Page 108 - UAE Truncal States

Administering a Tribal Society

Sha'am and Dibah. Al the turn of the century an estimated 45,500
settled people of a great number of different tribes lived in the two
main centres, Sharjah town and Ra’s al Khaimah, and in a fair
number of smaller ports and in villages in the wadis.6 They were all
under the administration or hulwm of members of the Qasimi family,
then numbering only about 20 males. There was also a fluctuating
number of beduin in the area, whose relationship with the Qawasim
rulers depended on the political situation of the moment.
The patriarch of the Qawasim Rulers, Sultan bin Saqr, did not
reside permanently in either Sharjah or Ra’s al Khaimah. He moved
around the area, including Qishim, and delegated the administration
to his brothers and later to his sons, many of whom figured
prominently in the history of the Qasimi empire for many decades
after Sultan's death.
In Sharjah. Salih bin Saqr,7 a half-brother of Shaikh Sultan, was
wali until 1838, but to the regret of the British authorities, who saw in
him one of the most enlightened shaikhs on the coast, he was
replaced by Saqr, son of Sultan bin Saqr by a Qasimi wife. Since it
was the duly of the wali to levy the pearling tax on behalf of his
father, the temptation was considerable to gain popularity by
supporting those who wanted a reduction in the annual pearling tax,
then 7 Maria Theresa Dollars per diver. Thereby Saqr also obtained
some popular support for a move to make himself the independent
Ruler of Sharjah. In order to avoid fighting, his father the Qasimi
Ruler agreed to hand over complete control to his son in exchange for
part of the revenue of Sharjah as a tribute. It seems, however, that
Saqr bin Sultan’s rule did not please all the inhabitants of Sharjah,
but with his father’s tacit toleration Saqr remained the virtually !.
independent Ruler of Sharjah until his death in battle in 1846.
However, Sharjah had not achieved permanent independence, for
Sultan bin Saqr appointed as the next wali another of his sons,
'Abdullah, whose mother belonged to an Al 'Ali family from the .
Persian side of the Gulf. He also was killed in battle, in 1855,
whereafter the reins of government in Sharjah changed hands
several limes between relatives of Sultan bin Saqr. He was himself
too aged to interfere, and died in 1866 at the age of over eighty-five.
For a brief two years another son of Shaikh Sultan, Khalid, who had
for some time held control of Sharjah, was able to reunite Sharjah
with Ra’s al Khaimah and rule both as one Qasimi empire. After his
death in 1868 the two principalities were once again separated.

83