Page 156 - Truncal States to UAE_Neat

The Islamic Basis of Society

meet this uncompromising attack on their very existence, but their
persistent efforts to subdue the Kharijiles of Oman over a period of
three centuries only helped to strengthen the regular Ibadi school. On
the occasions that a Sunni Caliph managed to conquer the natural
fortress of Inner Oman he was unable to maintain control so long as
the large majority of its inhabitants did not sympathise with the
cause of his army. But the frequent and fierce contests with the
Caliphate at limes weakened the support for the Ibadis in the
country, and the Sunni element gained influence. Yet even when the
Caliph won a decisive battle such as in ad 752 (ah 135),15 he did not
manage to maintain full administrative control for long. Whenever
Oman was ruled by an amir of the Caliph, tribute was remitted to
him, and the Sunni portion of the population got the upper hand in
the internal strife and the tribal feuds, which were further embittered
by religious animosity. Yet over the centuries the Ibadi community in
Oman prevailed as the strongest element in the country, and while it
was not always able actually to establish an Ibadi State as it was
conceived in the teaching of the Kharijites and perfected by
'Abdullah bin Ibad al TamTmi (who lived between AD 685 and 750)
and by numerous subsequent Omani scholars, there was for most of
the time until ad 1783 an Ibadi leader who was accepted by the
community as Imam, although he was frequently not elected from
among the tribal leaders nor the scholarly 'ulama’ but acquired the
position by hereditary succession.
Few of the tribes living west of the Hajar mountains seem to have
permanently turned to Ibadism, but the upheavals and the bitter
struggles between the Caliphate and the Imamate could not fail to
involve them, and indeed, several of the decisive battles were fought
at places which were later part of the Trucial States. In ad 750 (ah
133) Abu al 'Abbas’s General Shaiban lost the battle and his life at
Tu’am (now Buraimi); two years later Khazim bin Khuzaimah was
victorious over the Ibadites at Julfar (Ra’s al Khaimah); in about ad
696 (ah 78) the Imam Sulaiman went with 3,000 horsemen and 3,500
camelmen to meet the very much larger army of the Caliph 'Abdul
Malik, which marshalled near Abu Dhabi, arriving by land and by
sea; he repelled the invaders.10 It is probable that the population of al !
Gharblyah in the area which later became Trucial Oman was from
time to time ruled by the authorities in Oman, but it was at other
times quite independent.17 However, the strategically important port
of Julfar and the equally important oasis of Tu’am probably always
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