and Hobyót.

religion

In contrast to the prevailing in the rest of Oman Ibadismus , the inhabitants of Dhofar are traditionally Sunni and follow the law school of Shafi'i .

history

Dhofar gained its historical importance as the place of origin of incense , which was very popular for temple service in antiquity and was brought to the Mediterranean region via the incense route . The trade in frankincense was controlled by the ancient South Arabian empire Hadramaut . After the decline of the incense trade and the arrival of Islam , Dhofar belonged to different rulers. Around 1096, the first political entity emerged in Dhofar with the "Zafar" and its capital, Mirbat . At this point in time, Islam had already penetrated Dhofar, where it is still the predominant religion today. From 1265 to 1271 the area was occupied by Persia . In the years 1325 to 1429 (?) And from 1462/63 to 1804 it was ruled by the Kathiri Sultanate in the Hadramaut . In between, Dhofar came under the influence of the Ottoman Empire , which ruled the region until 1636.

In 1829 the ruler of Muscat extended his power to Dhofar for the first time in recent times. The hill tribes of the Kathiri and Qara recognized Omani sovereignty in 1876. In 1879 and in the following years, the Muscat government established more direct control of Dhofar by sending a welsh (governor) to forestall attempts by the Ottoman Empire to incorporate the area into its sphere of influence. The Churiya-Muriya Islands , located off the coast of Dhofar, were transferred to the British Crown by the Sultan in Muscat on July 14, 1854, and returned to Oman by Great Britain on November 30, 1967 after a survey of the population.

Dhofar uprising

Although Sultan Saʿid ibn Taimur had made the main town of Dhofar, Salala, his residence, Dhofar remained a neglected region. In the fifties of the 20th century, many Dhofarers emigrated to neighboring Arab countries and hired themselves there as construction workers, police officers or mercenaries. There the workers came into contact with Marxist ideas. In 1962 a group of Dhofarers who were part of the Nationalist Arab Movement founded the Jabhat at-tahrir az-Zufariyya  /جبهة التحرير الظفارية / 'Dhofar Liberation Front (DFL)'. Under the guise of al-Jamʿiyya al-chairiyya az-Zufariyya  /الجمعية الخيرية الظفارية / 'Dhofar Benevolence Society' they started raising funds and recruiting members. In 1964 the Dhofar wing of the ANM merged with the DFL, whose leader at the time was the tribal leader Musalim ibn Nufil. Under the impression of pan-Arab and Marxist tendencies, the first militant approaches emerged in the DFL. They were now ready to implement the left-wing ideas militarily and to liberate Dhofar from Sultan Said's regime. Sultan Said took action against the insurgents with British help, but was unwilling to invest large amounts of money in the suppression of the insurrection or the development of the area. In April and May 1965, more than 60 DLF activists were arrested in Muscat and Salalah . Thereupon, on June 1, 1965, the first DLF Congress was held in the mountains of Wadi al-Kabir in central Dhofar. An executive committee of 18 was formed. It was also decided to immediately take up the armed struggle and establish a communist regime. On June 9, 1965, the Dhofar uprising began with an attack by the Dhofar Liberation Front (DLF) on a military convoy northwest of Thumrait . The DLF renamed itself in September 1968 to Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman and the Arabian Gulf (Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman and the Arabian Gulf, PFLOAG). The rebels moved further and further east from Yemen, so that by the end of the 1960s only the provincial capital Salala was in fact controlled by the government. On July 23, 1970, Sultan Sa'id was overthrown by his son Qaboos ibn Saʿid .

Sultan Qaboos immediately began modernizing the country, which in Oman is known as the beginning of the "Omani Renaissance". In Dhofar he tried to win the sympathy of the population with a "heart and mind" campaign. In addition to increased military efforts, the living conditions of the population in Dhofar were improved. Health stations were established and schools built. The increasing oil revenues also financed numerous other infrastructure measures, including a. remote mountain villages were connected to the road and power grid. The fighters of the rebels were offered an amnesty , which was connected with a takeover in the state armed forces (and a regular pay ). At the same time, the government gave away televisions and fridges and improved the widespread availability of western goods. This should encourage the population to become more gainfully employed in order to be able to afford the new goods instead of acting as rebels. In 1971, the PFLOAG united with the National Democratic Front Liberation of Oman and Arabian Gulf, which had carried out military operations in inner and northern Oman since June 1970, and increased its military operations. By the end of 1971 at the latest , the communist guerrillas supported by South Yemen controlled large parts of Dhofar. On July 19, 1972, a rebel attack on Mirbat failed. It was the last time in military history that a city was defended from just a fortress . At the same time, the battle for Mirbat was the turning point in the Dhofar uprising, and the government of Sultan Qaboos, with British and Iranian support, gained the upper hand. In December 1972 a coup attempt by the PFLOAG failed. The “heart and mind” campaign also showed initial success. Numerous rebels defected to the government and the PFLOAG was pushed back towards the Yemeni border. In March 1975 a peace agreement was signed which provided for a general amnesty for all former and active PFLOAG fighters. On December 1, 1975, Dalkut, the last settlement held by the rebels, was taken by the Sultan's Armed Forces (SAF) . On December 11, 1975, Sultan Qaboos officially declared the Dhofar uprising to be over, although until 1976 there were isolated smaller firefights with dispersed groups. After the end of the war, disproportionately large investments were made in the region's economic development in order to compensate for the previous disadvantage compared to the rest of Oman.

