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Chapter Two

                  Their lamimah, Sultan bin Muhammad al Hamuda, of the A1 Bu
                  Kharaiban section, was the Sultan’s wall. But being irrevocably split
                  into two sections, the Al Bu Kharaiban and the Al Bu Shamis,82 the
                  NaTm were weakened by constant internal strife. The tamimcih
                  needed support in asserting his authority over the other elements of
                  the NaTm in Dhahirah, at the western end of the Wadi Jizi, in the
                  Wadi Hatta and in the region adjoining al Jau in the direction of
                  Sharjah and 'Ajman; the latter was being wrested from their hands
                  by the Bani Kn'ab and the Bani Qilab. Occasional support came from
                  the Ruler of 'Ajman and the headman of Hamriyah on the coast, both
                  of whom were members of a Na'im subsection; Sultan bin Muham­
                  mad al Hamuda became, however, very much dependent on the
                  assistance and friendship of Shaikh Zayid bin Khalilah, who had
                  married one of his daughters.
                    The NaTm of Buraimi were certainly not in a position to make
                  independent policy decisions within the oasis or outside it during
                  Zayid bin Khalifah’s rule. On every move they consulted him either
                  personally or through his Dhawahir representative Ahmad bin
                  Hilal.03 In 1895, for instance, the 'Awamir declared war against the
                  NaTm, and Sultan bin Muhammad al Hamuda wrote to Ahmad bin
                  Hilal: ‘‘We could not do anything against them because our interests
                  and yours are one. . . . Whatever you decide please let us know
                  because they [the 'Awamir] are with you.” When in 1905 the Bani
                  Qitab built a fort in the traditionally NaTmi-controlled Wadi Hatta
                  and attacked caravans moving through this important pass between
                  Dubai and the Batinah, and took the village of Masfut, the tamlmah of
                  the NaTm appealed from his fort in Buraimi village to Zayid for help,
                  through Ahmad bin Hilal: ‘‘We are relying on God and on him in all
                  matters ... for as you know we are [in Zayid’s hand] like an article in
                  the hand of its maker.” At a meeting of the Trucial Shaikhs in Dubai
                  in April 1905 to settle this dispute, Zayid stood up for the NaTm, and
                  Masfut was returned to them.84
                    The meeting in Dubai is an illustration of Zayid’s successful
                  pursuit of the two closely related aims. First, seven villages in the
                  Buraimi Oasis paid tax and had become entirely loyal to the Al Bu
                  Falah. As Captain P.Z. Cox, who travelled to Buraimi in 1902 and
                  1905, put it: “The real power in the neighbourhood is the Shaikh of
                 Abu Dhabi, whose material possessions and consequent influence in
                 the oasis are yearly increasing,  ”85  Secondly, he had been able to
                 increase his influence over both settled and beduin tribes outside the
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