Author's note: Thanks are due to Michael E. Bonine, University of Arizona; Peter von Sivers, University of Utah; and three anonymous readers for some very valuable criticisms to earlier drafts of this paper.

¹ The original German: “der traditionelle Gegensatz zwischen dem an der Küste residierenden Sultan und den binnenwärts orientierten Stämmen.” Scholz, Fred, “Ziele und Ergebnisse der wirtschaftlichen und wirtschaftsräumlichen Entwicklung in den kleinen arabischen Erdölförderländern— Oman als Beispiel,” Die Erde, 109, 3–4 (1978), 505. Translation is by the author.Google Scholar

² The coastal villages are largely tribal and Arab, of course, although some authors note considerable heterogeneity even beyond the Batina urban areas: Asche, Hartmut, Mobile Lebensformgruppen Südost-Arabiens im Wandel: Die Küstenprovinz Al Batinah im erdölfördernden Sultanate Oman, Abhandlungen des Geographischen lnstituts, Anthropogeographie, Bd. 32 (Berlin, 1981), section 2.2.2.Google Scholar

³ For example, Arabian American Oil Company (ARAMCO), Relations Department, Research Division, Oman and the Southern Shore of the Persian Gulf (Cairo, 1952);Google Scholar and Phillips, Wendell, Oman: A History (London, 1967).Google Scholar

⁴ For example, University of Durham, Research and Development Surveys in Northern Oman, Final Report, Vol. V: Fishing and Fish Marketing; and Vol. VI: Marketing (Durham, England, 1978);Google ScholarWilkinson, J. C., Water and Tribal Settlement in South-East Arabia: A Study of the Aflaj of Oman (London, 1977);Google Scholar“Changes in the Structure of Village Life in Oman,” in Niblock, Tim, ed., Social and Economic Development in the Arab Gulf (London, 1980), pp. 122–34;Google ScholarScholz, Fred, “Entwicklungstendenzen im Beduinentum der kleinen Staaten am Persischen/Arabischen Golf— Oman als Beispiel,” Mitteilungen der Österreichischen Geographischen Gesellschaft, 118, 1 (1976), 70–108;Google Scholar“Sultanat Oman: Ein Entwicklungsland im Südosten der Arabischen Halbinsel,” Die Erde, 108, 1–2 (1977), 23–74;Google Scholar“Die beduinischen Stämme im östlichen Inner-Oman und ihr Regional Mobilitäts-Verhalten,” Sociologus, 27,2 (1977), 97–133;Google Scholar“Falaj-Oasen in Sharqiya, Inner-Oman,” Die Erde, 115, 4 (1984), 273–94;Google ScholarSultanate of Oman, Part I: A Geographical Introduction to the Country of Oman, Its Natural Resources, Its People, Its Settlements. Its Economy, and Its Modern Development (Stuttgart, 1980); Scholz, , “Ziele und Ergebnisse der wirtschaftlichen und wirtschaftsräumlichen Entwicklung in den kleinen arabischen Erdölförderländern—Oman als Beispiel.” See also the panel of papers “Economic and Social Development of Oman,” in BRISMES Proceedings of the 1986 International Conference on Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES-MESA-SOAS), University of London (SOAS), London, 07 1986 (Oxford, 1986), pp. 333–74.Google Scholar

⁵ Lorimer, J. G., Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf; Oman, and Central Arabia, Vol. I: Historical (Calcutta, 1915), and Vol. II: Geographical and Statistical (Calcutta, 1908).Google Scholar

⁶ Of course, the sources exhibit various degrees of reliability, sometimes even within the same report. They occasionally contradict one another, though more often on minor details than on major issues. Care must be taken to assure consistency among them.

⁷ This brief discussion of spatial structure is summarized from: Speece, Mark, “Duality of Market Structures in Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Oman,” Erdkunde, 41, 3 (1987), 196–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁸ Vance, James E., The Merchant's World: the Geography of Wholesaling (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1970)Google Scholar, developed the spatial concepts for what he called the mercantile system. Carol A. Smith's extensive works on synthesizing geographic and anthropological approaches to marketing structures show that Vance's mercantile system is actually one form of the dendritic system; see “Economics of Marketing Systems: Models from Economic Geography,” Annual Review of Anthropology, 3 (1974), 169–201; “Examining Stratification Systems through Peasant Marketing Arrangements: an Application of some Models from Economic Geography,” Man (NS), 10 (1975), 95–122; “Exchange Systems and the Spatial Distribution of Elites: the Organization of Stratification in Agrarian Societies,” in Smith, Carol A., ed., Regional Analysis, Vol. 11: Social Systems (New York, 1976), pp. 309–74;CrossRefGoogle Scholar“Regional Economic Systems: Linking Geographical Models and Socioeconomic Problems,” in Smith, Carol A., ed., Regional Analysis, Vol. 1: Economic Systems (New York, 1976), pp. 3–63.Google Scholar

