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>44 The Origins of the United Aral) Emirates

The niosl ou Islanding example of this principle in action occurred
after Petroleum Concessions had expressed a desire to explore the
Jabal Fa’iyah district, a hilly area south or Dhayd, situated in
territory claimed by Sharjah. The Bani Qitab, whose alliance with
the Qawasim had been the main bulwark of Sharjah’s power in
its heyday, controlled Fa’iyah, but had long since ceased to owe
any strong loyalty to the ruler of Sharjah, whose power was thus
{ greatly reduced. The deterioration of relations between the Qawasim
and Bani Qitab can be traced back to the rule of Saqr bin Khalid,
1 who was loo weak to maintain an effective hold on the Bani
Qitab, who then gradually attached themselves to his contemporary
and rival, Zayid bin Khalifah of Abu Dhabi. After Zayid’s death,
the tribe began to assume greater independence, although at first
it seemed likely that the succession in 1924 of Sultan bin Saqr
would serve to re-establish the old tics with Sharjah: in that year,
for instance, one of the signatories of the covenant accepting Sultan
as the new ruler of the shaykhdoms was ‘Abdallah bin ‘Ali bin
Huwayydin, paramount leader of the Bani Qitab. In 1927, however,
two incidents occurred that caused the tribe to lose all respect
for Sultan.
Some of the settled elements of the Bani Qitab lived in the
Dhayd oasis, the northern fringes of which were within the dirah
of the bedouin division of the tribe. Other inhabitants of the oasis
were the Khawatir, a branch of the Na‘im tribe, who early in
1927 seized the forts of the town from the Bani Qitab. Sultan
should then have intervened to defend his allies, especially as Dhayd
was part of Sharjah, but he remained inactive even after fierce
fighting broke out between the Bani Qitab and the Khawatir.
Hostilities were ended by the visit to Dhayd, late in April 1927,
of the brothers Muhammad and Saqr bin Sultan of the Na‘im,
together with Salim bin Duyayn of the Bani Ka‘b.8 The three
men intervened for peace and decided that Dhayd had to be
restored to the Qawasim, but that, in view of Sharjah’s weakness,
it should be given to Ras al-Khaimah, which should rule it on
behalf of Khalid bin Ahmad, former ruler of Sharjah.9 Sultan
bin Salim went to Dhayd and was given possession of the village;
he then appointed a wali, Rashid bin Muhammad, and wrote
to Sultan bin Saqr informing him of the change.10
Disgusted with Sultan’s failure to act in support of their alliance,
the Bani Qitab obviously regarded the transfer of Dhayd to Ras
al-Khaimah as the starting point for the degeneration of that alliance.
Shortly after, four bedouin of the tribe tried to kill some of Sultan’s
relatives and openly flouted their disrespect in other ways. In June
1927 the Bani Qitab joined a force gathered by Khalid bin Ahmad
to attack Sharjah and including the ruler of Umm al-Qaiwain,