Page 124 - UAE Truncal States_Neat
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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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