Page 18 - Arabiab Studies (IV)

8 Arabian Studies IV
tributary to the Ban! Qitab shaykhs, however, so there is some
justification besides brevity for referring to them as such.5
This tribal complexity reflects the transitional location of the
Wadi Jufrah in terms of the traditional life styles prevailing in
Oman. The wadi is a part of the mountain fringe, comprising the
middle and lower courses of the Wadi al-‘Ari<j, where it opens out
from its narrow mountain configuration into a wide valley,
between mesas of tertiary sediments, before it finally flows on to
the plains fringing the Empty Quarter proper.6 Upstream of the
study area, the population derives its major income from agri­
culture, and is predominantly settled in small village oases irrigated
by falaj systems.7 Pastoralists (locally known as shawawiyah) do
exist, but they are only relatively small in number compared to the
villagers.8 These mountain pastoralists are virtually sedentary or at
most semi-nomadic; they move their houses over only relatively
small distances, averaging less than one kilometre between sites,
normally using the same water source all the year round. They
remain near a particular village with which they have political and
often tribal links, and usually only graze their animals within the
pastures over which that village has traditionally held sway.9
Downstream of the study area, the population is dispersed and
traditionally more mobile and nomadic. These people comprise the
camel-herding Bedouin. The nomads of this area, who utilize
expanses of pastures stretching out into the Empty Quarter, are
represented by the Duru\ the Afar, other sections of the BanI
Qitab from the one studied here and, further to the south, the
Wahlbah.
As might be suggested by their location, the way-of-life of the
BanI Qitab groups, living as they do near the mountain fringes at
the boundary between these two life styles, incorporates aspects of
both life in the mountains, and of Bedouin life as lived out in the
desert plains: in short these members of the BanI Qitab are a
transitional group, midway between the Bedouin and the
sbawawiyahy herding both camels and small stock.
One of the aspects of life most associated with the Bedouin that
is important in the Wadi Jufrah is the movement of households,
both seasonally and irregularly, though on a much smaller scale.
The basic pattern of household mobility is mapped in Fig. ii, and
shows a summer convergence upon al-Subaykhl, the settlement
situated where the Wadi Jufrah opens out into the wide gravel
plains. The winter sites of the fariqs are dispersed in the pastures of
Wadi Jufrah, or even higher up the watershed in the Wadi al-‘Ari<j.
In summer, the fariqs congregate around al-Subaykhl and, to a
lesser extent ‘Araql, at sites to which they move each June within a