Page 48 - UAE Truncal States

T/ic Tribal Structure of Society

I
The secondary dispersal
After the major population migration which brought these tribes to
south-eastern Arabia over a period of about three to four hundred
years had subsided, the process of secondary dispersal took place.
The coherence which the big tribal group had enforced during
prolonged movement, and the occupation of an area as its exclusive
dor, gradually broke up. The tribal components moved in small units
into other areas, either settling in the neighbourhood of other tribes,
or encroaching forcefully on to the clar of other groups, or even
seeking a livelihood on hitherto unoccupied and unused land.
However, the kinship links which had held the original tribe together
for generations throughout its movement across Arabia remained
strong, and the tribe could rally most of its units at a time of crisis
even many centuries after this dispersal had taken place. In addition
to these links the dispersed individual units began to develop new
affinities when they identified themselves with groups which were
geographically near to them or which had adopted the same primary
source of livelihood.
The tribal groups were likely to give preference to any of these
different loyalties and affiliations, be they genealogical, geographical, :
occupational or religious. Mention of this inclination of the popu­
lation units to group and regroup along these very different lines is
important in order to understand how and why some originally local
conflicts set the whole area alight and why the inhabitants let them­
selves so often in history be affected by incidents which happened to I
their distant kinsmen in another part of south-eastern Arabia.
Before the advent of Islam, with the exception of the long-standing
influence of the 'Abd al Qais in Dhahirah, the territory of the UAE
was divided up among a number of groups who had obtained
possession of the areas mostly through the above-mentioned process
of secondary dispersal. One of these groups, the Malik bin Fahm (the I
Harith and Khamam sections) lived in the northern mountains.
Another part of the Malik bin Fahm, together with the Quda'ah,
who included or were related to the Mahra of Dhufar and the Bani
Riyam of inner Oman, spread westwards from the mountains into
northern Dhahirah and to the coast. The 'Abd al Qais were a
powerful, widespread nomadic group and maintained their domin­
ance throughout the Dhahirah. In the southern part of the Dhahirah
and the area around al 'Ain, the old Tu’am, the latter shared the
settlements and grazing with a number of other groups.15
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