Before 1970 Oman, a country larger than Britain with a population of just over one million, had only eight kilometres of paved road and fewer than 100 doctors. The sultan ruled a feudal society unchanged for centuries until he was elbowed aside by his son, the present Sultan Qaboos bin Said. When the new sultan came to power he faced not only the task of guiding Oman into the twentieth century but also the problem ofa war in Dhofar-the southern region that includes a monsoon-washed, green, coastal plain and the Empty Quarter, described by William Thesiger in Arabian Sands.