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Administering a Tribal Society h

Al leasl since formal independence in 1952, the Shaikh of Fujairah
has maintained a wali at Dibah at al Ghurfah. Already in 1969 before =
the federation was established, the walis of both Sharjah and ■
Fujairah could proudly point to a school and a clinic in Dibah,
organised by the Development Office in Dubai and paid for by Abu
Dhabi. The wali of Bai'ah, himself not from the Shihuh tribes but
from the interior of Oman, bitterly resented the relative opulence of
his neighbours, while Sultan Sa'id bin Taimur offered to do even less
for this outlying exclave of his Stale than he did for the rest of his
country.

Shamaillyah—Kalba
The administration of Dibah by and on behalf of the Qasimi ruling
family has always been relatively undisputed and straightforward
compared to the administration of the remainder of its east coast
possessions, the Shamaillyah.30 Early in the 19th century this district
changed hands several times between the Sultans of Muscat and the
Qawasim Rulers, and even after the “final annexation of Shamaillyah
to the Sharjah Shaikhdom”31 in 1850, Muscat’s claims were
frequently revived, on most occasions at the request of the Shaikh of
Fujairah. The periodic restoration of Qasimi sovereignty over the
Sharqiyfn part of Shamaillyah usually meant that the Qasimi wali
was once again entitled to the revenues of Fujairah, which in 1900
amounted to 2,000 M.T. Dollars.32
As in Dibah, the fort at Ghallah (Kalba) was occupied by a
consecutive line of progeny of the original grantee, Majid bin Sultan
bin Saqr Al Qasimi, who obtained the Shamaillyah as fief when his
brother Salim bin Sultan was still Ruler of Sharjah. His son Hamad
bin Majid shared his position as shaikh of Kalba with his brother
Ahmad bin Majid. His son SaTd bin Hamad33 succeeded him in 1902
at the critical time when Hamad bin 'Abdullah al Sharqi, the
headman of the numerous tribe of the SharqiyTn, had managed to
establish and maintain virtual independence. Hamad bin 'Abdullah
was assisted by the Shihuh at Bai'ah under their long-lived leader
Shaikh Salih bin Muhammad, supported by some of the Trucial
Shaikhs, and received the tacit backing of the Sultan of Muscat. From
1903 the Qasimi wali of Kalba, Sa'id bin Hamad, usually resided with
his family in 'Ajman, leaving the administration of the fiefdom in the
hands of a slave by the name of Barut. By the 1920s he had taken up
permanent residence again in Kalba.
In 1936 Sa'fd bin Hamad was recognised by the British Govern-

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