Oman Memory CenterScholarly paper archive

From a Green Stronghold to a Missionary and Military Frontier: Representations of Al Jabal Al Akhdar in British and American Discourse

min Maʻqil Akhḍar ilá Ḥudūd Tabshīrīyah wa-ʻAskarīyah: Taṣwīrāt al-Jabal al-Akhḍar fī al-Khiṭābayn al-Brīṭānī wa-al-Amrīkī

من معقل أخضر إلى حدود تبشيرية وعسكرية: تصويرات الجبل الأخضر في الخِطابين البريطاني والأمريكي

Hilāl ibn Saʻīd ibn Muḥammad al-Ḥajrī
د. هلال بن سعيد بن محمد الحجري
Conference: The First Fig and Olive Forum — Al Jabal Al Akhdar, 2026
Romanized conference title: Multaqá al-Tīn wa-al-Zaytūn al-Awwal
Language of the paper: Arabic — this page presents the English metadata layer.
Permanent citation ID: MHF-TEENZAYTOON-036

Abstract

This study explores British and American conceptions of Al Jabal Al Akhdar in Oman between the early nineteenth and the late twentieth centuries, through travel literature, geographical, historical, missionary and political studies, and war memoirs. All of these writings display imperial interests, yet the early British explorers of the mountain — Wellsted, Miles and Cox — concentrated principally on terrain, climate and the characteristics of the population within a context of mapping and imperial control, while American missionaries such as Zwemer and Thoms were occupied with exploring the possibilities of conversion. The study examines how far attitudes towards religion and race permeate the different accounts, and the shifts that occurred in the portrayal of Al Jabal Al Akhdar from a site of exploration and mission to a site of counter-insurgency. The first part treats British travel literature and geography of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries concerning the Arabian Peninsula, together with the accounts of missionaries from the United States, considering the journeys of James Wellsted (1835), Charles Cole (1845), Samuel Miles (1876) and Percy Cox (1902).

Keywords

Colonial discourseTravel writingMissionary accountsAl Jabal Al AkhdarOrientalismBritish Empire

How to cite

Ḥajrī, Hilāl ibn Saʻīd ibn Muḥammad. "min Maʻqil Akhḍar ilá Ḥudūd Tabshīrīyah wa-ʻAskarīyah: Taṣwīrāt al-Jabal al-Akhḍar fī al-Khiṭābayn al-Brīṭānī wa-al-Amrīkī" [From a Green Stronghold to a Missionary and Military Frontier: Representations of Al Jabal Al Akhdar in British and American Discourse]. Paper presented at Multaqá al-Tīn wa-al-Zaytūn al-Awwal, Wilāyat al-Jabal al-Akhḍar, 2026. MHF-TEENZAYTOON-036

Catalog record

Romanization follows the ALA-LC Arabic table used by the Library of Congress and the British Library. The original Arabic is carried in the parallel MARC 880 fields, linked by subfield $6 — the standard treatment for non-English resources.

Show the MARC 21 record
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=245  10$6245-02$amin Maʻqil Akhḍar ilá Ḥudūd Tabshīrīyah wa-ʻAskarīyah: Taṣwīrāt al-Jabal al-Akhḍar fī al-Khiṭābayn al-Brīṭānī wa-al-Amrīkī /$cHilāl ibn Saʻīd ibn Muḥammad al-Ḥajrī.
=242  10$aFrom a Green Stronghold to a Missionary and Military Frontier: Representations of Al Jabal Al Akhdar in British and American Discourse$yeng
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=500  \\$aConference theme (in Arabic): التراث العلمي والثقافي.
=520  3\$aThis study explores British and American conceptions of Al Jabal Al Akhdar in Oman between the early nineteenth and the late twentieth centuries, through travel literature, geographical, historical, missionary and political studies, and war memoirs. All of these writings display imperial interests, yet the early British explorers of the mountain — Wellsted, Miles and Cox — concentrated principally on terrain, climate and the characteristics of the population within a context of mapping and imperial control, while American missionaries such as Zwemer and Thoms were occupied with exploring the possibilities of conversion. The study examines how far attitudes towards religion and race permeate the different accounts, and the shifts that occurred in the portrayal of Al Jabal Al Akhdar from a site of exploration and mission to a site of counter-insurgency. The first part treats British travel literature and geography of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries concerning the Arabian Peninsula, together with the accounts of missionaries from the United States, considering the journeys of James Wellsted (1835), Charles Cole (1845), Samuel Miles (1876) and Percy Cox (1902).
=546  \\$aText in Arabic; title also romanized (ALA-LC); abstract and keywords in English.
=653  \0$aColonial discourse
=653  \0$aTravel writing
=653  \0$aMissionary accounts
=653  \0$aAl Jabal Al Akhdar
=653  \0$aOrientalism
=653  \0$aBritish Empire
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