Page 57 - UAE Truncal States
P. 57

*



                  Chapter Two
                  important part of the permanent or semi-settled population of the
                  Liwa. The settled existence of the Hawamil is underlined by the fact
                  that some of them also owned goats and sheep, which were kept in or
                  near the Liwa. They owned pearling boats and some spent a large
                  part of the year on Dalma. At present the wali of the Liwa, Saif bin
                  Musa, is a Hamili, and so are most of those few people who still now
                  live permanently in the Liwa.20 During the first four decades of this
                  century four Hawamil families achieved the much sought-after move
                  and bought property in the Buraimi oasis. The head of one of them,
                  'Abdullah bin Ghanum, was Shaikh Shakhbut’s wali of al 'Ain for a
                  short period.20
                    Another typical subsection of the Bani Yas is the Maharibah, who
                  were, however, much stronger in Lorimer’s time (about 150 houses in
                  the Liwa, 60 in Abu Dhabi, 50 nearby). In the 1950s they were only 75
                  houses strong altogether. Some of the Maharibah who owned
                  property in the Liwa were nomadic; others spent a large part of the
                  year in their houses in the Liwa. Their share in the pearling industry
                  was also considerable, with 40 boats of their own. A few Maharibah
                  spent even the winter on Dalma island, and one of them, 'Ali bin
                  Shaiban, was appointed by Shaikh Shakhbut as wali on the island
                  for several periods.30
                    A small predominantly beduin section were the Al MishaghTn, who
                  usually spent most of the year at Taff, east of Abu Dhabi town, but
                  also moved to Khatam near the Buraimi oasis. The Marar have
                  become a predominantly Dubai section, but some have property in
                  the Liwa where they are closely related to the Mazari'.
                    The Sudan, (singular Suwaidi), an important and numerous tribe
                  on the whole coast, now identify themselves with the Bani Yas,
                  especially those who live in Abu Dhabi. On the other hand, some of
                  the names used by members of the tribe such as al Kindi, and also
                  verbal traditions, support the theory that the Sudan are, together
                  with the Kunud of Oman, descendants of Aswad al Kindi, who is said
                  to have immigrated into Oman from Yemen at the time of the Prophet
                 Muhammad. The tribe’s strength was at the turn of the century in
                  the region of 5,500, most of whom lived in the ports of the Trucial
                  Coast.31 They had about 300 houses in Sharjah, 250 in Dubai, 20 on
                 Abu Musa island and 12 in 'Ajman. Outside the Trucial Coast there
                 were some at Hadd in Bahrain, and before 1867 the Sudan were quite
                 powerful in Qatar, according to Lorimer still maintaining a strength
                 of about 80 houses in Doha.
                   In Abu Dhabi at the turn of the century there were some 375

                 32
   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62