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societies of the Emirates there exist no holy lineages. On the contrary, the societies are
ruled by a secular, shaikhly authority, hose members act as leaders and rulers of
the country. These Shaikhs have local representatives - such as amirs o nlis ho
are mostly leaders of their native tribes. In some other communities, the Shaikhs have
appointed village headmen, alis, to act as representatives for them, The Shaikhs
here do not derive their poer from saintly or holy descent, instead their source of
poer is based on bravery and generosity, and on their reputation as ise leaders in
time of peace and ar. Thus, the tribes hich these shaikhs belong to are considered
and treated as noble ones.

The shaikhs also are politically very poerful and very popular men in their
societies. As a sign of their popularity, for instance, the ordinary ribesmen call the
shaikhs in their conversaitons by their 'naked' name, Salim, Said or Rasihd. They
never say Shaikh Rasihd or Shaikh Salim, as the ay other citiens of the Arab Gulf
have been used to address their shaikhs. Another interesting characterisitc of the
authority of the shaikhs in the Emirates is that hile such shaikhs have an effective
role in hte political life in the tribal villages they do not reside in these villages,
instead they live in the coastal tons like Abu-Dhabi, Dubai, Shar‫ﺕ‬ah, Ras
al-haimah, ete. Hoever, the fact that these shaikhs live in the tons hile hteir
folloers live in the deserts and the mountains has been established since these
shaik‫ﺳ‬s came into poer in the mid-18th century.‫ﺃ‬

An important feautre of authoriyt in the tribal societies of hte Emirates is that
ihle there are not holy men or saainst to practise as a religious authority, the
religious authority, as a result, consisst mailny of pious men ho gained hteri
relig‫ﻫ‬ous stauts not through heredity, as is the case ith the saints of the holy
lineages, but through relig‫ﻫ‬ous learning, or by being pious and devout Muslims. hTus
according to such personal rtaits and sk‫ﺳ‬lls, a relig‫ﻫ‬ous practiitoner can either stand in
the higher stauts of the ladder and hence become a shara (lslamie judge and jurist),
or in the loer stauts and consequently become the village priest (mutaa). hTe
modern ihstory of hte Emirates shos, for isntance, that most learned relig‫ﻫ‬ous men,
such as judges and jurists, have alays come rfom the tons (Heard-Bey 1982
Abdullah 198). Hence, the lslaimc courts are largely sitll run by htese judges from
their cenrte in the tons. Consequently, hte tribal villages in the periphery are left
ith their village priests ho conduct the prayers, sermons, and other formal and
ifnomral relig‫ﻫ‬ous services.

The Anthropological Implications

If e resrtict ourselves to the ifeld of poliitcal anthropology, and ni paritcular to
hte domain of social conrtol and authoiryt practice, then the Hajari socieyt in the
Eimrates prseenst us ith several problems. Amongst them, for example, is the
problem of the relationship beteen hte poliitcal and religious auhtoriites ihch
pracitse ist doimnaiton rfom ist cenrte in the ton, on the one hand, and hte

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