Page 90 - Arabian Studies (I)

76 Arabian Studies l

assimilation took place because it is treated at some length in his
forthcoming book. Water and Settlement in South East Arabia.
Rather his aim is to trace certain vestiges of the old social order that
have survived in the present day organisation of traditional village life
and to see why some groups have been assimilated by the Arab
tribesmen whilst others have been rejected. This he intends to do by
discussing two particular groups, the baydsirah and the bavadir.

Excluded classes: the baydsirah
There are certainly some elements of village society in Oman that
have been excluded from membership of Arab tribal groups:
numerically by far and away the most important of these are the
so-called baydsirah (sing. baysarT). It is worth exploring a little
further to see why this should be, for such exclusion contrasts
strongly with the assimilation of the bayadlr.
The first time the writer heard the word baysari used was when
one of the shaikhs of Abu Dhabi contemptuously shrugged off
someone as of no importance by simply describing him as a baysari.
Similar attitudes towards thc baydsirah exist throughout the Gulf. In
Bahrain Island Serjeant (1968) equates them with the cla‘if (weak)
peoples of southern Arabia while, in Kuwait, al-Hanafl (1964, 56)
describes them as riff-raff (ra*d* al-nds), people with no origin (asl):1
Reinhardt (1894, 10,122), in his study of Omani dialects, defines Besar
pi. Bejdsor as Freigelassene (Pdchter), while Jayakar (1889)
gives the meaning half caste. Thomas (1931, 152—3) collected some
interesting information on the Omani baydsirah. Like Serjeant he too
equates them with the da*if class of southern Arabia and adds that
although a baysari man never marries an outsider, Arabs will take
baysari women as wives. This last statement does not at all agree
with what the writer was told: an informant of impeccable tribal
origin from IzkI stated that, while an Omani may take a slave woman
without affecting his status (qasr sharaf), the same does not apply to
taking a baysari woman: the baydsirah themselves however do
intermarry with slaves. Thomas goes on to say that the baydsirah
employ the term habdb when addressing their seniors. Despite their
lowly status individuals may achieve senior positions; one became
chief Qadi in Muscat in his time. Like the Baluch and Zutut, he says,
they are often of the semi-artisan class. Lorimer (art. baydsirah) and
Thomas both record local ideas about their origin. Some people
believe them to be prisoners of war who, because they were Muslims,
were not made actual slaves. Others believe they were originally the
children of Omanis by slave mothers, while yet others ascribe a