The music, in the “Arab fanfare” style of anthem is taken from a salute to the Sultan by a British ship in 1932. The bandmaster of the HMS Hawkins, while visiting Muscat, was asked to write a salutation for the Sultan on the occasion of his visiting the Hawkins. The tune was composed and first performed on the occasion of the visit, December 10, 1932. Originally, there were different words to the anthem. When sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said took power in 1970 and changed the name of the country to Oman (from Muscat and Oman), new words were written. Upon Qaboos’ death in 2020, the last three lines of the anthem were changed to remove references to him.

Special thanks to: Michael Jamieson Bristow for some of this information.