Page 105 - UAE Truncal States

Chapter Two

Kumzar and other places on the coast of Ru’us al Jibal . . the
impression which he derived from intercourse with the people was
that they had a predilection for the Government of the Saiyid of
Masqat and were animated by an implacable hatred of the Qa-
wasim.”133 It is therefore not surprising that the Shihiih headmen
repeatedly and actively supported the secession of the SharqiyTn of
Fujairah from Sharjah. However, when it came to negotiating directly
with the British authorities over allowing a telegraph station to be
built in their territory, the Shihuh shaikhs repeatedly denied that
they owed allegiance to the Sultan, although he had a wali stationed
in Khasab. In general the British Government has supported Omani
authority over Ru’us al Jibal. The Sultan’s wali has for several
decades now resided in Khasab; he also has representatives in Dibah
and LTmah.
The inability of the Qawasim Rulers to dominate the inhabitants of
Ru’us al Jibal, while they were prepared to accept the sovereignty of
the distant and rather ineffective authority of the Sultan, demon­
strates the tenuous nature of government before modern communica­
tions. In the absence of armies, there was little a Ruler could do to
keep a tribe or an area under his domination if the people thought
that they would be better off without him. Thus the Qasimi Empire
never was a very coherent political entity and it disintegrated quite
readily. In comparison the social interdependence which existed
between the desert and the coast in the case of the Bani Yas and their
associates provided a better base for a territorially extensive but
nevertheless quite coherent political unit.

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