Page 573 - PERSIAN 5 1905_1911

CHAPTER IX.

ADMINISTRATION REPORT FOR THE TRUCIAL COAST FOR THE
(YEAR, 1910.

As far as the affairs of the hinterland and the relations °f the princi­
palities inter se, are concerned, the past year has been a peaceful and un­
eventful one; there has been no fighting and the Bedouins have been peace­
fully inclined.
The affairs of the ports, however, and the relations of the Shaikhs with
the British Government have been a good deal in evidence, mainly in connec­
tion with the developments of the arms traffic.
The year at Abu Thabi and Umm-cl-Kowcin passed normally, and the
behaviour of the Chiefs was satisfactory.
The Shaikh, Abdul Aziz-bin-Horaeid, was murdered by one of his house­
hold slaves, on 16th February, in connec- >_
Ajman.
tion with some family feud. The
relative of the deceased who had instigated the murder, Muhammad-bin-
Rashid, attempted to set himself up as Chief, but the inhabitants of Ajman
expelled him and chose Homeid, the son of the late Chief, in his fathers
place. Homeid’s succession was duly recognised by Government.
The late Shaikh Abdul Aziz was an unexccedingly uncouth and ignorant
person who could never speak except at a shout, and his son takes after him.
It was recorded, in last year’s Report, that the Shaikh of Shargah, on
/the' death of his son, Khalid, who had
Shargah and Ras-ol-Kheiraa.
governed Ras-el-Kheima as his deputy,
had, after some vacillation, appointed his uncle and actual Vazfer, Shaikh
Salim-bin-Sultan, as Deputy-Governor of Ras-el-Kheima. This was a matter
for some surprise, but as it seemed a good sign of the concord exist­
ing between the two, the Resident saw no reason to discourage it.
The arrangement did not however prove satisfactory, Salim having
been unable to maintain his loyalty to his nephew long. The breach
occurred in connection with a murder case at Ras-cl-Khcima, under the follow­
ing circumstances :—On 9th May, Shaikh Mabzam-bin-Muhammad, Head­
man of the Island o'f Zaab, or “ Jeziret-el-Hamra ”, near Ras-el-Kheima,
was sitting outside the house of a relation at Ras-el-Kheiina, in the company
of several other residents of the place, when he was attacked by Shaikh
Salim’s son, Sultan, and mortally stabbed- It was given out at the time, in
order to save the feelings of the two families, that the murder was due to the
opposition of Shaikh Mahzam to the selection of Sultan’s brother, Muham­
mad-bin-Salim, as Assistant Governor of the town under his father. But this
is not sufficient to account for the deed, and the real cause of it proves to have
been that Sultan wanted to obtain in marriage a girl related to Mahzam,
and Mahzam opposed the match, on the ground that Sultan was a dissolute
character of low birth, and unfit to be the girl’s husband.
Shaikh Sagar, with the apathy which so marks his character, could not
be mduccd, in spite of the Resident’s urgent advice, to proceed to Ras-el-
Kheirna himself and effect a settlement calculated to prevent any general
?kStlJ^banceJ.of the peace* Meanwhile the murderer absconded to 'Bokha on
the Musandim promontory, under Maskat; Shaikh Salim, the father of the
murderer, becoming suspicious of Sagar’s aloofness, and in the interests of
his son, came to an understanding with the Chief of Bokha with a view to
othPe°/thin compromf^’ Sh°Uld ^ attempt to settle the matter on terms
thP i5h“uv 5* n°.ted tly Mahz™ Shaikh Sagar’s father-in-law, so that
the a i?r ba^ a stron8 domestic ‘interest m the case
ra.„A1 his PC0Ple being away at the pearl fisheries however and not
fouLd hSnseVMrf to .^as'el'Kbeima without sufficient ’ force, Shaikh Sagar
und himself in a dilemma and at this stage asked the Residency Agent,

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