Muscat – Then and Now

Geographical Sketch of a Unique Arab Town

by Fred Scholz

Book cover: Muscat – Then and Now

Extent: 602 pages

Publisher: Schiler & Mucke GbR Verlag

Subjects: Architecture, Earth & Life Sciences , Islamic & Middle Eastern Studies

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(October 2014)

ISBN: 9783899304244

Price: $173.00

In stock

The town of Muscat on the south-eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula has a long and chequered history. Omani tradition as well as external influences have given it a particular and pleasing character. A new page was turned in the 1970s, when the reign of Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said started, beginning a new era for Oman. A particularly striking expression of this new era was the evolution of Muscat from a small coastal town to an architecturally and structurally modern metropolitan area. This book provides a history of Muscat’s progression through the ages, but it is primarily about the impressive expansion and construction which began in the 1970s and remade Muscat into a city that has preserved and developed an admirable uniqueness, despite all its modernity, and unlike its northern cousins such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Doha.


The town of Muscat on the south-eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula has a long and chequered history. Omani tradition as well as external influences have given it a particular and pleasing character. A new page was turned in the 1970s, when the reign of Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said started, beginning a new era for Oman. A particularly striking expression of this new era was the evolution of Muscat from a small coastal town to an architecturally and structurally modern metropolitan area. This book provides a history of Muscat’s progression through the ages, but it is primarily about the impressive expansion and construction which began in the 1970s and remade Muscat into a city that has preserved and developed an admirable uniqueness, despite all its modernity, and unlike its northern cousins such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Doha.

  • By (author) Fred Scholz