Proven regents

• Sultans
  • 1462 / 63–1804: Kathiri sultans
  • 1804–1829: Sayyid Muhammad ʿAqil ʿUdschaibi († 1829)
  • 1829-1875: unknown
  • 1875–1879: Sayyid Fadl ibn ʿAlawī ibn Sahl
  • from 1879: Sultans of Muscat and Oman
• General secretaries of the DLF (from 1968: PFLOAG) during the Dhofar uprising
  • June 9, 1965 - 1968: Musalim ibn Nufl
  • September 1, 1968 - 1975: Muhammad Ahmad Saʿid al-Ghassani

Administration and municipalities

→ Main article : List of regions and districts in Oman

Corniche in Salalah

By Royal Decree No. 6/91 of February 3, 1991, the sultanate was divided into eight administrative areas. One of them is the Gouvernement Dhofar , which in turn has consisted of ten Wilayat since 2006 (in alphabetical order):

• al-Mazyuna
• Dalkut
• Mirbat
• Muqschin
• Rachyut
• Sadah
• Salalah
• Salīm and Thallāniyyāt Islands
• Thumrait
• Taqa

Geographical location

Saudi Arabia ( Ash-Sharqiyya Province )	Al-Wusta	Al-Wusta
Saudi Arabia ( Ash-Sharqiyya Province )		Indian Ocean
Saudi Arabia ( Ash-Sharqiyya Province )	Yemen , al-Mahra governorate	Indian Ocean

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Oman: Administrative Division (Governments and Districts) - Population Statistics, Graphics and Map. Retrieved June 18, 2018 . 
2. ↑ For the complete list of regions and districts in Oman see there.
3. ↑ See Franzisky, Peter / Kabasci, Kirstin : Oman, 4th, actual. Ed., Bielefeld: Reise Know-How Verlag, 2005, p. 129.
4. ↑ See Jeapes, Tony : SAS Secret War: Operation Storm in the Middle East, London / Pennsylvania: Grennhill Books / Stakpole Books, 2005 ( ISBN 1-85367-567-9 ), p. 19.
5. ↑ cf. . o V. : The Struggle for Liberation in Oman, in: MERIP Reports, No. 36, (Apr., 1975), pp. 10-16 up 27.

Literature on the Dhofar uprising

Most of the literature on the Dhofar uprising is in English (in alphabetical order):

• Akehurst, John : We won a war: The Campaign in Oman 1965-1975, London: Michael Russell, 1982, ISBN 0-85955-091-5 . (Temporary commander of the Dhofar Brigade stationed there.)
• Jeapes, Tony : SAS Secret War: Operation Storm in the Middle East, London / Pennsylvania: Grennhill Books / Stakpole Books, 2005, ISBN 1-85367-567-9 . (Temporary commander of the British SAS units stationed there.)
• Krech, Hans : Armed conflicts in the south of the Arabian Peninsula. The Dhofar War 1965-75 in the Sultanate of Oman and the Civil War in Yemen 1994, Berlin: Verlag Dr. Köster, 1996, ISBN 3-89574-193-0 .
• Peterson, JE : Oman's Insurgencies - The Sultanate's Struggle for Supremacy, London / San Francisco / Beirut: Saqi, 2007, ISBN 978-0-86356-456-7 .
• The Gulf Committee : Documents of the National Struggle in Oman and the Arabian Gulf, London, 1974. (This book primarily conveys the point of view of the rebels.)
• Rabi, Uzi : The Emergence of States in a Tribal Society - Oman under Said bin Taymur 1932-1970, Brighton / Portland: Sussex Academic Press, 2006, ISBN 1-84519-080-7 .

Web links

• Dhofar travel guide on Wiki Voyage

Coordinates: 18 ° 0 '  N , 54 ° 0'  E