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During the past two decades, the Gulf countries have experienced the most rapid urban growth in the world. The traditional societies in this region have been guilelessly opened on the market economy and western lifestyle. In spite the progress realized at many levels, these societies became victims of its consumerist style. This article aims to present an overview of the urban development in Oman since it started its 'modernization'. This study is not only interested in how the country has been developing since its "renaissance" in the 1970s, but also how does this development appear, compared to its traits in the neighboring Gulf countries. Based on the assumption that urban research is a tool of analysis that can enlighten future decisions and actions in the domain of urban development, this study is also a critical review of the published research about the urbanization in Oman since the 1970s. This research showed that, although it shares several aspects with what the other Gulf cities have witnessed, urbanization in Oman was slower, less drastic and relatively more controlled. The scrutiny of the published research on this topic also revealed that the urban studies about Oman, and the GCC countries in general, were insignificant before the rise of leading cities such as Dubai, then Doha, to the international scene. It concluded that even if these urban studies have progressively broadened in their topics, disciplines and case studies, their effect on the new orientations chosen for the future developments in these countries remains negligible.

The purpose of the present research is to reveal an aspect of the defensive architecture of Oman that was overlooked for decades. It focuses on the defensive strategies in the settlements that were developed by the Omanis in most of the territories of the country. These settlements are part of the vernacular heritage and attest to the periods of conflict in the country's past. They resulted from the 'savoir-faire' developed by the Omanis in this field. This paper argues that these strategies are not the fruit of intuitive and unthought-of gestures. Through case studies, thoroughly documented, and in comparison with other examples in the country, we show that the defensive settlements are a very specific aspect of the vernacular architecture in Oman that has been methodically developed through time due to the tumultuous history of these lands. The paper sheds the light on the typologies of defensive vernacular settlements in Oman by identifying some of their major characters, components and ways of adaptation to their geographic contexts.

In spite of a long-standing interest in the Ibadi community and its historical, social, religious and architectural legacy, its Ibadi scholarly literature remains largely unknown. The present research continues in the footsteps of the pioneering works of Joseph Schacht (Schacht, 1954) and Pierre Cuperly (Cuperly, 1988) on Ibadism. It aims to cast light on the Ibadi literature that represents an authentic source of information for the study of Ibadism past and present. This article analyzes an Ibadi manuscript from the twelfth century written by the scholar Abul’Abbas Ahmad. This document has been the primary reference for the most important sources of Ibadi legislation still in use by the community in its three main centers: M’zab, Djerba and Oman. The study of this document, along with other Ibadi scholarly literature on this topic, shows that this jurisprudence has regulated in detail the design, construction and management of mosques, and that this level of careful attention was due to the importance of the mosque for the instruction and organization of the community.

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