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82 The Origins of the United Arab Emirates

extent of jurisdiction of the rulers on the Coast was determined
and it was there, away from direct British influence, that Wahhabi
power was most acutely felt. The technique used to control the
tribes, the enforcement of the payment of zakat, in turn raised
the vital issues of Saudi Arabia’s boundaries with the shaykhdoms,
and the extent of its future active interference in their internal
a flairs.
The Wahhabis’ most direct attempt to gain some form of control
in the Trucial Stales occurred in 1925. The turmoil of events
and also the movements and customs of the tribes involved make
it difficult to discern the extent of Wahhabi aggression, but there
can be little doubt that the forces of Ibn Sa‘ud, particularly those
controlled by Ibn Jaluwi in Hasa, increased to an unprecedented
level and seriously threatened the internal security of the Trucial
Coast, besides providing the motivation for the campaign of the
Ibadi28 imam of Oman. The methods used were subtle and potent:
support of one tribe against its traditional enemies, thus isolating
the latter; enforcement of the collection of zflkal on certain tribes,
to bring them under Wahhabi protection; and muted interference
in the internal affairs of the shaykhdoms. Throughout his career,
Ibn Sa‘ud displayed a marked ability to recognise an opportunity
and use it to his greatest advantage. This was manifested in 1925,
when he seized on the weakness of the tribal situation in Oman
and turned it into the chance to bring pressure to bear on the
Trucial Coast and the sultanate of Muscat and Oman; in this
case, he look advantage of the chaos in Abu Dhabi, the hostility
felt towards the imam of Oman, and the weakness of the sultan
of Muscat.
The major upheavals that Abu Dhabi had undergone because
of the dissension within its ruling family after the death of Shaykh
Zayid had unsettled the whole of the shaykhdom. By 1925 the
Dafrah region, which includes the Liwa oasis and lies between
the western coast of Abu Dhabi and the Rub‘ al-Khali, had become
the arena of prolonged tribal hostilities, which had lasted, on and
off, for at least five years. The situation could be traced back
to the rule of Shaykh Hamdan bin Zayid (1909-12), when fighting
between the Manasir and the Bani Yas of Dafrah, on the one
hand, and the southern bedouin of the ‘Awamir,29 Duru\30 and
the Al-bu-Shamis,31 on the other, broke out as a result of looting
and murder. In an attempt to gain the upper hand, the chiefs
of the Manasir and the Mazari* section of the Bani Yas went
to Hasa and obtained the protection of Ibn Jaluwi;32 the rest,
including the remaining Bani Yas, left their camels in the Buraimi
area and migrated to Abu Dhabi and the islands around it. Shaykh
Hamdan then went to Buraimi and was instrumental in bringing