Manah ─ An Omani Oasis,An Arabian Legacy Architecture and Social History of an Omani Settlement

This beautifully illustrated volume explores the architectural features and urban character of Harat al-Bilad, the principal settlement of Manah, an important oasis of central Oman. Originally a frontier settlement, Harat al-Bilad straddles the boundary between the foothills of the Green Mountains and the desert foreland and has long played an important role in the historical and cultural development of the region. Like its geographical namesake, Manah: An Omani Oasis, an Arabian Legacy crosses and defies boundaries. This book will be of interest to a wide range of readers, including historians, architects, archaeologists, conservationists, and policy makers.

This is an excellent book -- a really outstanding documentation of an ancient inland settlement in a historic part of Indian Ocean Arabia. At last the unique traditional architecture of Oman is being made known to the outside world, revealing the magic of the place, influenced as it has been over at least three millennia by cultures ranging from other parts of Arabia to Mesopotamia, Iran, and as far afield as South Asia, China and Portugal. This is a major work, erudite, and thorough - and containing exhaustive studies of many aspects of the traditional architecture of Oman, making it an invaluable reference work for Islamic scholars for years to come.

Soumyen Bandyopadhyay's magnum opus documents and studies the traditional architecture of Manah in a new and strikingly attractive way. Bandyopadhyay's book is a worthy successor to John Wilkinson's pioneering work on Oman.

Soumyen Bandyopadhyay is Professor of Architecture and Design at the School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment, Nottingham Trent University.
Ronald Lewcock, Former Aga Khan Professor of Architecture at MIT
Paul Yule, Professor. Seminar for the Languages and Cultures of the Near East (Semitic Studies), Heidelberg University