This book by Dr. Hussein Ghubash, a researcher and writer from the United Arab Emirates, presents the Islamic Imamate system in Oman. It is a unique governance experience that resumed the practice of the Shura system, based on consensus and contract, after the Caliphate state. Extending for more than a thousand years, it represents the sole historical reference for a system of "Arab-Islamic Democracy." Therefore, studying this exceptional experience—its intellectual and political characteristics, its early origins, and the foundations of its continuity—is a significant contribution to Arab-Islamic thought. The depth of this research, which spanned ten years, its complexity, methodology, and its long journey through early Islamic thought and history, and subsequently through Omani history, offers a serious and in-depth reading of this region's history, shedding light on the reality of this important and little-known Islamic experience.

"The author has managed to handle his study with complete objectivity and impartiality. Thanks to this, his important contribution to the history of the Arab-Islamic world has allowed him to highlight the democratic aspect of the concept of authority in the Imamate as it evolved in Oman. This type of intellectual contribution about the Arab-Islamic world is extremely important, especially in our present time, where there is an urgent need to inform the West, and indeed the entire world, about the positive implications offered by the Islamic concept of authority."
- Professor Maurice Robin, University of Nanterre

• Publisher: Dar Al-Farabi for Publishing and Distribution
• Author: Hussein Ghubash
• Year of Publication: 2006
• Number of Pages: 416
• ISBN: 9789953711518