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Afghanistan, a country with a long and complex history, underwent dramatic developments 1970s. In 1973 the last King Zahir Shah (1914 - 2007, r. since 1933) was replaced in a coup d'etat by his cousin and former prime minister Mohammad Daud, who stayed in power until April 1978 overthrown himself by a military intervention.
"On 27 April 1978 the world heard that there had been a successful military coup in Afghanistan. The régime headed by Mohammad Daud, which had itself come to power through a coup in July 1973, had been suddenly overthrown by tanks and jet planes that struck in the Afghan capital, Kabul. At first it seemed as if this was yet another military intervention which, although violent and abrupt, involved no major shift in the policies, social character or international alignment of those in power: a change comparable to Daud’s own coup, or to others in neighbouring Pakistan, Bangladesh, and the Arab world. Yet within days it became clear that the announcements of radical change coming over Radio Kabul were more than just the ritual demagogy of military coups: something rather more substantial had occurred." Fred Halliday on https://newleftreview.org/issues/i112/articles/fred-halliday-revolution-in-afghanistan
See images of 1970 taken on a private trip from Germany to Kabul on the land route in a VW beetle
Haile Selassie (1892-1975) was ruler of Abyssinia (Ethiopia and Eritrea) until 1974. The quite rare unoffical photo (probably at the airport) was taken by Erich Holm von Prosch during his visit there.
An interesting article was published in the 'Spiegel' in 1954 on the occasion of his state visit to the Federal Republic of Germany. To the article
India and the Gulf States
Relations between the Indian subcontinent and the Persian/Arabian Gulf stretch back millennia and have left many traces, both tangible and intangible, to the present day.
Coins minted in India under British rule (Raj) were the main means of payment used in the small sheikhdoms in the northeast of the Arabian Peninsula during the 19th and the first half of the 20th century.
A fine example is a rupee from 1840 bearing the portrait of Queen Victoria and the inscription "East India Company" which was counter marked in the 1960s with an intriguing design: a gazelle and the inscriptions "Qatar and Dubai."
The Letter of the Prophet (pbuh) displayed in the National Museum of Oman in Muscat, which opened its doors in 2016, is one of several documents claining to have been written during the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad (c. 570 CE in Mecca - 632 CE in Medina).
The label at the showcase in the museum gives the following information :
Letter of the Prophet Muhammad,
to Abd and Jaifar, joint Kings of Oman (facsimile),
Ink on leather,
8 AH/ 630 CE.
It clearly states that the document on display is a faksimile (a one to one copy) but doesn't say where the original is kept.
For more information see the article by LAKSHMI KOTHANETH in the Oman Observer from May 8, 2019 - link below
National Museum of Oman Images
Bifolium from a Qur'an manuscript known as the Mushaf al-Hadina (Nurse's Qur'an), copied in a bold, angular cursive script with colourful vowel marks.
Made for a female patron, the nursemaid of ruler al-Muizz ibn Badis of the Zirid dynasty of Ifrigiya, who reigned over the central Maghreb region in the 4th century AH (11th century CE).