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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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