⁹ One must distinguish in this discussion between interior as a geographic term for inland areas away from the coast, and interior as a term signifying economic system. Some inland areas on the seaward side of the mountains were linked to the coastal economic system, as Figures 2 and 3 clearly show. On the inland side of the mountains, however, no area was closely tied to the coastal system. This inland side is the core of the interior in the economic sense. Although this work stresses the contrasts between the two systems, it is probably most accurate to view the two as opposite ends of a continuum, with the boundary fluctuating as one end or the other increased in relative economic or political strength.

¹⁰ Key authors who developed the theory of rent capitalism and examined it in the context of the Middle East include: Bobek, Hans, “Über einige funktionelle Stadttypen und ihre Beziehungen zum Lande,” in Comptes rendus du Congrès international de géographie, Amsterdam, Vol. 2, Section 3a: Géographie humaine (1938), pp. 88–102;Google Scholaridem, “Die Hauptstufen der Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsentfaltung in geographischer Sicht,” Die Erde, 90, 3 (1959), 259–98; idem, “Zum Konzept des Rentenkapitalismus,” Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale Geografie, 65,2 (1974), 73–78; idem, “Rentenkapitalismus und Entwicklung in Iran,” in G. Schweizer, ed., Interdisziplinäre Iran-Forschung: Beiträge aus Kulturgeographie, Ethnologie, Soziologie und Neuerer Geschichte, Tübinger Atlas des Vorderen Orients, Beiheft Reihe B: Geisteswissenschaften, Nr. 40 (Wiesbaden, 1979), pp. 113–24; Ehlers, Eckart, “Die Stadt Bam und ihr Oasen-Umland/Zentraliran: Em Beitrag zu Theorie und Praxis der Beziehungen ländlicher Räume zu ihren kleinstädtischen Zentren im Orient,” Erdkunde, 29, 1 (1975), 38–52;CrossRefGoogle Scholaridem, “Dezful and its Hinterland: Observations on the Relationships of Lesser Iranian Cities and Towns to Their Hinterland,” Journal of the Association of Iranian Geographers, 1,1 (1976), 20–30; idem, “Rentenkapitalismus, Industrialismus und Stadtentwicklung in Iran,” in G. Schweizer, ed., lnterdisziplinäre Iran-Forschung: Beiträge aus Kulturgeographie, Ethnologie, Soziologie und Neuerer Geschichte, Tübinger Atlas des Vorderen Orients, Beiheft Reihe B: Geisteswissenschaften, Nr. 40 (Wiesbaden, 1979), pp. 125–29; Wirth, Eugen, “Die Beziehungen der orientalisch–islamischen Stadt zum umgebenden Lande: Em Beitrag zur Theorie des Rentenkapitalismus,” in Meynen, E., ed., “Geographie heute, Einheit und Vielfalt: Ernst Plewe zu seinem 65. Geburtstag,” Geographische Zeitschrfl, Beiheft Nr. 33 (1973), 323–33.Google Scholar

¹¹ For example, Bobek, “Die Hauptstufen der Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsentfaltung in geographischer Sicht.”

¹² Ibid., 274–79. Bobek sees these systems as ones in which agrarian production is organized and controlled by the rulers. However, there is no universally accepted definition of feudalism. Most discussions of the system note that the economy was agriculturally based and characterized by land tenure derived from a political source—i.e., allegiance to an overlord by the landholder. Land was actually worked by the tenants, who were sometimes bound to the land, but who had no ownership rights. The tenants, often called serfs in European feudalism, were (usually legally) obligated to the landlord, who could claim production output as well as other service such as labor for nonagricultural projects. An authoritative older discussion of various feudal systems throughout the world may be found in Coulborn, Rushton, ed., Feudalism in History (Hamden, Conn., 1965).Google Scholar A fairly recent review and criticism of theories of feudalism appears in Martin, John E., Feudalism to Capitalism: Peasant and Landlord in English Agrarian Development (Atlantic Highlands, N.J., 1983).Google Scholar

¹³ Ehlers, “Die Stadt Bam und ihr Oasen-Umland/Zenrtaliran.”

