Page 92 - The Origins of the United Arab Emirates_Neat

(>8 The Origins of the United Arab Emirates

Wc have already noted the existence of a bitter enmity between
the Qawasim and the Shihuh. This feud was used by the headman
of Fujairah, in the Shimayliyyah, in order to promote his own
independence. The Shimaylliyyah is a tract of land bordering the
Gulf of Oman and extending roughly from Dibba in the north
to Khawr Kalba in the south. Its main towns arc Dibba, Khawr
Fakkan, Fujairah, Kalba and Khawr Kalba. The Qawasim first
gained control of the area in the latter part of the eighteenth
century, but the sultan of Muscat contested their claim for a long
time. Control began to alternate between the Qawasim and the
sultan, until in 1850 Sultan bin Saqr of Sharjah successfully annexed
the area. Even after that, however, the Qawasim were unable
to keep a peaceful hold on it and constantly had to put down
attempts at secession—principally by the headmen of the town
of Fujairah. This town, situated between Khawr Fakkan (on the
north) and Kalba (on the south), a few miles inland from Gharayfah,
which serves as its port, was inhabited almost exclusively by members
of the Sharqiyy tribe, whose main sources of income had always
been agriculture and fishing. Fujairah’s long history of unsuccessful
attempts at secession from Sharjah began in 1866, when the headman
of the town refused to pay tribute. He was finally forced to submit
to Qasimi control, but in 1884 Shaykh Hamad bin ‘Abdallah,
the Sharqiyy leader of Fujairah, expressed his independent spirit
by seizing Gharayfah and also the town of Bithnah, in thejirri Ham,
a valley that starts near the village of Adhan in the Jirri plain
and reaches the Gulf of Oman a few miles south of Fujairah,
providing the only direct route between the Shimayliyyah and the
rest of the Trucial Coast. Hamad then appealed for protection
to the ruler of Ras al-Khaimah, which at that time was independent
of Sharjah. In view of this, Saqr bin Khalid of Sharjah had to
accept the situation, but when, in 1900, Ras al-Khaimah was reab­
sorbed into Sharjah, Hamad refused to accept Saqr’s overlordship,
and in 1901 he openly defied his orders. In 1902, when Saqr
was about to launch an attack on Fujairah, in order to force
Hamad to submit, the British authorities decided to intervene, es­
pecially when it became clear that the rulers of Dubai and Ajman
were willing to enter the conflict on Hamad’s side. Although
hostilities were temporarily averted, little was accomplished by the
British intervention, for Hamad absolutely refused to recognise the
ruler of Sharjah as his overlord. In 1903 Saqr made a successful
attack on Fujairah. This time Hamad admitted defeat and acknowl­
edged Sharjah’s authority over him, so conforming with the decision
of the British Government and the Government of India, when
earlier that year they had considered British policy in the area,