Internal political situation in Muscat and Oman p.98

FO 371/126881 1957
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AL BU SAID

This is the tribe of the Sultans of Muscat and Oman.
The present Sultan is head of it and automatically their
Tamimah. The people are scattered and number about two
thousand with about four hundred rifles outside the Sultan's
military and personal resources. Most of them are poor and
employed in cultivation. Some are goldsmiths, especially in
Nizwa and Manah, The old tribal capital is Adam and small
settlements are found in Manah, Nizwa, Izki, Samail, Sohar,
Sib, Boshar, Matrah and there are, of course the Sultan's
relations in Muscat. About three hundred are settled in
Zanzibar as cultivators, and some as traders. The Sultan
has appointed many of his Walis from this tribe.

They are allied with the Janabah and Duru and do not
a ppear to be at fued with any tribe. The title "Saiyid" is
officially reserved to the Sultan's close relatives, though
many use it. In recent years the Sultan has given up the
title himself and prefers to style himself simply as "Said
bin Taimur, Sultan of Muscat and Oman".

SHARA

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 quietly
enough, Crime is in fact extremely rare in Dhofar where the
Sultan and his trusted Wali keep close touch with the people,
The Sharas live by cattle, sheep and goat rearing, and the
procurement of frankincense, though this indistry has very
greatly declined in modern times, owing, it is thought, to
more readily accessible substitutes.

The Shara take no part in tribal politics and are
neither Ghafiri nor Hinawi. Their Tamimah is Ajhan bin
Faraj, and their numbers may be one or two thousand with
about six hundred primitive rifles and sworda or knives.

EL SHIHUH

The tribal capital is said to be Khassab, but the
tribe itself is widely scattered over the whole Ru'us al
Jibal district of the Sultanate. They number about eight
thousand and may possess about fifteen hundred rifles.
Those settled on the coast live by fishing, pearling (in the
Persian Gulf) 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 they also know Arabic. They used to be at
feud with the Dhahuriyin, but this tribe is even more primitive
and now nearly extinct. It is composed almost entirely of
fishermen, who migrato wholesale from their villages to
cooler places in the summer. The Shaikh of Khassab in 1930
defied the Sultan and refused to allow H.M.S. "Ormonde" to
land survey parties. H.M.S. Lupin 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. There is now no recognised
Tamimah, but the most important Shaikh of the Beni Shatair

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