File 600/1905 Pt 5 'Aden Hinterland: Treaty with Sultan of Balahaf' [‎132r] (47/152)

344UD
37
6. All the Sultans and tribesmen were drawn up in a lone row alone the
shore to receive me. Upon landing I shook hands and exchanged a few words
with some of them and then proceeded into the fort, where I proceeded to
again interview the Sultans and Sayids and all the leading Sheikhs of the
various tribes who had assembled at Balahaf for the occasion, The following
is the list of the Sheikhs whom I interviewed, and from inquiries made on the
represented 1 --— n<!< * ^ ^ t10 ma j ority of tlie tribes "ere fully and properly
(1) Sheikh Saeed bin Naeir A] Jasari, the Sad al Habban. The most important Sheikh
Habban nCt0f HabbaU ' He has about 400 followers or more and lives near
(2) Sheikh Said bin Salim Suedan of the Sad al Sha' ab. an important leader of the
tribe of Sad al Sha’ab. He has over a hundred followers and lives north of
Amakm in the Habban district.
(3) Sheikh Mansoor bin Nashir Al Habtoor. He has about 106 followers and lives
not far from Libya in the Azzan district at what was known as the Gbel Al
baidi.
(4) Sheikh Naaif bin Mohsin of the Ahl Omar bin Ali, who lives near Al Rawdthar
and has about 50 followers.
(5) Sheikh Muhammad bin Awadth of the tribe of Ba Dayan, who lives south of
Hauta in the Habban district and has a following of about 200 men.
(6) Sheikh Awadth bin Hadi Al Sulemani, leader of the tribes of the Hamyar, who
lives in the hills near the coast in the Dhuyaibi district and has an immediate
personal following of about 300 men and great influence over all the coast tribes
between Irka and BalaLaf.
(*) Sheikh Mansa bin Salem of the tribe of Al Abdali, who has a following of about
150 men and lives at Ain Ba Mabad.
(8) Salem bin Abdulla bin Lasal of the tribe Ba Auda, who has a following of about
200 men and lives between Azzam and the coast. In regard to this Sheikh it
wa* admitted that his cousin Ali bin Awadth was the most influential leader of
th^ tribe, but it was said that he had sent his cousin to represent him vide
Arabic Department 117 of 16th May 1903.
(9) Nasir bin Salim bin Laswad of the Komasbi tribe who has a following of about
680 and lives south of Habban.
(10) Awadth bin Muhammad of the Ba Kutmi who numbers over 100 men and lives
Hear Hawil Bil Arab.
(11) Ahmed bin Ali bin Tawil of the Said Al Sha’ab who numbers about 200 followers
and lives near Amakin.
(12) Salim bin Saeed Al Suweder of the Ahl Hayasam who also lives near Amakin
and numbers about 150 men.
(13) Hasan bin Naser of the Ahl Fahide who lives in Amakin and is the leader of 150
soldiers.
(14) Saeed bin Salem bin Rashid who lives at Raida and has 100 followers.
(15) Abdulla bin Saeed bin Baneit w-ho has 100 followers up in the north of the Maifah
Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. .
(16) Mehdi bin Abdulla Ba Kutmi who lives at Jirdan and had 120 followers.
(17) Ahmed bin Omar Al Admi who lives north-east of Hura and has a few hundred
followers.
7. All except the last four of the Sheikhs were strong supporters of Mohsin
bin Saleh as Sultan of the Wahidis and the last four, who said what they had
come at Sultan Saleh’s special request, did not express themselves in favour of
Sultan Saleh, but said that they really did not mind who was elected and
would not consider themselves subject to any one. Some of the other Sheikhs
similarly claimed actual independence, but nevertheless supported Sultan
Mohsin’s election. All the Sultans and Sheikhs were strongly opposed to the
idea of any alteration of any part of Balahaf to the Kayti. One of them,
Ahmed bin Umar of the Ali Admi tribe, offered to name any Sultan I chose for
money.