A Sea of Wealth is a sweeping retelling of the Omani position in the Indian Ocean. Here the reign of Oman’s longest-serving ruler, Saʿid bin Sultan, offers a keyhole through which we can peer to see the entangled histories of Arabia and the Gulf, South Asia, and East Africa in the Omani Empire. In centering this empire, Nicholas P. Roberts shows how Arabs, Africans, and Asians actively shaped the conditions of commercial engagement in the Western Indian Ocean, uniting the empire’s domains into a single oceanic marketplace in which Europeans and Americans had to accede if they wished to succeed. Drawing upon sources in three languages from four continents, A Sea of Wealth is a vivid narrative full of colorful characters that upturns many conventional understandings of our modern world.
Nicholas P. Roberts was formerly Assistant Professor of History at Norwich University and the Howell Fellow for Arabian Peninsula and Gulf Studies at the University of Virginia. He is currently earning a JD at Case Western Reserve University.
"I don't know of a better read on the history of the Omani Empire than A Sea of Wealth. In taking the biography of Saʿid bin Sultan and setting it against a truly global backdrop, Nicholas Roberts has produced an outstanding work of history. He is one of the best writers in the field."—Fahad Ahmad Bishara, author of A Sea of Debt and Monsoon Voyagers
"A Sea of Wealth is full of new insights, clever takes, and a wealth of evidence. This book will fill the sails of world historians and propel them toward new arguments about the formation of the modern world."—Thomas F. McDow, author of Buying Time: Debt and Mobility in the Western Indian Ocean
"A remarkable study of a forgotten empire that introduces scholars to an invaluable curation of hitherto disparate sources. A Sea of Wealth promises to be of enduring scholarly and pedagogical value. It is both fascinating and so very well written."—Isa Blumi, author of Destroying Yemen: What Chaos in Arabia Tells Us about the World
"An insightful and compelling examination of the Omani empire in the nineteenth century. In this well-crafted and engaging book, Roberts provides an incisive analysis of Omani expansionism in the Western Indian Ocean, offering a critical lens through which to view Indian Ocean history."—Jeremy Prestholdt, author of Domesticating the World: African Consumerism and the Genealogies of Globalization
290 pp.6 x 9Illus: 8 b/w
9780520415782$29.95|£25.00Paper
Aug 2025