'File 8/62 IV PRINCIPAL SHAIKHS & TRIBES OF OMAN.' [‎105r] (212/282)

16-
BU. S^P,i.
This is the tribe of the Sultans of Muscat and
Oman. The present Sultan is head of it and their Tamimah.
The people are scattered and number about two thousand,.
with about*four hundred rifles outside the Sultan^ military
and personal resources. Most of them are poor and employed
in cultivation. Some are goldsmiths, especially in Nizwa
and Manaht The tribal capital is Adam and small settlement^
are found in Manah, Nizwa, Izki, Samail, Sohar, Sib, Bosharj
Muttrah and, of course, the Sultan^ relations in Muscat.
About three hundred are settled in Zanzibar as cultivators^
and some as * 4 * 0 -traders. The Sultan appears to have appointed
many Walis from this tribe.
They are allied with the Janabah and Duru and do
not appear to be at feud with any tribe. The title "Saiyid 11
is officially reserved to the Sultan and his close relative#^
though many use it.
This is the oldest tribe of the three tribes in
Dhofar District, and may be aboriginal. The people speak
a dialect called Kazrat (so named by the Arabs from its
''sizzling” sound). The people are completely primitive and
wear few cloths, living, except for a few in Salalah,
exclusively in caves in the Samhan hills. They have a
reputation for thieving and treachery, but at present seem
to be living quiety enough. Crime is in fact extremely rare
in Dhofar where the Sultan and his trusted Wali keep close
touch with the people. The Shares live by cattle, sheep and
goat rearing, and the procurement of frankincense, though
this industry has very greatly declined in modern times,
owing, it is though^ to more readily accessible substitutes.
The Shares take no part in tribal politics and are
neither Ghafiri nor Hinawi, Their Tamimah is Ajham bin FarsiJi
and their numbers may be one or two thousand with about six
hundred primitive rifles and swords or knives.
ffL SHIHUH.
The tribal capital is said to be Khasab, but the
tribe itself is widely scattered over the whole Hu'us al
Jibal district of the Sultanate. They number about eight
thousand and may possess about fiteen 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., They used to be at feud
A*/*/ with the Dhahuriyin, but this tribe is even more primitive
and now nearly extinct. It is composed almost entirely of
L< ^ fishermen, who migrate wholesale from their villages to ^
cooler places in the summer. There i s no recogn ised Tamimah
but the most important Shaikh of the/fShihuhT is Hass an bin
((M.
JO. <1
.A /yJa
c ^*** £2'
Rahmah, aged about fortyfive. living at Bai'ah near Dibah
on the border north of Shamailiyah. He visited the Sultan
In 1948 and received Rs.500/-. Another man of some importance
is the Shaikh of the Beni Hiddayah sub-section of the tribe
6b aui * 6H
*** Mohammad bin Ahmed, living in Bakhah, south of Khasab,
1 also visited the Sultan in 1948 and is understood to have
7 received Rs, 600/-. He is constantly at feud with the
Qowasim of Rasal 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
Government have upon occasions had to intervene to keep the
peace. As a whole the Shihuhare wild, surly and unattractive
. . people
/ —~ *
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