Oman

This paper provides a broad overview of the current state of archaeogenetic research in Arabia. We summarise recent studies of mitochondrial DNA and lactase persistence allele -13915*G in order to reconstruct the population histories of modern Arabs. These data, in turn, enable us to assess different scenarios for the peopling of the Pen- insula over the course of the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene. The evidence sup- ports the posited existence of Arabian refugia, although it is inconclusive which (e.g. Persian Gulf basin, Yemeni highlands and/or Red Sea basin) was/were responsible for housing ancestral populations during the Last Glacial Maximum. Synthesising genetic and archaeological data sets, we conclude that a substantial portion of the present South Arabian gene pool derives from a deeply rooted population that underwent sig- nificant internal growth within Arabia some 12,000 years ago. At the same time, we interpret the disappearance of Nejd Leptolithic archaeological sites in southern Arabia around 8000 years ago to represent the termination of a significant component of the Pleistocene gene pool.

Portugal in the Sea of Oman - Religion and Politics is an editorial achievement, which is unique in the Arab World. In cooperation with the Ministry of Religious Affairs of Oman, the University of Aachen and the Centro de Estudos Históricos (Universidade Nova de Lisboa), more than one thousand documents, ranging from 1504 to 1697, from the Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo (Lisbon), are published in a trilingual edition (original portuguese, translation into English and Arabic). Thus, invaluable primary sources are now available for scientists all over the world and a new scholarly dialogue about this essential period for the Arabian History can ensue.

During the past 35 years Oman has undergone a rapid socioeconomic and epidemiological transition leading to a steep reduction in child and adult mortality and morbidity due to the decline of various communicable diseases, including vaccine-preventable diseases. Good governance and planning, together with leadership and commitment by the government, has been a critical factor in this reduction. However, with increasing prosperity, lifestyle-related noncommunicable diseases have emerged as new health challenges to the country, with cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and obesity in the lead among other chronic conditions. Appropriate prevention strategies for reducing the burden of noncommunicable diseases are discussed.

Purpose: The objectives of the study were to critically analyze the effectiveness of CIMS in completing the registration / academic advising process at Shinas College of Technology and to critically analyze the effective functions of the CIMS to fulfill the role played by the CIMS. Design/methodology/approach: For this research study, Simple random sampling method in selecting the samples of the survey. 180 samples were collected which include the faculty, students and users of the College Information Management System (CIMS) from Shinas College of Technology (ICT). The collected data underwent analysis using the SPSS and the findings were interpreted. Findings: The study reveals that CIMS is characterized by its multiple functions; is user-friendly and flexible. CIMS has met the expectations of most of the users, despite the presence of a few technical problems requiring improvement.Educational Technology Center (ETC) ensures smooth, secure, safe and fast access. CIMS is subject to...

This is an overview about the cooperation my university had with the ministry of Heritage and culture about the documentation of four vernacular settlements in Oman. This is an award-winning  research that involved a large number of students. A more detailed publication will follow.

The value of human capital has never been so important than today, as we are living in a knowledge era where skills and education become quickly out of date. The education system as a whole has been a subject of continuous evaluation and reinforcement. The role of education and training in enhancing the chances of better quality of life, prosperity and peace is being appreciated worldwide. The secondary level of education in particular plays very critical role in shaping the human capital of a nation. Without compromising the goal of countries’ commitment to provide secondary education on a mass basis available to all, there is a need to redefine the role of secondary education system to align it with the current needs of the economy and society at large. The secondary schools are required to churn out students who can face the changed economic scenario when they enter into; either higher education or explore the possibility of employment in job market. This paper evaluates the challenges faced by the secondary education system. It will also tries to find out the desirable structure, system and methods to impart better learning and generation of knowledge so that the need of the private sectors can be fulfilled. The present paper proposes a model based on McKinsey’s 7 S to be adopted for enhancing the effectiveness of the secondary school program. It identifies the role played by different stakeholders in identifying the knowledge and skill gap. It proposes the evaluation of the existing structure of the secondary schools and prescribes the reinforcement of certain areas for desirable outcomes. It also talks about the sharing of information, pedagogy and experiences between parties to improve the quality and relevance of the secondary education.

Buraimi is an oasis in south-eastern Arabia. In the early 20th century it shot to notoriety as oil brought the world’s attention to this corner of the Arabian Peninsula. In this exciting account of the conflict, Michael Quentin Morton tells the story of how the overwhelming power of oil and the conflicting interests of the declining British Empire and the United States all came to a head, shaping the future of the Gulf States.

