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Aristocratic architecture
By NICOLA SHIPWAY

“The austere façade and crenellations conceal from view the gorgeous architectural trappings of a palace”

Jabrin Castle ranks as one of the most impressive historical buildings in the country. Beautifully and sensitively repaired, it represents the culmination of seven years’ restoration work and was the first such project to be undertaken by the Ministry of Heritage and Culture.

Although designed as a fort, the castle was traditionally home to royalty rather than occupied by military. In fact, its location, slap bang in the middle of an open plain fringed by mountains, made it vulnerable to potential raiders. Accordingly it is no surprise that the austere façade and crenellations conceal from view the gorgeous architectural trappings of a palace – scalloped arches, painted ceilings, latticework balustrades and so on.

Power and learning
A castle for a horse
Built c. 1670 when the Ya’ariba dynasty was at its zenith, Jabrin was the work of Imam Bil’arub Bin Sultan, who died at the castle in 1692 (visitors can still see his tomb near the indoor falaj system). The Imam is said to have been a colourful character; one room on the second floor was allocated to his favourite horse, for example. Notwithstanding this eccentricity, the castle was a seat of learning, reflecting its name – jabrin means ‘unity, peace and the call of Islam’ in Arabic. In Travels in Oman (The Oleander Press), Philip Ward notes that tantalisingly little is known of the religious college established by Bil’arub, although some scholars’ names have survived, including that of the poet Rashid bin Khamis al Habashi al A‘ma.

Shady courtyards, Passages, towers, staterooms
The castle occupies the northern quarter of a fortified courtyard, beyond which are a new car park and shaded area for footsore tourists. A single gate in the eastern corner gives on to this wide outer courtyard, providing a view of the castle walls, which are constructed from irregular stone slabs quarried from nearby mountains and overlaid with a plaster called sarooj.

The rectangular castle is arranged round two inner courtyards, both open to the sky. Entering the main doorway is a surprise for the first-time visitor because the wide forecourt gives no indication
of the sophisticated manipulation of space beyond: passing through a dim passage you emerge in a cool, shady inner courtyard that soars upwards to the sky, its smooth rendered walls punctuated by exquisite arches and slender windows partly screened by fretwork.

The interior of the castle sprawls over several storeys, all with varying floor levels, and the result is labyrinthine, a warren of passages, towers and rooms that range from kitchens equipped with platters and cooking vessels to guards’ quarters, a prison and various staterooms. The date store is particularly evocative, a dingy chamber with a grooved floor, the ruts designed to channel date juice away from stacked fruit and into containers. Pouring boiling date syrup on to marauders was a common means of defence at strongholds such as Jabrin or Nizwa Fort.

An eye for detail
Carving, painting, antiques
Jabrin is blessed with a number of details unparalleled elsewhere in the sultanate. In the Sun and Moon Room for instance, astrological, floral and geometric designs weave across the ceiling and round the niches in the walls. One particularly fine corridor has a barrel vault ceiling ornately decorated with calligraphic moulding. Throughout Jabrin are ceilings painted with carpet-like complexity, panels of carving and plasterwork, lustrous timber doors and studded chests. Antiques, cushions and carpets furnish several of the rooms, enabling visitors to imagine how the space was used in the past.

Among the castle’s admirers is Muscat-based artist Sarah White, who often refers back to the building; motifs from Jabrin are a recurrent theme in her vibrant, architecture-inspired paintings. Sarah believes that the palace reflects the peaceful, prosperous period in which it was built, an era that she describes as Oman’s golden age. “Jabrin has a feeling of grandeur and of grace,” she says. If you explore only one historical building in Oman, make it this one. Jabrin is about 220km southwest of Muscat, near Bahla and Nizwa. It is open daily; admission costs 500bz.