'File 8/62 IV PRINCIPAL SHAIKHS & TRIBES OF OMAN.' [‎28r] (55/282)

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wvh ext ^ CT0l y rare in Dhofar whore the Sultan and his
!ive ^ ! a H-, k0a P closo touch the poonle. The Sharas
frn^iLen^ le £h 8hC t P + >! 1 - ld ?° £ J t rearin e* and the procurement of
ramiincense, though this industry h/is vory f-peatlv declined in
sSbstitutosf * ° Wine ' “ 18 though ^ t0 reldig accessihle
P hqf>i ^° r . Sha ^? G take no part in tribal politics and are neither
Ghafin nor Hmawi. Their Tamimah is A 3 ham bin Para i, and
arimtti^ri'riaS 7 ^ 0n ° tW0 tho ’ lsand with about six hundred
primitive rixlos and swords or knives#
5L SHIHUH
, +0 -P? tr i^ a l capital is said to ho Khasah, hut the tribe
d tr o S -,P de } y 8cat tered over the whole Eu’us al Jihal district
oi the Sultanate. They number about eight thousand and may
possess about fit teen hundred rifles. Those settled on the
coast live by fishing, pearling (in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. ) and date
cultivation where possible. Those in the hills of the interior
rear goats and poultry, and grow grain. They have their own
dialect or language called Shihuiyah,-but also know Arabic.
Jhey used to be at feud with the Dhahuriyin, but thia tribe is
even more primLtLvo and now nearly extinct. It is composed almost
entirely of fishermen, who migrate wholesale from their villages
to cooler places in the summer# There is no recognised
Tamimah*.but the most important Shaikh of the Beni Shatair
sub section of the Shihuh is Hassan bin Rahmah, aged about forty-
11 voj. living at Bai ah near Dibah on the border north of
Shamaillyah# He visited the Sultan in 1948 and received Rs#500/-#
Another man of some importance is tho Shaikh of the Beni Hiddayah
sub-section of the tribe called Mohammad bin Ahmed, living in
Bakhiah, south of Khasab. He also visited the Sultan in 1948
and is understood to have received Rs. 500/-. He is constantly
at feud with the Q'owasim of Has al Khaimah on his border, and
both in this.and similar chronic feuds between the Shihuh and
Qowasim of Dibbah, on the other side of the promontory, His
Majesty s Govcrnmont have upon occasions had to intervene to
keep the peace. As a whole the Shihuhare wild, surly and
unattractive.people, living in most primitive conditions, and are
shy and suspicious of strangers. At Khasab the Sultan exercises
some control through a Kali, but in the mountain regions of the
interior and the inaccessible coastal villages, control or
administration is non-existent. A peculiar, wild, completely
isolated and unfriendly section,Imown as the Kumzaris, lives at
Kumzar near the most northerly point of the promontory. They
too have their own dialect# Their Shaikh is Salih bin Mohammad.
/ As...
* The Shaikh ofKhassab in 1930 defied the Sultan and refused to
allow H.M.S, Ormonde to land survey parties. H.M.S. Lunin
and Cyclamen with the Sultan's gun boat "Al Said" shelled the
place and the Shaikh was made a state prisoner, and, his son,
Hamdan, appointed in his place, but not as Tamimah.