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208 THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE ARABIAN GULF STATES

FACTS RELATING TO THE TERRITORY IN DISPUTE
Situation of the oasis
The Buraimi Oasis is an agglomeration of nine settlements. These
are: Hili, Al-Qattarah, Al-Qimi, Al-Mutaradh, Al-'Ain, Al-Muwaiqfi,
Sarra, TIamasa and Buraimi. The first six arc settled by the Bani Yas
and the Dhawahir tribes; Sa'ra and the Buraimi arc settled by the
Nu'aim and Hamasa by the tribe of A1 Bu Shamis.1 The name Buraimi
is taken from that of the biggest villages. The population of the whole
settlement is estimated at 10,000.2 It lies on the extreme boundary
of south-east Arabia proper in a tract referred to geographically as
‘Independent Oman’. Lorimer, in his great work on Arabia and the
Arabian Gulf, classifies the promontory of Oman, an area extending
from the mountains of ‘Ras Musandam at the extreme north of the
Gulf of Oman to the Dhafar district at the extreme south-west', into
three different political districts or units. The Buraimi Oasis, he says,
lies ‘in the heart of the promontory, at or near its base'. He calls it
‘Independent Oman' so as to emphasise its independence from any
link with cither of the two other units, namely Trucial Oman and the
Oman Sultanate. He thus says: ‘Independent Oman is not subject to
cither the Sultan or any of the Trucial Shaikhs of Oman.’3
The exact situation of the Oasis is shown by Lorimer to be ‘a little
south of a straight line drawn between the coastal towns of Sohar
and Abu Dhabi about 65 miles west by south of the former, and 85
miles east by south of the latter.’4 The Oasis, says Lorimer, ‘is nearly
circular and its diameter is about six miles’.5 Jt lies north of the
famous Jabal Hafit. According to Article II of the Arbitration
Agreement of 30 July 1954 the Oasis is located within ‘a circle whose
centre is in the Buraimi village and whose circumference passes
through the point of junction of latitude 24 degrees, 25 minutes North
and longitude 55 degrees, 36 minutes East’.

History of control over the oasis
(a) 1800-69
The following chronology of events will show that for the most part
of their reign in Arabia during the nineteenth century the Wahhabis6
exercised authority over Buraimi. # .
1 jn 1800 Buraimi was occupied by a Wahhabi expedition
1 Saudi Memorial, I, pp. 31-7; The Times, 1 December 1959 Sec Map 3.
2 Lcnczowski, op. cit., p. 144. 3 Lorimer, II, pp. 1368-9.
c For the relationship of the Wahhabis to the present ruling family of Saudi
Arabia, see above, p. 196, n. 1.