ABSTRACT
The reign of Faysal ibn Turki was marked by the Anglo-French conflict and the sultan’s struggle for his country’s independence. Having been forced to abandon the project of annexing Muscat and Matrah, having failed in her project of direct protection contested by France, Great Britain imposed the famous ‘engagement concerning the transfer of territories’ of 1891. Oman was then transformed into an unofficial colony. In 1899, Faysal provided France with a coal depot. Great Britain protested violently and the question resulted in an acute crisis, known as the ‘Muscat crisis’; it was followed by litigation over the question of the French flag being flown by Omani ships in 1905, the whole business being taken to arbitration at the international court in The Hague. But it was also a period of rifts and acute conflicts in the interior; they had been unleashed at the fall of =Azzan’s imama in 1871 and carried on during Faysal’s sultanate until the revolution of 1913-1920.
