Page 101 - UAE Truncal States

Chapter Two

Kunud, 'Abadilah, Baluchis and Persians, but they became the
principal “power behind the throne” in Kalba's successful bid for
independence in 1937.121 There were no nomadic Naqbiyln; the entire
tribe was engaged in the settled occupations of fishing and
agriculture.

Ghafalah
In 1960 only 197 Ghafalah were counted in the five northern Slates.
At the time when the Gazetteer was compiled, this entirely beduin
tribe was described as follows: “A nomadic tribe, inhabiting the
plain country inland of Ras-al-Khaimah and Umm-al-Qaiwain but
not extending into the hills; the Jiri plain and its immediate
neighbourhood are their favourite habitat. They are a small tribe and
probably do not number more than 500 souls. In politics they are
Ghafiriyah and they are generally well disposed to the Shaikh of Abu
Dhabi, whom they have frequently assisted in warfare, but at the
present time their closest relations are with Umm-al-Qaiwain;
. . . they own camels and live by selling firewood and charcoal in the
coast towns. They are credited with the possession of 700 camels, 40
donkeys, 100 cattle, and 1,000 sheep and goats.”122

Other tribes
All the tribes which have been described above lived almost
exclusively within the territory of the former Qasimi Empire.123 Only
a few members of these tribes had even by 1968 left that area to settle
in Dubai or Abu Dhabi. Some of the tribes of the northern
shaikhdoms, such as the Za'ab, have close links with another branch
of the same tribe living in the Sultanate of Oman. Others, such as the
A1 'Ali, are related to Arab tribes living on the Persian side of the
Gulf.
An enumeration of tribes in the Trucial States has always met with
the hazard of omitting some tribe or faction which considers itself
independent or of citing names which according to some local people
represent only a subsection of a tribe. Therefore the alphabetical lists
of tribes of Trucial Oman in the Gazetteer and in Table (d) of the
census published by the Development Office in 1968 are not
identical.124 The minor tribes and splinter-groups whose names have
not been mentioned in this chapter are of little importance, and to list
them all would not add to the understanding of the tribal system of
the Trucial States.

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