The role of place in Omani short stories

The short story occupies a prominent position in modern Omani literature. Over the decades, it has attracted considerable attention from writers, readers and literary critics, becoming one of the country’s most widely practised literary forms.
In her book Omani Narrative Discourse: Genres and Characteristics (1939–2010), Aziza al Tai notes that the short story has maintained a strong presence in Omani literary publications, cultural magazines and literary gatherings.
Against this background, researcher Ahmed al Maawali’s book, The Image of Place in the Omani Short Story, offers a valuable contribution to the study of Omani fiction.
While earlier studies have explored the historical, social and artistic development of the short story, Al Maawali concentrates on one particular element: place.
For him, place is far more than the physical setting in which events unfold. It is an essential part of storytelling, influencing characters, shaping their experiences and revealing the social and cultural meanings beneath the narrative.
Villages, cities, streets, mountains, the sea and traditional aflaj irrigation channels all carry meanings that extend beyond their physical appearance. They reflect memories, emotions, traditions and the changing relationship between people and their surroundings.
The researcher explores these ideas through approximately thirteen Omani short-story collections by writers including Mohammed bin Saif al Rahbi, Mahmoud al Rahbi, Jokha al Harthi, Bushra Khalfan, Suleiman al Maamari and others.
In the first chapter, Al Maawali examines the image of the Omani village.
Traditional mud houses, narrow alleyways, small windows and decorated wooden doors form a familiar landscape. Yet these details also reveal deeper psychological, social and cultural dimensions.
The village often represents tranquillity, belonging and emotional security. Its architecture and everyday surroundings preserve memories of customs and traditions that have shaped Omani identity across generations.
However, the village is also changing. Modern buildings, new lifestyles and shifting social relationships have altered its appearance and the experiences of those who live there.
Through the selected stories, Al Maawali shows how writers capture these transformations, presenting the village as both a place of memory and a community adapting to modern life.
The second chapter turns to the city, where the relationship between people and their surroundings becomes more complicated.
Busy streets, modern houses, shops and crowded public spaces create a different atmosphere. Characters often compare urban life with the familiarity of the village, experiencing feelings of isolation, uncertainty and displacement.
The city can become an unsettling place, reflecting loneliness and the weakening of traditional social connections.
This contrast leads to one of the study’s central ideas: the distinction between familiar and hostile places.
A familiar place offers comfort, security and belonging. A hostile place produces anxiety, alienation or a sense of being lost.
These qualities, however, depend on the relationship between people and their surroundings. The same place may carry different meanings for different characters, depending on their memories and experiences.
Al Maawali therefore presents place as something shaped by human life. Its significance emerges through movement, emotion, memory and personal relationships.
The book also pays attention to the language Omani writers use to describe their surroundings.
Carefully chosen words and vivid descriptions can transform an ordinary setting into an emotionally rich scene. Through language, the physical landscape becomes part of a character’s inner world.
This is particularly evident in stories that draw on Omani heritage, including local myths, traditional customs and the distinctive environments of coastal, rural and mountainous communities.
Such elements strengthen the connection between storytelling and cultural identity, while giving readers a deeper understanding of the society represented in the fiction.
One of the book’s achievements is its ability to bring together these different aspects of place within a coherent critical approach.
There is, nevertheless, room for further exploration. A broader examination of the philosophical and symbolic meanings of place could add another dimension to the research, allowing future studies to investigate how settings communicate ideas beyond their immediate social and psychological significance.
This observation does little to diminish the value of Al Maawali’s work, which offers an important contribution to Omani and Arab literary criticism.
The study also demonstrates how Omani short fiction has developed through the interaction between inherited traditions and modern literary influences.
Its writers have drawn on local environments, collective memory and the changing realities of society to create distinctive narrative worlds.
Ultimately, The Image of Place in the Omani Short Story encourages readers to reconsider the role of setting in fiction.
The sea, the village, the city, the fort and the falaj become essential elements through which writers explore identity, belonging, memory and social change.
Al Maawali’s central achievement is to show that place possesses a narrative life of its own, enriching the story and revealing dimensions of human experience that events and characters alone cannot fully express.
Translated and adapted by Badr al Dhafari
This is an adapted translation of the original Arabic article published in the print edition of the cultural supplement of the Oman Daily newspaper on February 24, 2026. Thani al Hamadani is an Omani writer.