Page 124 - A Hand book of Arabia Vol 1 (iii) Ch 6 -10
P. 124

plague ;   in the latter year small-pox occurred at Matrah, Siclab,
              and to a    less extent at Muscat, and there were six cases of black-
              water fever, of which two were fatal.




                                                Population

                 The total population of the Sultanate has been estimated at about
              half a million, of whom at least thirty thousand are Bedouins.
              Arabs compose seven-eighths or more of the population, the rest
              consisting partly of aboriginal tribes, such as the Beni Na'ab, part
              of the Shihuh, the Zatiit, and possibly some of the Bayasirah ;
              partly of later immigrants, represented by Persian colonies (the
              relics' of former invasions), Baluchis and Jadgals (originally intro­
              duced as mercenary troops), Indian communities at Muscat and
              Matrah, and a large negro element, the outcome of several centuries
              of the slave trade.
                 According to their own traditions the Arabs of Oman belong to
              two distinct stocks, the Qahtani or Yamani, who claim to be the
              earliest settlers, and the ‘Adnani or Nizari, for the most part later
              immigrants, whose pedigree is regarded as less purely Arab. Each
              of these supposed racial groups is split up into a number of separate
              tribes, and these again into sections and subsections. The distribu­
              tion of the principal tribes is noted under the sections dealing with
              the districts and towns (see pp. 248 ff.). But throughout the whole
              of Oman faction is strong, and political divisions are far more
              important than those of race.
                 The two great political factions in Oman, the origin of which
              goes back to the civil war of the eighteenth century, are the Hina-
              wiyah and the Ghafiriyah ; and to one or other of them almost
              every tribe at the present day is attached. Generally speaking the
              Nizari tribes belong to the Ghafiri faction, while their Hinawi rivals
              are chiefly of Yamani descent ; but this is not invariably the case,
              and transfers of allegiance sometimes occur. Throughout the
              whole country the two factions are intermingled, usually in groups
              of villages belonging to one tribe or section, each maintaining
              a perpetual feud with neighbouring groups belonging to the rival
              faction ; often a single town or village is split politically, and
              feeling is intensified when one of the political parties is able,' owino-
              to the position of its ward or quarter, to control the water-supply0                        ►
              On the whole the Ghafiriyah predominate in the NW. districts the
               Hinawlyah in the SE. The majority of the Hinawi tribes below*
              to the Ibadhi sect of Islam ; of the Ghafiri a considerable proportion


























  I
   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129