Page 94 - UAE Truncal States

The Tribal Structure of Society

sovereignty on the Arab side of the Gulf. The nomadic population as
well as the few tribal sections who lived in the wadi-oases in the
mountains needed to be on reasonably good terms with whoever
dominated the ports on which they relied for a market as well as for
occasional employment.
The Qasimi domination over the Musandam promontory was
repeatedly contested by the Sultans of Muscat. But from 1850
onwards the sovereignty of the Qawasim shaikhs was firmly
established in the entire coastal and mountainous area north of a line
between Sharjah town and Khaur Kalba. The notable exception was
the inaccessible terrain inhabited by the various sections and allies
of the Shihuh north of Sha'am and Dibah. Since this administrative
entity soon broke up again into independent shaikhdoms, it may
seem arbitrary to use the extent of this former Qasimi empire as a
basis for the enumeration of the tribes in the northern part of the
Trucial States. But the Qasimi-held territory, if Umm al Qaiwain and
'Ajman are also included, represents in fact those areas of the
present State of the UAE which are either mountainous or dominated
by the vicinity of inaccessible and barren heights and their water-
providing wadis. Therefore living conditions in that area are very
different from those in the sandy desert of the Bani Yas shaikhdoms.
Thus the authority of the Bani Yas shaikhs in Abu Dhabi or Dubai
stopped short of the mountains beyond al 'Ain and elsewhere,
although their influence extended from time to time into these
areas.112
The different tribes who have for many generations lived among or
near the mountains either as nomads or in a settled existence have
developed a common socio-economic pattern; having a descendant of
the Qasimi family as overlord set the political stage. On it a
continuous play developed of disputes and changing alliances
between the many neighbouring ports, villages, rulers, walis, head­
men, tribal shaikhs and independent nomadic groups. As was shown
earlier, at times when Abu Dhabi was particularly strong, such as
during the rule of Shaikh Zayid the Great, it also played a part. But
the almost continuous tug-of-war between the shaikhs of Abu Dhabi
and the Qawasim shaikhs for dominance over the usually ‘non-
aligned’ beduin tribes was often carried out by proxy; for instance
when beduin shaikhs took one side or the other in a local dispute.
The description in Chapter Three of the decentralised administration
of the Qasimi Empire gives some insight into this particularly closely

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