Page 94 - Arabian Studies (I)

80 Arabian Studies I

genealogical structures), and the indigenous population are clearly
distinguished.
We may therefore perhaps conclude that the baycisirah of Oman
are the earliest inhabitants of the area who have been more or less
rejected by later settlers; retaining something of their own clan
organisation they represent a numerically important part of the
population. The principles and ethics of Ibaclism have never broken
down these ancient social barriers and the baycisirah have as a result
stayed outside the tribal organisation in the villages of Oman; their
status has remained that of niawali

Assimilated groups: the bayadir
Unlike the baycisirah the majority of the Persianised population of
the villages (the majus, the ahl al-bilad, the ‘uluj of the early Islamic
records) were assimilated into Arab tribal structure. A particularly
interesting example may be traced through the kind of agricultural
workers called bayadir.
The duties of the bidar are clearly understood in Oman. For
example in TbrT his work is solely confined to watering (yasqi) and
cutting the ripe dates (j’ajidd). For this work he receives one
',adh(a)qz per palm and it is a common sight at the time of the date
harvest to see palm trees with the single bunch of the bayadir’s dates
hanging from it. In IzkT, on the other hand, an informant who was
present when the TbrT practice was being explained, stated that the
duties of the bidar extended to other skilled work on the palms, such
as fertilising the female flower (j’enabbit) or tying up with string
(wasal, misiil) the bunches of dates as they form 0’ahazzir, Rustaq
dialect yekhallij). For this his payment is also in kind,4 but instead
of the talVah/taVan of one 'idhq which he receives in TbrT he receives
the biddrah of one tenth of the crop. As a bidar he does not work
!
under the palm trees (e.g. weeding)5 this being the duty of the
haris.6 A bidar may, of course, perform other agricultural duties but
these are clearly distinguished from his badarah duties: for example a
bidar from al-STb on the Batinah coast stated that he received MT
(qursh) 140 per year (hoi) for these other duties but always dates for
his palm duties. SalimI in his bob al-sharik fVWamal and bdb al-ijdra
in the Jawhar confirms that the rights and duties of various groups of
agricultural labour are closely observed in Oman. It is also clear from
his bdb al-sawaqi and from the writer’s own observations that the
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bayadir are responsible for the day-to-day distribution of the water
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within the village gardens and are answerable to the falaj *arif (the
supervisor of the irrigation channels) and not to the individual
owners of the gardens.
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