Page 124 - UAE Truncal States

Administering a Tribal Society

unsuccessful, but when Ihe increasingly suspicious and oppressive
Saif lost the support of the population of Hamrfyah, Humaid was
able to take over with their help when Saif was away in August 1931.
Saif’s attempt to reverse the outcome and murder Humaid came to
nothing.51 Hamrfyah remained under Humaid’s leadership but did
not gain independence, although the matter was discussed again in
1937 at a time when oil concession agreements were being negotiated
for the Trucial Coast.
The village of Khan, being so near to Sharjah town, even within
reach of the fort’s guns, was administered usually by a tribal leader.
There were A1 Bu Mahair, Mazarf' and Manasfr living in the village,
owning about 75 pearling boats and a number of fishing boats.
During Khalid bin Ahmad’s rule in Sharjah, relations between him
and the headman, Muhammad bin 'Ubaid bin Jarash, suffered
because of arguments arising from the problems posed by debtors
absconding and seeking refuge in another pearling community. In
1917 the Political Resident intervened, arriving on a man-of-war
because disturbance of the peace at sea and loss of British Indian
lives and properly had been feared. In the subsequent agreement
Muhammad bin 'Ubaid undertook to give at the beginning of each
diving season 50 bags of rice to the Ruler of Sharjah.52 In a letter to
the Political Resident in August 1920, however, Muhammad bin
’Ubaid complained that Khalid bin Ahmad had frequently failed to
fulfil his part of the deal between the Ruler and the wali of the people
of Khan,53 and that, when Khan had been plundered three times,
Khalid had made no effort to protect the inhabitants nor to retrieve
the stolen property of Khan citizens. As a result the people of Khan
also became dissatisfied with their wali, Muhammad bin ’Ubaid.5-1 A
reconciliation was effected between Khalid bin Ahmed and Muham­
mad bin 'Ubaid in August 1920, and the Residency Agent reported
that "the Headman now takes part in the hostilities between Shaikh
Khalid and the Manasfr tribesmen . . .,’’ which was obviously to be
understood as a sign of at least temporary good relations.55
In September 1931 Muhammad bin 'Ubaid died in Bahrain, but the
Ruler of Sharjah, then Khalid’s nephew Sultan bin Saqr, was simply
informed by letter from a certain Jarash bin ’Ali bin Rashid that the
inhabitants of Khan had accepted him, Jarash, as their headman in
place of the deceased.56 This obviously separatist course did not
promote good relations between Sharjah and its nominal de­
pendency. Sultan bin Saqr found it necessary to bring Khan firmly

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