'Historical Memorandum on the Relations of the Wahabi Amirs and Ibn Saud with Eastern Arabia and the British Government, 1800-1934' [‎29v] (58/64)

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APPENDIX 0.
Map showing the extent of Wahabi and of Muscat Power, 1865 (enclosure in
Bushire Despatch to Bombay No. 11 of 14th February 1865).
APPENDIX D.
The Manasir and the A1 Murra.
The Manasir.
Lor. II. Lorimer (1905) describes the Manasir as u a bedouin tribe of Trucial Oman A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates.
1162-4. whose headquarters are in Dhafrab. Their general range is from Qatar on the
north-east to the Baraimi oasis on the east, and they are found all over Dhafrah,
but especially in Dhafrah proper and Limah and also in Khatam. A few frequent
the neighbourhood of Abu Dhabi town and visit the Baraimi oasis and some are
settled in the coast villages of Khan and Jumairah. On the north the tribe are in
contact with the Beni Hajir in the neighbourhood of Qatar, and further inland on
the west with the A1 Murra ; their raiding parties sometimes reach Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Faruq.
On the east their territory marches with that of the Beni Yas, with whom, moreover,
they are intermingled in Dhafrah, and to the south of them the country is
uninhabited, being part of the Rub’ al Khali. The Manasir, except those at Khan
and Jumairah, are altogether nomadic. Most of them winter in Qatar or its
neighbourhood and spend the summer in Liwah, where they have temporary
villages of huts and some date groves possessed as tribal joint property. . . . The
total number of the tribe is about 1,400 souls. . . . The Manasir were formerly
subject to the Wahabi Government, and in 1865 were understood to pay a contri
bution worth 2,000 dollars a year, chiefly in kind, into the Wahabi treasury. Now
they are independent of all control, but maintain some degree of intercourse with
the town of Abu Dhabi and its Sheikh.”
Vol. I, p. 89. The Admiralty Haiidbook of Arabia (May 1916) describes the Manasir as “a
small independent tribe in the ill-known Dhafrah district, bordering on the domain
of the Sheikh of Abu Dhabi, to whom, if to anyone, they owe a vague allegiance,
having for a generation or so been free of tribute to Ibn Saud. They are the last
predominantly nomadic tribe towards the south, the Great Desert and the Jafurah
Desert enclosing their dira south and west, and the mainly settled and friendly
Beni Yas of the Trucial Coast A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. lying east. North lies the dira of the Al Murra, with
whom the Manasir seem to be on better terms than anyone else. In winter the
whole tribe moves into or near El Qatar. In summer part of it may be found as
far south as the Baraimi oasis in north-west Oman. Mainly pastoral, the Manasir
possess arable land and summer settlements in Dhafrah (Liwah district) and are
much in advance of the Al Murra in civilisation. Both in religious tenets and
political connections they pertain to Oman. There seems to be no paramount
Mansuri chief. The tribe numbers about 1,500 souls.”
The Al Mdrra.
j JOr> n The Al Murra are described by Lorimer (1905) as “ a considerable Arab tribe
1239-42. of Eastern Arabia, very notorious for their misdeeds, but otherwise less is known
of them than of any other tribe of equal size and importance in the same region of
Arabia. The Al Murra inhabit the country in the south of the Hasa Sanjak and
that adjoining it, but lying beyond its border on the same side. Some are generally
to be found in Kharma, near the wells of Zarnuqah. 1 hey visit Barr adh Dhahran
and their raiders sometimes invest Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Faruq. They are the only inhabitants of
the Jafurah Desert. Jabrin is therr property. They sometimes visit Qatar in their
' peregrinations and they frequent the district of Aqal to a certain extent. A few
Al Murra are among the bedouins who resort annually to Anik in the Qatif oasis
and who are regarded as having a permanent connection with the place . .
Lorimer estimates the total number of the tribe at approximately 7,000 and the
total fighting strength at 2,000. He adds that “ the Al Murra, when pressed by
enemies more powerful than themselves ordinarily take refuge in the impenetrable