Sultan Qaboos, Oman's absolute ruler, is a man of culture. He plays the organ and the lute, composes music and has his own highly regarded symphony orchestra. The vulgarity of Dubai and the brutality of Iran are simply not his style. He is also a long-standing friend of the west, and of Britain in particular. In his younger days he served in the British army and later donated sports pavilions bear
![Oman's Sultan Qaboos: a classy despot | Brian Whitaker](https://cdn-ak-scissors.b.st-hatena.com/image/square/72e215a70f9ccb24abd1599f1bca70d9068754de/height=288;version=1;width=512/https%3A%2F%2Fi.guim.co.uk%2Fimg%2Fstatic%2Fsys-images%2FGuardian%2FPix%2Fpictures%2F2011%2F3%2F4%2F1299240668936%2Fsultan-qaboos-oman-007.jpg%3Fwidth%3D1200%26height%3D630%26quality%3D85%26auto%3Dformat%26fit%3Dcrop%26overlay-align%3Dbottom%252Cleft%26overlay-width%3D100p%26overlay-base64%3DL2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctb3BpbmlvbnMtYWdlLTIwMTEucG5n%26enable%3Dupscale%26s%3D3b6c68144235329cc2977dc0e2029b07)