Page 182 - Arabian Studies (II)

174 Arabian Studies II

HinawT and the GhafirT parties contained tribes of the ‘AdnanT and
Yemeni origin. Two independent federations emerged at the end of
the eighteenth century on the Coast of Oman: the Qawasim
Federation, with its capital at Ras al-Khaimah, and the Ban! Yas
Federation centred at Abu Dhabi. The Qawasim were of the Ghafirl
faction, and in conflict with the rulers of Muscat, who were
considered the leaders of the HinawT group. As the Ban! Yas
belonged to the HinawT faction also, they established friendly
relations with Muscat.
The dismemberment of Oman went a stage further after the
British expedition to Ras al-Khaimah in 1819. The British refused to
regard Shaykh Sultan b. Saqr (1803—66) as the representative of the
whole Qawasim Federation, or Shaykh Shakhbut b. Dhiyab as the
representative of the BanT Yas. Consequently the British concluded
the treaty of 1820 with each Shaykh within the Qawasim and the
BanT Yas Federations individually. In the ensuing years the QasimT
family at Sharjah and Ras al-Khaimah failed to re-establish the
authority of the federation over ‘Ajman and Umm al-Qaiwain, which
become totally independent. In 1833, the A1 Bu Flasah, a branch of
the BanT Yas, also set up an independent state at Dubai, Ras al-
Khaimah itself become independent between 1869 and 1900, and
the SharqiyyTn tribe revolted successfully against the Qawasim in the
mountainous area surrounding Fujairah. In 1913 an Imamate
appeared at Nizwa, in inner Oman, and gained its internal independ­
ence from the Sultan of Muscat by the terms of the STb treaty of
1920.
These events illustrated a tendency towards political dismember­
ment in Oman, which resulted in a fragmentation of loyalties from
large to smaller units, particularly in the towns on the Coast, where
political allegiance now centred on the city-state. Owing to migration
between the States on the Trucial Coast, the composition of the
cities by the end of the nineteenth century had become a mixture of
both parties, and these new immigrants came to focus their loyalty
on the local ruling family, with the result that their adherence to the
old HinawT and GhafirT parties gradually faded. On the other hand,
in the interior, the HinawT and GhafirT factions retained the political
concepts of the ManasTr, ‘Awamir, Khawatir, BanT Qatab and the
Shawamis tribes, who lived enclosed in the desert, and maintained
direct relations with the tribal groups of inner Oman, where the
HinawT-Ghafiri division still dominated politics.
Although the British policy of maintaining the status quo in the
Trucial Coast, and of isolating the whole area from foreign contacts,