With colourful additions from first-hand accounts, Morton brings a range of historical figures to life, from the American oilmen arriving in steamy Jeddah in the 1930s, to the rival sheikhs of the oasis competing for power, wealth and allegiances, as well as the great players in world politics: Churchill, Truman and lbn Saud. This entertaining, yet thoroughly researched, book is both a story of decisive conflict in the history of Middle East politics and also of the great changes that the discovery of oil brought to this land. """

Quality culture in higher education goes beyond the establishment of Quality Assurance processes and systems. The concept of quality culture in Higher Educational Institutions is being discussed widely in the professional literature as to its defining characteristics and forms of implementation. A new era in quality management is developing which “is moving away from a mechanistic to a holistic and cultural view of quality in education” (Ehlers 2009: 343).

Following this line of thought the case presented here reflects on the evolution of a teaching initiative launched at the German University of Technology in Oman and provides a good-practice example for an higher education institutional enhancement of quality culture with consideration of its environmental setting, institutional and initiative factors and its verification in the framework of a theoretical concept of quality culture.



Qualitätskultur in Hochschulen geht über die Einrichtung von Qualitätssicherungsprozessen und -systemen hinaus. Das Konzept von Qualitätskultur wird in der Forschungsliteratur vielseitig disktutiert hinsichtlich der bestimmenden Merkmale und der Implementierungsformen. Eine neue Ära des Qualitätmanagements entwickelt sich, weg von einer mechanistischen hin zu einer holistischen und kulturellen Betrachtungsweise von Qualität in Bildung (vgl. Ehlers 2009: 343).

Diesem Ansatz folgend liefert die folgende Reflektion zu der Entwicklung einer Lehrendeninitiative an der German University of Technology in Oman ein Good-Practice-Beispiel für die Förderung einer Qualitätskultur innerhalb einer Hochschulinstitution. Diese erfolgt unter Berücksichtigung der soziokulturellen, institutionellen und initiative-bezogenen Rahmenbedingungen und verifiziert das Beispiel innerhalb eines theoretischen Qualitätskulturmodells.

If you want to understand a place or culture that is new to you - which will help you: travel writing, anthropology or fiction? Which genre would give you what kind of information? Do you want to know information the way people within the culture view it (emic) or an explanation of the place and culture in ways that are clear to you, but perhaps not the way the locals would see it (etic), i.e. do you want information to join the group or to understand?
In this essay I will broadly sketch the history, generic expectations, similarities and differences of travel writing, anthropology and fiction, then discuss how an outsider might use texts from the three genres to understand some of the cultural issues in Southern Arabia, where I teach.
All three genres encompass a vast scope. Travel writing traces its roots to the historical works of Herodotus, Diodorus, Cicero’s Journey to Cilicia in 51 B.C.E., and Fa Hsien, a Chinese Buddhist monk who wrote in the early 400s C.E. Travel writing is a place where many fields overlap, including autobiography, fiction, historical records, geography, political science, sociology, and anthropology. From early writers, including the European pilgrim Etheria c. 385 C.E. and the Muslim contemporary of Marco Polo, Abdallah ibn Battuta, to present day authors, travelers have written interesting and important books about areas new to them.
Anthropology, an even broader field, includes the history of every kind of human in every kind of social situation from Australopithecus to Homo sapiens. Anthropology stands, according to James Peacock, at the intersection of “exploring, excavating, history, folklore, literature, journalism, spying, psychoanalysis, social work, missionary work, administration and childhood/ friendship/ parenting” (59).
Then there is fiction in which writers, as James Joyce wrote, “go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race.” Fiction contains every human experience and emotion.
All three genres have a specific purpose, although that purpose has changed over time. Travel writing has shifted from a primary function of informing to entertaining. Early travel books were vehicles for collecting and codifying material, either presenting fresh discoveries to the book’s intended readers, or adding to and/or updating their knowledge. When the world became more known, travel books could no longer tell about new geographic wonders and thus have started, in the last few decades, to concentrate on the author’s reaction to what is seen on the journey.

Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orientin Berlin, Germany, invites applications for the Oman Research Grant, sponsored by the Sultan Qaboos Higher Centre for Culture and Science. The Grant comprises funding for a residential research stay of up to 3 months during the year of 2021 at ZMO, as well as travel costs to Berlin.  We are seeking to attract an  outstanding postdoctoral scholar who is engaged in projects in research fields related to Omani Studies.

The long 1960s in the Gulf States was a period of great political changes, in which struggles over the very future of the region's political systems were fought out. Some of these struggles are still written out of the official histories of these countries. They are also seldom mentioned in the academic literature on the region, as they do not fit into dominant paradigms of the rentier state, authoritarianism, or Islam, and are also often left out in accounts on the Global Cold War more broadly.