¹⁴ Scholz, Fred, “Informelle Institutionen versus Entwicklung,” Die Erde, 117, 3–4 (1986), 285–97, shows in an example from modern Oman that this kind of indebtedness can also lead to futures contracts, in which the farmer is obligated to sell his next crop to the merchant.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Wirth, “Die Beziehungen der orientalisch-islamischen Stadt zum umgebenden Lande.”

¹⁶ Scholz, “Informelle Institutionen versus Entwicklung,” shows this rent capitalist cottage industry for Pakistan; Ehlers, “Rentenkapitalismus, Industrialismus und Stadtentwicklung in Iran,” shows it for Iran.

¹⁷ For example, Landen, Robert G., Oman since 1856: Disruptive Modernization in a Traditional Arab Society (Princeton, N.J., 1967); Scholz, “Entwicklungstendenzen im Beduinentum der kleinen Staaten am Persischen/Arabischen Golf—Oman als Beispiel,” and “Sultanat Oman: Ein Entwicklungsland im Südosten der Arabischen Halbinsel.”CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹⁸ Busch, Briton C., Britain and the Persian Gulf 1894–1914 (Berkeley, 1967), p. 21; see also Landen, Oman since 1856: Disruptive Modernization in a Traditional Arab Society.Google Scholar

¹⁹ In distinguishing this as a period in Omani economic history, we follow Allen, Calvin H. Jr, “Sayyids, Shets and Sultans: Politics and Trade in Masqat under the Al Bu Sa'id, 1785–1914” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Washington, 1978). He notes that Muscat's economic decline started with the new African policy begun in 1829.Google Scholar

²⁰ One of the anonymous readers of an earlier draft of this paper quite correctly pointed out that a few of the sources upon which this discussion of economic organization is based are limited to the 1830s and 1840s. Precisely because there were no dramatic changes in organization during the period 1830–1930, however, these early sources contribute considerably to the knowledge of conditions later in the period. Of course, in order to be used, they must be consistent with the sources which come from later in the century, but they generally are. When they differ, it is largely on matters of detail, rather than in what they show of basic economic organization. Furthermore, careful reading of several sources from various times can usually pinpoint the cause for the discrepancy in detail. This argument for utilizing sources from the wider period is developed somewhat more thoroughly, and a few examples are presented concerning differences in detail about the location of markets, in Speece, Mark, “Sultan and Imam: an Analysis of Economic Dualism in Oman” (M.A. thesis, University of Arizona, 1981).Google Scholar

²¹ Landen, Oman since 1856: Disruptive Modernization in a Traditional Arab Society, pp. 144–46.

²² Ibid., p. 145.

²³ Ibid. In addition to the manufacture of textiles, relatively important handicrafts included various metal work industries and pottery, as well as dyeing of textiles. Many of these more specialized activities, however, were not cottage industries. Rather, manufacturing was based in the bazaars. The next section contains references to such bazaar manufactures for some towns in Oman.

²⁴ Government of India, Foreign Department, Report of the Administration of the Persian Gulf Political Residency and Muscat Political Agency for the Year 1876–1877 (Calcutta, 1877).

²⁵ Government of India, Foreign Department, Administration Report on the Persian Gulf Political Residency and Maskat Political Agency for 1900–1901 (Calcutta, 1901), p. 85.

²⁶ Landen, Oman since 1856: Disruptive Modernization in a Traditional Arab Society, pp. 133–34; see also Allen, Calvin H., “The Indian Merchant Community of Masqat,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 44, 1 (1981), 39–53;CrossRefGoogle Scholaridem, Sayyids, Shets and Sultans.

²⁷ Smith, “Examining Stratification Systems through Peasant Marketing Arrangements,” 100.

²⁸ Jayakar, A. S. G., “Medical Topography of Muscat,” in Government of India, Foreign Department, Report of the Administration of the Persian Gulf Political Residency and Muscat Political Agency for the Year 1876–1877 (Calcutta, 1877), pp. 102–3;Google ScholarLorimer, , Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf Oman, and Central Arabia, Vol. 2, p. 1185;Google ScholarEccles, G. J., “The Sultanate of Muscat and Oman,’ Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society, 14 (1927), 19–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

²⁹ Jayakar, “Medical Topography of Muscat,” pp. 101–2.

³⁰ Eccles, “The Sultanate of Muscat and Oman,” 21.

