coastal nation in Arabia, supposedly named for its founder. Recorded from Roman times (Omana, in Pliny). Related: Omani.
Kingdom on the southern and eastern coasts of the Arabian Peninsula on the Arabian Sea, bordered to the northwest by the United Arab Emirates, the west by Saudi Arabia, and the southwest by Yemen. Oman includes a tip of land on one side of the Strait of Hormuz at the entrance to the Persian Gulf.
Note: Strategically located on trading and military routes between the Persian Gulf and Asia and east Africa, Oman has been occupied by the Portuguese, the Turks, and the Persians; since the beginning of the nineteenth century, it has maintained close relations with Britain.
Note: Oman began exporting oil in 1967.