Oman’s modern renaissance of 1970 was linked to the first Omani Renaissance of Ibadi thought in the nineteenth century. This earlier renaissance was when Oman’s Ibadi Sharia (Ibadi Islamic Law; see Chapter 6) was first modernized and adapted for a variety of contexts. It was also in this earlier period when Oman’s political system under the Imamate and the Sultanate ruled the country either concurrently or in rotation. There were several links between the traditions of the past and the character of the modern state. Those historic links paved the way for the emergence and evolution of the modern Omani Sultanate that formed under the leadership of Sultan Qaboos. Legitimacy is of major importance in the Ibadi belief system and fiqh (jurisprudence) and this is reflected in Oman’s history. The legitimacy of the Sultanate is well established on firm legal and historical foundations and sound fiqh, or Islamic judicial principles that have played out over centuries of history. Even before the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and as early as the first Ibadi Imamate (the Imamate of al-Julanda b. Mas‘ud in 751 CE), Oman experienced two alternating governing models: sequential and concurrent systems of rule. When either the Imam or the Sultan is the sole ruler, the governing system is sequential. When both the Imam and Sultan share power over different parts of the country (usually with the Sultan in the ports and the Imam in the mountains), the model is concurrent. Over the past two centuries, this shifting between different models has been a feature of Oman’s history. Imam Muhammad b. ‘Abd ‘Allah al-Khalili (1919–1954) existed concurrently with the Sultan. The Imam’s successor, Ghālib b. ‘Ali al-Hina’i (1954–1957), however, was defeated by the father of Sultan Qaboos, who restored the sequential system. The pattern of Imamate and Sultanate, both concurrent and sequential, has been ingrained in the Omani consciousness for many centuries. The three main features of Omani history have been the interior, usually mountain-based Imamate, and the Sultanate, which has been focused on maritime trade. From 1970 to 2020, Sultan Qaboos started a new era in Omani history, becoming the sole ruler of a united Oman. His legitimacy was confirmed, and oaths of loyalty (bay’a) were pledged to him by former supporters of both the Sultanate and the Imamate systems.