'File 8/62 IV PRINCIPAL SHAIKHS & TRIBES OF OMAN.' [‎85r] (169/282)

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Sultan 1 s experiment with the Na ! im in 1948 v/hen he is sai jj 0
have got the section-leaders to sign a document acce ting
Saar Bin Sultan as their tamimah is believed to have lapsed,
although it is necessary to note that the reason given is the
Sultan s own lack of support for the arrangement since Shaikh Saqr
started independent negotiations with the Oil Company prospecting
in the district (SA 1019/10), a clear indication of his wish to be
regarded as independent of the Sultan, It does not necessarily
follow that he would put himself or be able to put his followers
under ibn Sa'ud.
17. The Albu Shamis are friendly to Abu Dhabi; the isa’im are
not.
18. On the whole, therefore, there would appear to be a
reasonably good case to be made for regarding all four tribes of
the Jau and Dhahirah tracts as certainly independent of the Imam
and on terms with the Sultan which justify a claim that they,
technically at any rate, owe him allegiance, since it will not be i
in ibn Sa ’udfeinterest to apply the ’’religious test.
19. The badu 1 tribes include the ■Awarnir the Daru’ the
Wahibah and the Qara.
20 The Awamir have numerous small settlements in the Sultanate
which acknowledge the Sultan. The bedouin fcUons which range
along the edge of the Ruba' A1 Khali appear to be divided between
branches one of which is in Sa'udi Arabia (E 11092) from which a
Sa’udi claim to the whole of the bedouin sections is likely to
arise. Information about the connection between the settled
sections in the Sultanate and the more easterly bedouin sections
is not available but from the account of their wild and lawless
habits it seems probable that the tamimah of the se tied ns
has no influence, and that what cohesion exists amongst the badu
£s maintained by Shaikh Salim Bin Kamad of the Hal Haiw section
"in Sa'udi Arabia" (E 11092).
21. Information about the Daru' (or Duru') is somewhat
conflicting (E 11092 and EA 1019/10) but the report in the latter
remarks thlt they are "at feud with the Wahabis* and that their
tamimah visited the Sultan in 1948.
82. The Wahibah are on good terms with the Sultan and their
tamimah visited him in 1948.
Pt The Sara who live on the borders of Dhofar are a wild and
primitive people but appear to be well-disposed to the Sultan.
24. On the whole, therefore, ignoring the rather doubtful case
of the 'Awamir there seem to be good grounds, as far as the
desert area is concerned, for regarding the line "beyond which
+h«= Sultan has no claims as actually representing the
anuroximate limits of the diras of tribes over which the Sultan
may claim some measure of control or influence.
P'S The oosition in the Jau district, in which Buraimi lies,
in the Mahadhah tract to the north-east of it, the home of the
Pnnl Ka 1 ah. and in the Dhahirah immediately south of Jau, is
?esi easy to define. The case for regarding the Buraimi oasis
itself as nart of Abu Dhabi’s territory may fall down owing to
onnosition from the Sultan. This does not positively advance
Sa^udi claims to the olace but naturally makes a counter-claim
more