From March 15 to March 31, 2017, within the framework of the project "The material world of the Koran (the daily life of Arabia of the Prophet’s times)", implemented by the MAE RAS, the Leiden Institute of Rational Monotheism (President Aslbek Musin) and the “Manuscripta Orientalia” magazine, with the support of the Ministry for Affairs religion and religious property of the Sultanate of Oman, an international historical and ethnographic expedition took place. Route of the expedition: Muscat - Rustak - Nahal - Wadi Mistal - Wadi Bani Kharus - Tanuf - Bahla - Jibrin - al-Hamra - Misfat al-Abryriyin - Wadi Gul - Jabal Shams - Khaimah - Salalah - Dukm - Sur - Ibra - Muscat. Domestic ethnographers for the first time had the opportunity to implement a research project in the territory of Oman, in one of the most original historical and cultural areas of Arabia, which preserved the richest material for building ethno-cultural models and reconstructions.

The main goal of the expedition was the collection of materials for the scientific provision of the publication of the main results of the studies devoted to the material world of the Koran and the daily life of Arabia at the turn of the 6th and 7th centuries, one of the most important periods in the history of the Middle East, when the formation of general Arab state institutions was taking place, and the ethnic consolidation of the Arabian tribes was ending, a new ideology arose, which soon united many millions of followers. The study was implemented within the framework of the program Corpus Coranicum Petropolitana, a joint project of LIRM and the Manuscripta Orientalia magazine. The book will include a series of photo and video illustrations, elements of augmented reality, mobile applications that will be available on the project website.

For fifteen days of field work the expedition on two off-road vehicles passed about three thousand kilometers, brought dozens of hours of video materials, and also more than 6000 professional photographs.

Within the framework of the projects "Video Ratsiopedia" (LIRM) and "Ijma '= Consent" (http://ijma.kunstkamera.ru/) (MAE RAS) interviews with Sheikh Abdallah b. Muhammad b. Abdullah al-Salmi, head of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Religious Property of the Sultanate of Oman, and the influential Omani theologian Sheikh Aflakh b. Ahmad al-Khalili were taken.

The head of the expedition is prof. E. A. Rezvan, deputy director of the MAE RAS for scientific work and editor-in-chief of the Manuscripta Orientalia magazine. Gershom Kipristschi, director of the LIRM, Anna Kudryavtseva, author of the study "The Koran as a source for the study of the material culture of Arabia at the turn of the 6th-7th centuries." Tatyana Solovyeva, head of the Strategic Communications Department of the MAE RAS and project director, photo artist Tatyana Fedorova, project operator Alexander Soloviev, cameraman operator Ivan Golubkov and Igor Pankov, a specialist in the history of mystical ascetic trends in Islam took place in expedition. The participants of the expedition from the Oman side were well-known Omani photographer, designer and video operator Omar Ahmad Saif al-Busaidi, deputy director of the Religious Media Department of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Religious Property Ali Huwaisil al-Khatali, editor of the PR department of the Ministry for Religious Affairs and Religious Property, as well as local historians Husain Abdallah al-Harbi and Saif Sulaiman Nasser ar-Ruzayki.

Organizers of the expedition sincerely thank Sheikh Abdallah b. Muhammad b. Abdullah al-Salmi, the Minister for Religious and Religious Property of the Sultanate of Oman and Dr. Abdurrahman Al-Salmi, the editor-in-chief of the magazine "At-Tafahum", without whose constant and sincere assistance the expedition project would never have been realized.