Musallam bin Nufl

{{Short description|Omani politician}}

Musallam bin Nufl (?-July 7, 2013), was a key insurgent leadership figure of the Dhofar Liberation Front (DLF) which was the main rebel force in Southern Oman in the 1960s.{{cite book|last1= Walton|first1= Thomas E.|title=Headed The Wrong Way: The British Army's Painful Re-Acquaintance With Its Own COIN Doctrine In Southern Iraq|date=2015|publisher=Pickle Partners Publishing|isbn=9781786252319|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3DBvCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT69|accessdate=25 August 2017|language=en}} He was also a senior member of an influential and large Dhofari desert tribe known as the Bait Kathir (al Kathiri).{{cite book|last1=Takriti|first1=Abdel Razzaq|title=Monsoon Revolution: Republicans, Sultans, and Empires in Oman, 1965–1976|date=2013|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=9780191656194|pages=63–64|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=02loAgAAQBAJ&q=bin+nufl+bait+kathir+oman&pg=PA63|accessdate=26 August 2017|language=en}}{{cite book|last1=Jones|first1=Jeremy|last2=Ridout|first2=Nicholas|title=A History of Modern Oman|date=2015|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9781107009400|page=138|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zh5TCgAAQBAJ&q=Musallim+%22bin+Nufl%22+dhofar+oman&pg=PA138|accessdate=25 August 2017|language=en}}{{cite web|title=Tribes and languages of Dhofar {{!}} About Dhofar|url=https://www.roughguides.com/destinations/middle-east/oman/dhofar/tribes-languages-dhofar/|website=Rough Guides|accessdate=25 August 2017}}

In 1963 Musallam bin Nufl who had been a member of the Omani Sultan's household staff traveled to meet other Omani dissidents living in Dammam in Saudi Arabia, who had twice failed to set up a separate Imamate in the north of the country.{{cite book|last1=Valeri|first1=Marc|title=Oman: Politics and Society in the Qaboos State|date=2009|publisher=Hurst|isbn=9781850659334|pages=57–58|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MKzlyho2KQkC&q=Musallim+%22bin+Nufl%22+dhofar+oman&pg=PA58|accessdate=25 August 2017|language=en}}{{cite web|title=Oman: The Death of the Last Feudal Arab State|url=https://www.chris-kutschera.com/A/Oman%201970.htm|accessdate=25 August 2017}} Bin Nufl and the DLF would commence guerrilla operations on his return from Iraq and Saudi Arabia later in 1963.{{cite book|last1=Marston|first1=Daniel|last2=Malkasian|first2=Carter|title=Counterinsurgency in Modern Warfare|date=2011|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=9781849086523|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=49TvCwAAQBAJ&q=bin+nufl+bait+kathir+oman&pg=PT148|accessdate=25 August 2017|language=en}} The DLF though would wait till 1965 before declaring its intent although it would have to wait until the British withdrawal from neighboring Aden in 1967 before receiving a further injection of support from the now avowed Marxist People's Democratic Republic of Yemen.{{cite web|last1=Walton|first1=Thomas E.|title=Headed the Wrong Way: The British Army's Painful ReAcquaintance with Its Own COIN Doctrine in Southern Iraq, Page 77|url=http://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a547320.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170303134721/http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a547320.pdf|url-status=live|archive-date=March 3, 2017|publisher=US Army|accessdate=25 August 2017}} According to official reports in February 1966 Musallam bin Nufl was seriously injured whilst attempting smuggle arms from Saudi Arabia into Oman, the convoy that he was leading was interdicted by Omani armed forces and all vehicles destroyed.{{cite journal|last1=McKeown|first1=Major J H|title=Britain and Oman. The Dhofar War and its Significance|journal=University of Cambridge, MPhil Dissertation|date=1981|page=28}}

In 1968 a conference of senior leaders of the various liberation factions decided to opt for a more Marxist approach to achieving success against Western-backed royal families. Musallam bin Nufl and other key leaders of the DLF rejected the more Marxist regional anti-British cause, choosing to stick with their more narrow nationalist and separatist agenda in Dhofar.{{cite book|last1=Halliday|first1=Fred|title=Arabia Without Sultans, Chapter 11|date=2013|publisher=Saqi|isbn=9780863567148|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VkYhBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT198|accessdate=25 August 2017|language=en}} In fact once the highly conservative Sultan Said bin Taimur was replaced by his son Qaboos bin Said in 1970 many in the original DLF leadership group (including Musallam bin Nufl and Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah) allied themselves with new and more progressive Sultan; they reasoned that with the change in ruler in the Sultanate the DLF had achieved what it needed.{{cite book|last1=Jones|first1=Jeremy|last2=Ridout|first2=Nicholas|title=A History of Modern Oman|date=2015|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9781107009400|page=143|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zh5TCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA138|accessdate=25 August 2017|language=en}}Ibid. p152