Page 47 - UAE Truncal States

V

Chapter Two

easily ruled and administered even from a distance. The desert and
the coasts beyond the mountains were under nobody's rule but that
of transient nomadic communities.
From the second century AD, groups belonging to an Azdite
subdivision of the Qahtani (or Yamani) half of the Arab genealogy
moved together with Quda'ah groups north-eastwards along the
southern coast of Arabia. They first occupied the area south-west of
the settled part of the Hajar range. These Azdite groups claimed as
common ancestor the legendary Malik bin Fahm. They spread his
name far and wide in south-eastern Arabia while they took
possession of many of the pastures and much of the irrigated land. By
the middle of the 6th century the new arrivals from South Arabia
dominated the south-western and western slopes of the Hajar range,
leaving the eastern slopes of the Jabal al Akhdar and the Batinah to
the Sassanid maritime interests for the time being.10 The oases of the
al 'Ain area, then called Tu’am or Taw’am, were well within this
Azdite territory,11 and Tu’am was at times even the main Arab centre
of the interior, while Dibah was the main Arab port.12
Thus, a connection was established with another main Arab
migration route which also brought people through central Arabia to
the countries bordering the Gulf. From then on the major population
influx into south-east Arabia came from the North. The first such
northern waves brought people who either claimed to be of direct
Azdite ancestry or were distantly related to these groups. Most of
them passed through the coastal region of the UAE which is called by
Arab geographers al Bahrayn.13 Using the Tu’am area as a gateway
to the mountain passes to the east and south, they seemed to have
been made welcome by those Azdites who were already in control of
the greater portion of the well-watered wadis. Some tribes of other
origin, notably the 'Abd al Qais, who had very amicable relations
with the Azdites, came to dominate al Bahrayn itself. Other new
arrivals from the north were seen as unwanted intruders. They were
of 'Adnani (Nizari) extraction, which is the second of the two
branches of Arab genealogy. In south-eastern Arabia, as elsewhere
in Arabia, this rather legendary, but to the tribesmen themselves very
significant division between Qahtani (Yamani) and 'Adnani (Nizari)
groups resulted time and again in some very real political conflicts.14
The Nizari new arrivals thus seem to have been tolerated rather than
made welcome by the Azdites and their befriended tribes in the
area.

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