ABSTRACT
The period from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century marks a phase of decline not to say almost total eclipse for Oman and the whole Gulf region. The remarkable strategic and commercial position that had brought success and prosperity to Oman was also a source of weakness when faced with Persian and European ambitions in the age of discoveries and new stakes in international trade. This was more as the imama found itself enfeebled and atrophied at the end of a long process of disintegrating power. Having been powerless since 1154 due to the succession of usurper kings of the Banu Nabhan (al-Nabhani), the imama was only just beginning to recover in a limited part of the country, when the first Portuguese ‘conquistadors’ approached the Gulf region. And in the absence of the imama, no one would then be able to prevent them carving up the country and setting in motion a long period of decline and political and economic stagnation. The period of colonial exploitation of the region had started and for nearly a hundred and fifty years, the Omanis would be obliged to look on helplessly at the colonial manipulations by Europeans in the region.
