221x142mm, Hardback
ISBN: 978-1-908531-73-5 Price: £25.00 Available: December 2022 |
Dhofar’s Nomads
How Oman’s Renaissance changed a Way of Life Forever Gisela Vogler & Musallem Hassan Al Mahri An exploration of the way of life of the Nomads of Dhofar and the changes since Oman's Renaissance.
Dhofar’s Nomads bridges two images of Oman: the one passed to us through the renowned travelogues of Wilfrid Thesiger and his fêted fellow explorers of the Arabian Peninsula in the 20th century, and the less familair version of the same story as expressed by the Omani population who lived through this period. This other side of the coin is locked in an oral tradition that has not yet found sufficient expression in Western descriptions.
This is the account of a nomad boy whose life story mirrors the rapid social and economical changes experienced by almost all of the pastoral people of Oman. Mussallem’s personal account maps the tensions and challenges encountered by the nomadic population of Dhofar as it went through a process of rapid modernisation during the Omani Renaissance. Spell-binding and informative throughout, with surprises and twists for even the most experienced student of Oman’s history, this charming story is essential reading for an understanding of Oman today. |
. Her forAbout the Author
Gisela Vogler-Fiesser is a German art historian and physicist by academic background. Her interest in anthropology and the study of heritage and tradition has resulted in publications ranging from a trilingual rendition of a well-known Gaelic poem Eilean Na h-Oige / Island of Youth in 1985 through to A Harris Way of Life (2002), following the work of Marion Campbell, the Harris Tweed weaver who did so much to preserve the Hebridean craft into the modern age. Gisela has been visiting Salalah, Oman, regularly since 2013. Her forthcoming book, An Arabian Princess from Zanzibar, is is a newly edited translation of this true rare story of life in the royal palace, an account that first burst onto the scene in 1885 causing a sensation and seized upon by rapt audiences across Europe 
About the Author
Mussallem Hassan Al Mahri grew up in a family of pastoral nomads in the Dhofar region of Oman. Aged nine, he and his father left their traditional mountain habitat and moved to the regional capital, Salalah, where he studied at the Sa’idiyah school before being admitted in 1973 to the Sultan Qaboos Boarding School for Boys, a prestigious project to support such migrating families. Mussallem went on to work for the Omani Land Force, and then the Ministry of Defence, while still continuing his education at evening school, going on to study English at the British Council in Salalah and later French at the French Institute. In 2007 Mussallem set up his own business, the Arabian Sand Tours, offering with a team of guides a wide range of guided tours. |
