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Chapter Two

the A1 Bii Falah Ruler Khalifah bin Shakhbut in 1048 and the Sultan
'Azzan bin Qais in 1869 to evict the Wahhabis from Buraimi.04 The
NaTm were subsequently allowed to occupy most of the foi ls in the
oasis which were in or near Buraimi village. The tamlniah of the
NaTm look up residence in the fort of Buraimi village and was
considered to be the representative of the Sultan in the area,
receiving a regular allowance in the same way as other walis.
At the turn of the century 5,500 people were living in the Buraimi
oasis; there were about 300 houses in Buraimi village, Hamasa and
Sa'arah occupied almost exclusively by NaTm. To the south-east of
the oasis the NaTm villages are mostly of the A1 Bu Shamis section;
they are Hafil and Qabil at the southern fool of Jabal Hafft, and
Dhank in Dhahirah. Others lived in Sanainah, south of the entrance
to the Wadi Jizi, which leads through the mountains to the Batinah
coast, where there were some NaTm in Sanqar. In the other direction
settled NaTm were found in 'Ajman town, where they had some 25
houses; the ruling family of 'Ajman belongs to the Al Bu Kharaiban
section of the NaTm. In the small port of Hamriyah, a dependency of
Sharjah, the headman and some 250 of its 300 houses belonged to the
Darawishah subsection (Al Bu Shamis division). The same subsec­
tion dominated HIrah, another Sharjah dependency (also 250 NaTm
houses). The NaTm formed a substantial part of the settled popu­
lation in Sharjah town, with 100 houses (Darawishah), and else­
where in Sharjah territory, such as Daid, with 30 Khawatir houses.
Of the 2,500 nomadic NaTm, about 1,600 were usually somewhere
in Trucial Oman and its hinterland, and considered the district of al
Jau as their headquarters. They shared the Dhahirah with many
Omani tribes and Khatam with the Bani Yas and the Dhawahir.
Although the NaTm were not settled anywhere in the Wadi Hatta, the
beduin NaTm and their tamlmah at Buraimi usually protected the
inhabitants of the village of Masfut in the wadi, who were at enmity
with the Dubai-protected people of Hajarain. In what came to be
considered as Ra’s al Khaimah territory, beduin of the Khawatir
section shared the use of the Jiri plain with the Ghafalah and others.
In other parts of that district between the mountains and the coast
the beduin NaTm had lost their once undisputed predominance to
the Bani Ka'ab, who together with the Bani Qitab became their great
rivals. The beduin NaTm had camel herds as well as flocks of sheep
and goats, and since grazing and water were plentiful even near their
dale gardens, they never needed to go far afield and did not venture

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