The aim of this research article is to examine the effectiveness of the tourism branding campaign “Oman: beauty has an address” within the destination branding context. Cross-examination and gap analysis tools were used to determine the possible existence of any gaps between the brand image that brand Oman is trying to portray against the brand image from the recipient’s i.e. tourist perspective. The case study approach was found the most suitable to address the research aim(s); because it is an empirical inquiry that examines a contemporary phenomenon within a real-life context. As for the data collection methods, in addition to secondary sources, a qualitative primary method was adapted in the form one-on-one in-depth interviews, where officials from the Ministry of Tourism were interviewed to gain an understanding of Oman’s destination branding strategy, to be used as a comparison benchmark against the interview responses received from tourists in Oman. The research article has found that “Oman: beauty has an address” has had a success in communicating Oman’s brand identity to its audience. Research findings, however, suggest a gap in communicating Oman’s brand logo and slogan to the target audience. Essentially, research analysis has concluded that Oman’s brand has been successful in communicated its distinct identities. The gap however, is found when attempting to establish a link between the brand’s identities and their visual representations i.e. logos and slogan, both of which play a vital role in brand awareness, brand recognition, brand differentiation and building a brand image. Using Oman as the case study subject, this article also aims to make a contribution to the destination branding literature within the Middle Eastern context.

Every government is seeking to provide the best services to its country to achieve efficiency and accepted performance. This goal could be achieved by improving the service performance of the entire sectors in society. Billions of dollars was invested by governments in order to undertake their first step towards implementing the e-Government project and specially implementing the best methodology of all attached and correlated electronic-based services to it. Government of Sultanate of Oman has realized the importance of moving towards the information century. Therefore, this paper aims to conduct SWOT and TOWS matrix in order to analyze and investigate the implementation and adoption of e-Government in Oman using secondary data from statistical reports. The output findings show that the readiness and the ICT infrastructure require more effort and government-citizens relationship to be enhanced. Finally, the paper gives some suggestions and recommendations for better successful e-Government approach in the country.

This paper refers to the policy of exile that practiced by some of the kings of the Hittite state. In fact, this policy does not reach as far as the Assyrian kings, who were famous for the deportation policy, this policy in Khati was limited cases only, and was a punishment against some crimes. The research deals with clarifying the concept of exile and the difference between it and escape, and clarifying the optional exile and forced exile. The research begins with the meaning of the term exile in the texts and Hittite Law, and reasons of exile, and offer some cases of exile found in Khati.

The study aimed at investigating the conflict management styles used by nurse managers in the Sultanate of Oman. Conflict is inevitable in daily nursing work. Several styles are used to manage conflict situations. In previous studies conducted in Western countries, avoiding and compromising conflict management styles appear to be the first choices for the nurses. In Arab countries, no study to date has examined the conflict management styles used by nurse managers to compare with the results from studies conducted in Western countries. Survey. A questionnaire was distributed to all nurse managers working in the three-management levels from nine referral hospitals in Sultanate of Oman, 271 were returned, a response rate of 86%. The results were analysed using spss version 16. Nurse managers in Oman used all five conflict management styles, with integrating style as the first choice followed in order by compromising, obliging, dominating and avoiding. These results differ from the res...

Copyright law in Oman was not created in response to the local needs of authors and other creators, but as part of Oman’s effort to join the international trade community. Due to the nature of this external influence over Omani domestic copyright law policy, Omani copyright law has continuously expanded in scope and duration to a degree that is detrimental to the interests of Omani authors and creators. This paper examines how the expansion of Omani copyright law over the past two decades provides no further incentives for Omanis to create, and instead limits their ability to reuse existing works as building blocks for creating new ones. This paper is made up of four sections: the first section provides an overview of the development of Omani copyright law and its relationship with foreign influences, the second section examines the implications of the extension of the copyright term on local creators, the third section examines the implications of the narrowing of copyright exceptions on local creators, and the fourth section concludes.

Google Apps brought many opportunities to enhance the work performance in the higher educational settings. This study aims to investigate the impact of Google Apps at work from the perspective of the higher educational institutions. An online questionnaire survey has been prepared and distributed among the academic and administrative staff at Al Buraimi University College, Oman for data collection. The total number of participants was 34. Different statistical analyses were performed on the collected data. Results revealed that the administrative staffs were more positive toward using Google Apps than the academics in performing their work while 58.8 % of the Academics indicated that they are using Google Apps in processing their work. The results of this study indicate that Google Apps are highly perceived by both academic and administrative staffs. This is evidence that these Apps have a significant impact on performing the work in the higher educational settings. Limitations and future work have been addressed.