Page 98 - UAE Truncal States

The Tribal Structure of Society

Sultanale of Oman, where they do not form the majority of the
population.117 They are also found in the Wadi Ham on the Jiri plain
and in and around Dibah. Altogether about 6,000 Sharqiyln shared
this district with another 4,000 members of more than half a dozen
other tribes. The entire strength of the Sharqiyln was estimated in
the Gazetteer at around 7,000 people.
Fujairah became, under the leadership of subsequent headmen of
the Sharqiyln, their main focal point, and it was from there that the
secession of most of Shamailiyah from Qasimi Sharjah was per­
petrated a number of limes. The Sharqiyln of Shamailiyah and the
small number of tribal groups living within their eastern habitat had
been ruled as an independent shaikhdom since soon after the
forceful Hamad bin 'Abdullah of the Hafailat, the tribe’s established
leading section, became the headman in 1879. This situation was not
recognised by the British authorities in the Gulf until 1952. It was
realised then that the Ruler in Fujairah of this particularly coherent
tribal shaikhdom of the Sharqiyln had to be given the same status as
the other Trucial Rulers if attempts to obtain concessions for oil
exploration were to be successful. On many occasions before this
step, the Ruler of Fujairah tried to play off the Sultan of Oman
against the British authorities by declaring his allegiance to the
former. But such declarations were not then followed up by
arrangements such as allowing tax collectors from Oman to come to
the villages of the Sharqiyln. They could therefore be considered
merely as diplomatic moves on the part of a Ruler whose urge for
independence was supported by his tribal followers. Similarly
shortlived were declarations of Sharqiyln subordination to the
authority of the Shaikh of the Na'Im of Buraimi in 1904 and to that of
Shaikh Zayid bin Khallfah of Abu Dhabi in 1906.118 Although the
Sharqiyln had frequent and prolonged disputes with their immediate
neighbours such as the Shihuh, the Khawatir, the Na'Im and the
Naqbiyln, the shaikhs usually managed to rally the support of these
neighbours whenever they attempted to shake off the Qasimi rule.
By the time of the 1968 census, comparatively few of the Sharqiyln
had yet followed the growing trend to leave Fujairah territory for
work in the oil industry of Abu Dhabi or Dubai. Of the total of 8,729
Sharqiyln counted in the northern Trucial States, 8,372 lived in the
State of Fujairah, only 116 in Sharjah, and 82 were counted in Ra’s al
Khaimah. In turn, less than 10 per cent of the tribal population of
9,138 of the State of Fujairah belonged to tribes other than the
Sharqiyln.
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