Page 105 - UAE Truncal States
P. 105

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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