King Charles Welcomes Sultan of Oman in Arabic at Windsor Banquet
King Charles welcomed the Sultan of Oman in Arabic at a formal banquet at Windsor Castle on Oct. 20.
The king used four Arabic phrases during his speech honoring Sultan Haitham bin Tarik of Oman. One translated as “Welcome to a visitor of whom one never tires,” according to Town & Country.
The dinner was the centerpiece of the sultan’s three-day state visit to Britain, the highest-level visit for a foreign leader, with full ceremony and military honors. The visit began Tuesday, Oct. 20, with King Charles, 77, and Queen Camilla, 79, as hosts at Windsor, the king’s residence west of London.
Charles mixed traditional quotations with Modern Standard Arabic, the formal version of the language used in speeches and news broadcasts across the Arab world. It was not his first try. In December 2024 he greeted the Emir of Qatar at Buckingham Palace with “Assalamu Alaikum,” meaning peace be upon you. It emerged in 2013, when Charles was still Prince of Wales, the title for the heir to the throne, that he was taking Arabic lessons.
In his speech, the king also praised the sultan’s work to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway between Oman and Iran through which much of the world’s oil moves, according to the BBC. He said he was especially glad about the relationship between his elder son, Prince William, first in line to the throne, and the sultan’s son, Crown Prince Sayyid Theyazin bin Haitham.
The seating put the alliance on display. The sultan sat between the king and Catherine, Princess of Wales, while the queen and William sat across the table on either side of the crown prince. The princess, who uses Catherine as her first name in formal style, attended with the other senior royals.
About 160 guests filled St. George’s Hall, the castle’s long banqueting hall with its high vaulted ceiling, for the white-tie dinner. The menu started with crab and langoustine tartine, followed by pot-roasted Windsor pheasant with spiced quince and braised fondant potatoes. Dessert was baked Alaska with Balmoral plum and ice cream made with honey from the Windsor estate. Balmoral is the royal family’s private estate in Scotland.
Instead of a cocktail after dinner, staff served a spiced tea inspired by kahwa, the Omani ritual of spiced coffee.
What makes this stand out is the work behind it. A few phrases in another language do not change policy. They do tell guests their culture was studied before they arrived. For a three-day visit built on protocol, that was the point.
