March 29

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In Homophobic Middle East
Gay Sultan Is Laid to Rest

Sultan Qaboos bin Said of Oman

When Sultan Qaboos bin Said of Oman died two months ago, on January 10, 2020, at age 79 without an heir, a letter was opened that revealed his hand-picked successor. The transition of power to his cousin, Haitham bin Tariq (two sons, two daughters), was peaceful, and so far, that peace has held. 

Sultan Qaboos lived as a homosexual in palaces shared with elegant, somewhat effete young men he had gifted with Rolex watches and other luxury items. He was also known to have a male English lover. Qaboos had been educated in England and even served in the British Army. Although everyone in the Middle East knew of his homosexual proclivities, the Sultan never came out. 

With support from the British he seized power from his father in a 1970 coup to become an absolute monarch who ruled by royal decree. The press was muzzled, and all media was censored before publication or broadcast, so nothing of the sultan’s homosexual activity was ever revealed to the public.

Yet Sultan Qaboos enjoyed a reputation as an “enlightened” despot. Quite naturally he received good press in England and at home, where even the “live” news broadcasts were pre-recorded for purposes of censorship. Not a single unflattering comment or photo was allowed to be made public.

The sultan presented an image of a Renaissance Man – he played the flute, built an opera house (above) and maintained a full symphony orchestra. He was partial to the pipe organ and had a large German-built instrument installed in his opera house in 2011. One of the stops is labelled “Flûte Qaboos” in his honor. 

Over the course of a 50-year reign, he rolled up his sleeves and modernized his backward nation. He ended Oman’s international isolation, raised standards of living, increased business development, abolished slavery, granted freedom of religion and quelled a rebellion. He paved roads, built an airport, schools and hospitals, established a telecommunications network and brought electricity to the entire country. For a brief three years (1976-79) Sultan Qaboos was married to his first cousin, who later remarried. Their union produced no heirs.

  

To celebrate a reign of 30 years Qaboos adorned the capital of Muscat with a grand mosque, the second largest in the world, accommodating 20,000. He liked things on a large scale. When it was unveiled in 2001 the handwoven carpet in the men’s prayer hall was the largest in the world (4,200 sq ft, woven by 600 women in Iran), and the central chandelier, also the largest in the world, measured 45 feet tall and 26 feet wide, weighing more than 8 tons.

Now that Sultan Qaboos is dead, there remains only one other Middle Eastern royal known to engage in homosexual activity, the bisexual Crown Prince Hamdan bin Mohammed al Maktum of neighboring Dubai. But he deserves a separate blog post. Stay tuned.

References:

San Cassimally

Wikipedia

Royal Foibles (blog)