81 AREA NO. 25: MASFUT-GEZIRA. Ajman's claim to this area is ba on the fact thatthe Ruler took the villages under his protection in 1947.The details of their appropriation are recorded in theAgency monthly intelligence summaries of the time.lon ce Summaries jme Sharjahintelligencesummaries,nos, 8,9,11,12 and 13 of1947 According to these summaries, the inhabitants ofMasfut, who had been the subjects of Shaikh Sultan binSaqr al Naimi of Buraimi appealed to the Shaikh ofAjman for protection against the Beni Kaab tribe smenas their nominal ruler had incurred the wrath of thelatter, and was too weak to defend Masfut Ca receivingtheir appeal, Shaikh Rashid ol Ajman launched anexpedition to Masſut, and having built a tower there,garrisoned it with his guards. This completed, hevisited Shaikh Obeid bin Juma of the Beni Kaab, who wasreported to have expressed his satisfaction at the turnor events. Naturally Shaikh Sagr oŤ Buraimi was lesssatisſied and attempted to secure the return of hisvillages through the mediation of the Rulers of Dubaiand Sharjah, His efforts failed, as the Ruler ofAjman would neither meet Shaikh Sagr or withdraw fromMasiut. He claimed that Masſut was once the propertyof his grandfathers, having been ceded to him by theSultan oi muscat", and he promised to come to asettlement with the Sultan when the latter returned toMuscat. However, no settlement was achieved and Ajman,supported by the Beni Kaab, remained mistress of thearea. The Ruler ol Ajman's claim that Masfut was ownedby his grandfather appears to be in conflict with Lormer, who states The se villages, Hajarain and llasiut,Lorimer part 1, both inhabited by the Biduwat, seem to have belongedvolume 1 originally - as the lower part of the Wadi does still -page 752 to the Sultanate of Oman, but about 1870 in the reignof Saiyid Azzan bin Qais, an irreconcilable quarreltaking place between the two, the people of Masſutplaced themselves under the protection of the BeniKaab and the Naim of Buraimi" and elsewhere records that the people of Masfut depend on the support or theLorimer Naim of the Buraimi oasisil. Shaikh Abdullah bin Salimvolume 2, of the Beni Kaab says that Masiut was given to thepage 684 Naim by the Sultan at about the same time as the BeniKaab vere awarded al Fai and Dubai presented withHajarain. Shaikh Rashid of Ajman, who explains that hisgrandfather (Abdul Aziz II ?) had ceded the territoryto Shaikh Muhammed bin Sultan of Buraimi, now has fullde facto control of Maşiut and its de pendant villages allof which pay him zakat. His Wali, Shaikhan bin Saidwho lives in Masiut told me that the immediate areaunder his control included the following places: MasfutSalmiNega'a ShariyahThardaMussaya. The Biduwat of Masfuc and Hajaran, Shaikh Abdullahbin Salim of the Beni Kaab, and his tribe sman Khalfanbin Gharib all agree with Shaikhan's statement, butwhile Khalfan says that the bounds of Ajman'sterritory in the west lie at Qurn Ghuzlanat andDakhalat (the western entrance to Wadi Laim) hisShaikh declares that his frontier with Shaikh Rashid /runs