³¹ Lorimer, , Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf Oman, and Central Arabia, Vol. 11, p. 1185.Google Scholar

³² Ibid., p. 1185.

³³ Ibid., p. 1185; compare Bent, J. Theodore, “Exploration of the Frankincense Country, Southern Arabia,” Geographical Journal, 6, 2 (1895), 109–34;CrossRefGoogle ScholarWellsted, J. R., Travels in Arabia, Vol. 1 (1838; reprint ed. Graz, 1987), p. 17.Google Scholar

³⁴ Cox, Percy, “Some Excursions in Oman,” Geographical Journal, 66, 3 (1925), 193–227; map.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

³⁵ Wellsted, , Travels in Arabia, Vol. 1, p. 21;Google ScholarLorimer, , Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf Oman, and Central Arabia, Vol. 11, p. 1185.Google Scholar

³⁶ Wellsted, , Travels in Arabia, Vol. 1, p. 24;Google ScholarLorimer, , Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf Oman, and Central Arabia, Vol. 2, p. 1185.Google Scholar

³⁷ Lorimer, , Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf Oman, and Central Arabia, Vol. 2, p. 1185.Google Scholar

³⁸ Ibid.

³⁹ Ruschenberger, W. S. W., A Voyage Round the World; Including an Embassy to Muscat and Siam in 1835, 1836 and 1837 (Philadelphia, 1838), p. 75.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Wellsted, , Travels in Arabia, Vol. 1, p. 21.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Ibid.; Lorimer, , Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf Oman, and Central Arabia, Vol. 2, p. 1185.Google Scholar

⁴² Wirth, Eugen, “Zum Problem des Bazars (suq, carsi): Versuch einer Begriffsbestimmung und Theorie des traditionellen Wirtschaftszentrums der orientalisch-islamischen Stadt,” Der Islam, 51, 2 (1974), 203–60; 52, 1 (1975), 6–46.Google Scholar

⁴³ Miles, S. B., The Countries and Tribes of the Persian Gulf (London, 1966), p. 468;Google Scholar see also Pengelley, W. M., “Remarks on a Portion of the Eastern Coast of Arabia between Muscat and Sohar,” Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, 16 (1861), 30–39.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Bent, J. Theodore, “Muscat,” Contemporary Review, 68 (1895), 871–82. Of course, the share of trade that dhows still controlled was not very large. Allen, Sayyids, Shets and Sultans, Ch. 5, though, shows that the Indians were very effective at utilizing steamship transport, even though they did not actually own steamships. It should also be noted that extensive dhow ownership after dhows ceased to carry much trade may show involvement in the fishing industry.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Ruschenberger, A Voyage Round the World, p. 83.

⁴⁶ Allen, “The Indian Merchant Community of Masqat,” p. 47.

⁴⁷ Lorimer, , Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf Oman, and Central Arabia, Vol. 2, p. 1425, gives figures for British protected Hindus and Muslims (he says that most protected Muslims were khojas) in Oman. In Muscat, there were 253 Hindus and 122 Muslims under British protection. In Matra, the figures were 37 and 665, respectively. The Muscat Hindus made up 66 percent of all British protected Hindus, while the Matra Muslims made up 67 percent of all protected Muslims. Of course, not all Hindus or khojas were under British protection, but the figures are nevertheless revealing.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Lorimer, , Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf Oman, and Central Arabia, Vol.2, pp. 1197–1200;Google Scholar Miles, The Countries and Tribes of the Persian Gulf, p. 461. The ethnic division of function is discussed in Speece, “Duality of Market Structures in Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Oman.”

⁴⁹ Pengelley, “Remarks on a Portion of the Eastern Coast of Arabia between Muscat and Sohar,” p. 33.

⁵⁰ Miles, The Countries and Tribes of the Persian Gulf, p. 456.

⁵¹ Ibid., P. 457.

⁵² Allen, Sayyids. Shets and Sultans, p. 115; idem, “The Indian Merchant Community of Masqat,” p. 47, briefly discusses urban holdings of one prominent Hindu merchant family.

⁵³ Lorimer, , Gazeueer of the Persian Gulf Oman, and Central Arabia, Vol. 2, p. 1185.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ References documenting these ownerships are summarized in Table 2. A few of the places, notably Aiyint and Darsait, as well as several of the villages discussed under the sultan's holdings, are really suburbs of Muscat and Matra in the 1980s. At the turn of the century, however, when Muscat and Matra were much more compact, these villages were distinct from the two cities. Compare earlier maps of Muscat, e.g., Stiffe, Arthur W., “Ancient Trading Centers of the Persian Gulf, IV: Maskat,” Geographical Journal, 10, 6 (1897), 608–18 (map p. 660) with ones from the last decade, e.g., Scholz, Sultanate of Oman, Part I: A Geographical Introduction.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁵⁵ Allen, “The Indian Merchant Community of Masqat,” p. 47.

