A Sultanate that Endures: Oman in the World from Qaboos bin Sa'id to Haitham bin Tariq By Joseph A.Kéchichian. Liverpool University Press, 2023. 420 pages. $48, paper.

Joseph Kchichian's latest work is a welcome update on Oman since the country's recent leadership transition.A long-time scholar of the sultanate, Kchichian describes a country that continues to thrive, has benefited from wise leadership, and plays a positive role regionally and internationally.From the first page, I was reminded of my own experiences in Oman as the US ambassador.Kchichian's observations track closely with my own, and in reviewing his work, I include personal anecdotes that reinforce key elements of the volume's narrative.Omanophiles, and there are many of us, had reason to be at least curious, and perhaps concerned, as Oman faced its first leadership transition in almost 50 years following the early 2020 passing of its legendary ruler, Sultan Qaboos bin Sa'id.Kchichian's account documents that, in fact, there was no need for worry: Oman made the transition smoothly and successfully.Aware of intense interest in the issue of sultanic succession in the final years of Qaboos's reign, Kchichian takes the reader through the accession of the sultan's cousin, then-Minister of Heritage and Culture Haitham bin Tariq.The succession occurred exactly as those knowledgeable about the sultanate had anticipated.Qaboos had no children, and thus no lineal heir.As had been reported for many years, it was understood that Qaboos, in his will, had named his choice for his successor and placed copies in three envelopes, two deposited in Muscat and the third in London (to forestall any palace intrigue in the selection of his successor).As Kchichian informs us-and as many had anticipated-as soon as the Omani Ruling Family Council convened to select the new sultan, its members opened the envelope that Qaboos had left behind, found the name Haitham bin Tariq, and named him the next sultan.A Sultanate includes considerable detail on the Omani ruling family and historical aspects of sultanic succession.In addition to the current Al-Sa'id dynasty, in earlier times there were Al Bu-Sa'idi claimants to the throne (through the Ibadhi Imamate) and there was a prior split in Al-Sa'id dynastic leadership (between Muscat and Zanzibar).Kchichian notes that Oman's Basic Law, issued in 1995 by Qaboos, "effectively disqualified those who were descendants of the Imamate lineage of the Al Bu-Sa'idi dynasty as well as those who hailed from the Zanzibari branch of the family."Rivalry for the throne, a phenomenon that plagued Oman in the 19th and early 20th centuries, was precluded.As Kchichian tells us, however, the issue is now moot: