Maria Al Mazroei,
Department of English Language and Translation, College of Arts and Social Sciences,
Sultan Qaboos University, Sultanate of Oman
The expulsion of the Portuguese colonists from Oman in the 17th century has led to a shift in the power dynamics of the Indian Ocean which influenced the cultural and literary expressions of identity in Oman. While historical studies explore the political and economic consequences of this shift, little attention has been granted to the cultural reflections, particularly how subsequent poetry expressed an emerging consciousness of a collective national identity. This paper aims to explore proto-nationalist sentiment in Oman as expressed in the 18th century poetry of Rashid Al Habsi. Selected poems from Diwan Al Habsi are thematically analysed using an ethno-symbolist approach to nationalism. This study is further framed around a post-colonial approach to investigating proto-nationalist sentiment resulting from colonial encounter. The analysis of the poetry suggests that the dominant themes of religious solidarity and martial strength reflect an early consciousness of a collective identity, where tribal loyalties unite under a broader pan-Islamic identity against a common colonizing enemy. In examining ethno-symbolist representations in Diwan Al Habsi through a post-colonial lens, this study offers a non-Western variation of a proto-nationalist identity formation in Oman.
Keywords: Proto-nationalism, Ethnosymbolism, Colonialism, Oman
The above abstract is a part of the article which was accepted at The 11th International Conference on Languages, Linguistics, Translation and Literature (WWW.TLLL.IR), 1-2 February 2026, Ahwaz.