⁵⁶ Miles, S. B., “Journal of an Excursion in Oman, in Southeast Arabia,” Geographical Journal, 7, 5 (1896), 522–37, map. Birain is discussed on p. 523.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁵⁷ Historically, rent capitalism penetrated the interior during periods of unity, and retreated when the two parts functioned separately: “… only when Oman was unified did this level of economic interchange [between coast and interior] tend to rise; but… the intrusion of wealth into the interior in the form of capital investment automatically triggered off reaction in the tribal system, so that the new linkages between coast and interior were destroyed,” Wilkinson, Water and Tribal Settlement in South-East Arabia, pp. 143–44.

⁵⁸ Speece, “Duality of Market Structures in Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Oman.”

⁵⁹ Lorimer, , Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman, and Central Arabia, Vol. 2, pp. 17, 322–23, 550, 603, 714, 716, 1034, 1191–94, 1372, 1424, 1663, 1836–37; Miles, “Journal of an Excursion in Oman, in Southeast Arabia,” 523, 534, 536; Bertram Thomas, Alarms and Excursions in Arabia (Indianapolis, Ind., 1931) p. 127.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ Miles, “Journal of an Excursion in Oman, in Southeast Arabia,” 534; Lorimer, , Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman, and Central Arabia, Vol. 11, p. 603.Google Scholar

⁶¹ Miles, “Journal of an Excursion in Oman, in Southeast Arabia,” 536.

⁶² Smith, “Exchange Systems and the Spatial Distribution of Elites,” pp. 314–23; idem, “Regional Economic Systems: Linking Geographical Models and Socioeconomic Problems,” pp. 39–43.

⁶³ Smith, “Exchange Systems and the Spatial Distribution of Elites,” p. 317.

⁶⁴ Ibid., p. 368.

⁶⁵ Ibid., p. 317.

⁶⁶ See, for example, Wilkinson, Water and Tribal Settlement in South-East Arabia, Ch. 10, and passim. For the political expression of tribal structures, Eickelman, Dale F., “From Theocracy to Monarchy: Authority and Legitimacy in Inner Oman, 1935–1957,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, 17, 1 (1985), 3–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁶⁷ Lorimer, , Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman, and Central Arabia, Vol. 11, p. 1390.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ Ibid., pp. 1389, 1391–1410; see also Ross, E. C., “Memorandum on the Tribal Division in the Principality of 'Oman, ” Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, 19, 3 (1873), 187–98.Google Scholar An anthropological interpretation of this dual confederation organization is briefly discussed in Eickelman, Dale F., “Religious Tradition, Economic Domination and Political Legitimacy: Morocco and Oman,” Revue de l'Occident Musulman et de la Méditerrannée, 29, 1 (1980), 17–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁶⁹ For example, in Kelley, J. B., “A Prevalence of Furies: Tribes, Politics, and Religion in Oman and Trucial Oman,” in Hopwood, D., ed., The Arabian Peninsula: Society and Politics (Totowa, N.J., 1972), pp. 107–41. The tribal organization also influenced spatial economic organization, see Speece, “Duality of Market Structures in Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Oman.”Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Eickelman, “From Theocracy to Monarchy”; Barth, Fredrik, “Factors of Production, Economic Circulation, and Inequality in Inner Arabia,” Research in Economic Anthropology, 1 (1987), 53–72, show this for some villages in modern interior Oman.Google Scholar

⁷¹ Barth, “Factors of Production,” makes this point; see discussion later.

⁷² Wilkinson discusses land tenure systems extensively, and is one of those showing fairly egalitarian practice; see, for example, Wilkinson, Water and Tribal Settlement in South-East Arabia, p. 212.

⁷³ Ibid., p. 211. For an interpretation of Omani history as a struggle between the coastal and interior economic systems see Speece, “Sultan and Imam: an Analysis of Economic Dualism in Oman,” Ch. 6.

⁷⁴ Wilkinson, Water and Tribal Settlement in South-East Arabia, pp. 214–15.

