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The Islamic Basis of Society

        meet this uncompromising attack on their very existence, but their
        persistent efforts to subdue the Kharijites of Oman over a period of
        three centuries only helped to strengthen the regular Ibadi school. On
        the occasions that a Sunni Caliph managed to conquer the natural
        fortress of Inner Oman he was unable to maintain control so long as
         the large majority of its inhabitants did not sympathise with the
        cause of his army. But the frequent and fierce contests with the
         Caliphate at limes weakened the support for the Ibadis in the
         country, and the Sunni element gained influence. Yet even when the
         Caliph won a decisive battle such as in ad 752 (ah 135),15 he did not
         manage to maintain full administrative control for long. Whenever
         Oman was ruled by an amir of the Caliph, tribute was remitted to
         him, and the Sunni portion of the population got the upper hand in
         the internal strife and the tribal feuds, which were further embittered
         by religious animosity. Yet over the centuries the Ibadi community in
         Oman prevailed as the strongest element in the country, and while it
         was not always able actually to establish an Ibadi State as it was
         conceived in the leaching of the Kharijites and perfected by
         'Abdullah bin Ibacl al TamTml (who lived between AD 685 and 750)
         and by numerous subsequent Omani scholars, there was for most of
         the time until ad 1783 an Ibadi leader who was accepted by the
         community as Imam, although he was frequently not elected from
         among the tribal leaders nor the scholarly 'ulamd’ but acquired the
         position by hereditary succession.
           Few of the tribes living west of the Hajar mountains seem to have
         permanently turned to Ibadism, but the upheavals and the bitter
         struggles between the Caliphate and the Imamate could not fail to
         involve them, and indeed, several of the decisive battles were fought
         al places which were later part of the Trucial States. In ad 750 (ah
         133) Abu al 'Abbas’s General Shaiban lost the battle and his life at
         Tu’am (now Buraimi); two years later Khazim bin Khuzaimah was
         victorious over the Ibadites at Julfar (Ra’s al Khaimah); in about ad
         696 (ah 78) the Imam Sulaiman went with 3,000 horsemen and 3,500
         camelmen to meet the very much larger army of the Caliph 'Abdul
         Malik, which marshalled near Abu Dhabi, arriving by land and by
         sea; he repelled the invaders.16 It is probable that the population of al
         GharbTyah in the area which later became Trucial Oman was from
         time to time ruled by the authorities in Oman, but it was at other
         times quite independent.17 However, the strategically important port
         of Julfar and the equally important oasis of Tu'am probably always

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