Page 128 - A Hand book of Arabia Vol 1 (iii) Ch 6 -10

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THE .SULTANATE OF O.MAhf
240

plague; in the latter year small-pox occurred at Matrah, Sidiib,
ancf 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 arc 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 Shihfih, the Zatut, and possibly some of the Bayasirah;
partly of later immigrants, represented by Persian colonies (the
relics of former invasions), Baluchis and Jadgiils (originally intro­
duced as mercenary troops), Indian communities at Muscat and
i
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
tribos, 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,* owincr
to the position of its ward or quarter, to control the water-supply?
On the whole the Ghafiriyah predominate in the NW. districts, the
Hinawlyah in the SE. The majority of the Hinawi tribes belong
to the Ibadhi sect of Islam ; of the Ghafiri a considerable proportion

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