⁷⁵ Miles, S. B., “Across the Green Mountains in Oman,” Geographical Journal, 18, 5 (1901), 488.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁷⁶ Skeet, Ian, Muscat and Oman: the End of an Era (London, 1974), P. 119.Google Scholar

⁷⁷ Cox, “Some Excursions in Oman,” 207.

⁷⁸ Miles, B., “On the Route between Sohar and el-Bereymi in Oman, with a Note on the Zatt, or Gipsies in Arabia,” Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 46, 1 (1877), 54.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ Cox, “Some Excursions in Oman,” 209.

⁸⁰ Miles, , “On the Border of the Great Desert: a Journey in Oman,” Geographical Journal, 36, 2 & 4 (1910), 2:168.Google Scholar

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⁸² Miles, “On the Border of the Great Desert: a Journey in Oman,” 414.

⁸³ Cox, “Some Excursions in Oman,” 211; Lorimer, , Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman, and Central Arabia, Vol. 2, p. 758.Google Scholar

⁸⁴ Miles, “On the Border of the Great Desert: a Journey in Oman,” 173; Lorimer, , Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman, and Central Arabia, Vol. 2, p. 209.Google Scholar

⁸⁵ Miles, “On the Border of the Great Desert: a Journey in Oman,” 177; Cole, C. S. D., “An Account of an Overland Journey from Leskkaire to Maskat and the Green Mountains of Oman,” Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, 8 (1847–1848), 106–19;Google ScholarWellsted, , Travels in Arabia, Vol. 1, p. 177.Google Scholar

⁸⁶ Lorimer, , Gazeueer of the Persian Gulf Oman, and Central Arabia, Vol. 11, P. 757.Google Scholar

⁸⁷ Barth, “Factors of Production.”

⁸⁸ Scholz, “Entwicklungstendenzen im Beduinentum der kleinen Staaten am Persischen/Arabischen Golf,” 84.

⁸⁹ In fact, it is likely that rent capitalism is the economic form of primate city systems; see Bonine, Michael E., “City and Hinterland in Central Iran,” in Schweizer, G., ed., Inrerdisziplinäre Iran Forschung: Beiträge aus Kulturgeographie, Ethnologie, Soziologie und Neuerer Geschichte, Tübinger Atlas des Vorderen Orient, Beiheft Reihe B: Geisteswissenschaften, Nr. 40 (Wiesbaden, 1979), pp. 141–54;Google ScholarBonine, Michael E., Yazd and its Hinterland: a Central Place System of Dominance in the Central Iranian Plateau, Marburger Geographische Schriften, Heft 83 (Marburg, 1980). The dendritic system in Oman is one type of primate city system; see Speece, “Sultan and Imam: An Analysis of Economic Dualism in Oman.”Google Scholar

⁹⁰ Wirth, “Die Beziehungen der orientalisch-islamischen Stadt zum umgebenden Lande.”

⁹¹ Extensive references to such domination of marketing channels by foreigners may be found in Douglass Norvell, G. and Morey, Robert, “Ethnodomination in the Channels of Distribution of Third World Nations,” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 11, 3 (1983), 204–5;CrossRefGoogle ScholarSpeece, Mark, “Ethno Domination of Retail Channels,” in Findlay, Allan, Dawson, John, & Paddison, Ronan, eds., Retail Environments in Developing Countries (London, in press).Google Scholar

⁹² Speece, “Sultan and Imam: an Analysis of Economic Dualism in Oman,” shows that ethnodomination is likely to prevail in any dendritic system based on long-distance foreign trade.

⁹³ The two places on Figure 6 where absentee landlord holdings appear in the interior are holdings of the sultan's family. They seem to be residual holdings from previous generations. The Al Bu Sa'id family had originally resided in the interior. The first Al Bu Sa'id sultan had been appointed governor of Sohar by the imam at a time when the interior had achieved temporary political domination over the coast. From that power base, the family eventually was able to assume the sultanate. Discussion and references on Omani history from the perspective of the economic structures analyzed here may be found in Speece, “Sultan and Imam: an Analysis of Economic Dualism in Oman.”

⁹⁴ Several specific cases of this absentee investment in interior farms, as well as general observations on the development process, are discussed in el-Rikaishy, A. N., Agricultural Sudy, Vol. 1 (Muscat, 1980). Private investment in agricultural projects, both by Omanis and by multinational corporations, is also discussed inGoogle ScholarBirks, J. Stace and Letts, Sally E., “Ba'd mushkilat at-tanmiyya al-zira'iyya fi sultana 'uman,” Journal of the Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Studies, 5, 18 (1979), 157–69.Google Scholar