A friend of mine had been posted in Oman. His gardener had scars around his neck, from wearing a slave collar as a boy.
Sultan Qaboos, who just passed away in January, freed the slaves in his first year in office (1970), and built modern Oman from scratch. The country had only six miles of paved roads when he took over. He was a real Godsend for Oman.
Didn’t realise Qaboos had died.
I remember when the British gently pushed his father to abdicate, they were afraid his “traditional” ways would encourage support for the Soviet backed communist agitators.
Example; Criminals were often put in holes in the ground with a grating above them, fed scraps and so on. When he was told that was cruel and would inflame public opinion he was most indignant saying they didn’t last long enough to suffer much !!
Qaboos did a great job indeed.