"Islam and the Culture of the State in Oman"
Prof. Fotini Tsibiridou (Macedonia University-Thessaloniki)

How the contemporary “state culture” in the Sultanate of Oman is in- spired by the local Islamic “tradition”? This is the main question of the anthropological project carried out in the region for the last 5 years. In this project the ethnographic fieldwork is supported by the historical perspective. The anthropological analysis is in continue dialogue with re- searchers focusing on the theological and legal study of Islam. “Tradi- tion” is not considered as a stable think but as a dynamic process, through which people are thinking and at the same time are reconstructing it.
In this paper we will draw the hard lines of the research project located to: the study of the Ibadi tradition, in the frame of the broader Islamic one (political power and cosmological principles in everyday practices); the observation of governmental policies, bureaucratic practices, public performances and representations of belonging leading to contemporary citizen’s experiences; the discourse analysis of the actual leader’s vision and inspiration (Royal speeches of Sultan Qaboos) regarding governmentality practices, periphe- ries development and the use of the local knowledge.