Page 137 - Arabia the Gulf and the West

134 Arabia, the Gulf and the West

ciphers. Heavy imposts were iaid upon the products of the region and upon
imports, and trade in items of any consequence became a monopoly of the

sultan. The economy stagnated, driving more and more Dhufaris to seek work
in the Gulf, either as labourers or as armed retainers in the service of the Gulf
rulers. There was as yet little or no political content in their dissatisfaction: this
was to come later, after they had been exposed to nationalist, Baathist and
Nasserist propaganda in the states of the upper Gulf.

How and when some of these emigre Dhufaris began to contemplate rebellion
against the sultan, and to prepare actively for it, is not wholly clear. It would
seem, however, from the available evidence that by 1960-61 there were at
least three, loosely organized, clandestine organizations in being-a League of
Dhufari Soldiers, a Dhufari branch of the Arab Nationalists’ Movement, and a

Dhufari Benevolent Society (al-jamiyya al-khairiyya al-dhufariyaf The first,
which was largely apolitical, was made up of Dhufaris serving, or who had
served, in the armies or police forces of the various Gulf states, including Oman
itself. The second consisted mostly of Dhufaris who had been sent to Syria via
Kuwait for guerrilla training in 1959, and while there had been recruited into

the ANM. The third was an offshoot of this group, which broke away in 1961
to lay the ground for armed revolt in Dhufar under the guise of aiding the poor
and raising funds for mosques.
Under pressure from the Kuwait branch of the ANM, and also with
encouragement from Cairo, the three groups coalesced in 1964 to create

the ‘Dhufar Liberation Front’. They were joined by a group of disaffected
Dhufari tribesmen under the leadership of a shaikh of the Bait Kathir.
Musallim ibn Nufl, who had not only grown tired of the sultan’s coercive
ways but was also resolved that any oil that might be discovered by the
American company then prospecting in Kathiri territory should be used

for his benefit and that of his tribe. He made contact with the exiled Ibadi
imam, Ghalib ibn Ali (who had some acquaintance with such matters), an
Ghalib put him in touch with the Saudis and Iraqis, who were then, for their

own separate purposes, supporting the remnants of the imam’s following in
Oman. To display his mettle Musallim ibn Nufl attacked some oil company
vehicles late in 1963 and then fled to Iraq. There, in company with severa
dozen Dhufaris, he underwent military training at an army camp near asra.
The following winter he and his band returned to Dhufar by way 0 an 1
Arabia, the Saudi government supplying him with arms, money and transpor^

across the desert, with the promise of more aid to come if they were sue
in raising a rebellion against the sultan. Front
The rebellion was proclaimed at a ‘congress’ of the Dhufar Liberauon
in the Wadi al-Kabir in central Dhufar on 1-9 June 1965- For the

years or more it made little progress. There was only a trickle of suppor wn
outside, mainly from Egypt and Kuwait, the Saudis having SI”fe^o ^tt|e
suspicious of the front’s political orientation. The insurgents cou