Page 245 - The Origins of the United Arab Emirates_Neat

Notes 21 1

•2\). A Ghafiri tribe whose range extended through the Rub* al-Khali and
north to Buraimi. Described by Bertram Thomas as follows: ‘Trea-
clicrous, poor and a universal terror. They speak intelligible Arabic,
not grunts mentioned in books; roam everywlicrc but bazaar Ibri
and Buraimi ... a loose confederacy, every section a law unto itself’
(L/P&S/i 1/294, P6690/28, Thomas to Political Resident, 13 June 1927).
30. A Ghafiri tribe who had been previously at war with the ‘Awamir.
Their main centre was at Tun‘um in Dahirah, although their range
extended from Dahirat al-Sir to Buraimi.
31. A Ghafiri tribe that had been a branch of the Na‘im_but that in
the twentieth century assumed an entity of their own, the Al-bu-Shamis
were led by Shaykh Rashid bin Hamad, who lived in Hamasah,
a village in the Buraimi oasis. There seems to be conflicting evidence
on the participation of the Al-bu-Shamis in this dispute. The Residency
Agent, who sent an agent to collect information on Dafrah and Buraimi
about ten years later, did not include them in his account of events.
(R/15/2/544, Residency Agent to Officiating Political Resident, 9 Jumada
11 '353 (*9 Sep 1934).) J. B. Kelly, Eastern Arabian Frontiers (London,
1964), p. 115, referred to them in this context.
32. Some of the Manasir, the Al-bu-Mundhir section under Shaykh Qiran
bin Mani\ as well as certain members of the Mazari*, decided to
remain in Hasa, and Qiran was still there in 1934. (R/15/2/544, Resi­
dency Agent to Officiating Political Resident, 9 Jumada 11 1353 (19 Sep
1934).) On the Mazari*, see above, Gh. 1, note 14.
33- R/,5/,/25°> n°tc Iroin Political Agent Bahrain to Political Resident,
12 Feb 1925.
34. Although the report from which this entire account has been drawn
refers specifically to al-Falayah more than once, the 140 miles separating
this village from al-Mu‘tarid make it an unlikely place for attack
and counter-attack from Buraimi. The number of spelling errors that
exist in the report suggest, however, a possible mistake, and that
Afiaj Bani Qitab, a cluster of liny settlements located in the Dahirah,
north-west of ‘Ibri and south of Dhank, and inhabited by the Bani
Qitab, was the scene of the fighting. (R/15/1/250, Residency Agent
to Political Resident, 25 Safar 1343 (25 Sep 1924).)
35. Whose home was in Mahadah in the Dahirah. Captain G. J. Eccles,
who accompanied a D’Arcy Exploration Company survey to Oman
in 1925 described him as ‘altogether more polished, more intelligent
and broad-minded, though no less virile, than his Bedouin brother’
(‘Sultanate of Muscat and ’Oman’, Journal of the Central Asian Society, xiv
0927) 36). His brother Mu‘adad lived in Sharm and murdered Salim
in 1930, when he became Shaykh of Bani Ka‘b. He was later removed
from power by Salim’s sons.
36. The shaykh of ‘Ibri, a large settlement in the Omani section of the
Dahirah, was an Ibadi of the Bani Ya‘aqib tribe. In 1925 he was
replaced by ‘Abdallah bin Rashid, who was under the influence of
‘Isa bin Salih and the imam.
37. At the time, the shaykh was ‘Abdallah bin ‘Ali bin Huwayydin, but,
as he was ill, and died on 16 December 1925, the man referred