'File 8/63 MUSCAT STATE AFFAIRS: SHIHUH TRIBE.' [‎8r] (15/56)

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irreiiminary note on Shihuh politics,
A brief note would appear to be necessary to give
recent eirents a bacicground.
The Shihuh are the rude, suspicious and wild
inhabitants of RU l US AL JAbAh. hossibly in part aborigi
nal ( their alleged descent from the Azdite invader of
the 2nd Centu^iry A.h. Malik bin tfaham is improbable)
they are more ignorant and uncouth than their neighbours
either of Trucial Oman A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. or of the oulanante.hthnologi
cally they are not one. The Kumazara of the villages of
Aumz&r exclusively and of Ahasb and i.imah partly are
Iranian elements,racially and linguistically peculiar,
and it is they who have established a shaikhly ascendancy
over tne southern half of the ahihuh, by v/hich tribe in
name and politics they have been absorbed. This southern
confederation by name J^ani bhatair and a northern one
.Bani Hadiyah together compose the Sihhuh Ixkx tribe. The
seats of their Shaikhs are Dibah and Khasb respectively.
These towns are the foci of Shihuh politics. The tv/o
Sheikhs are generally regarded as equal and rival, iheir
respective confederations the jsani nadiyah and the nani
shatair v with which is associated the numazaaca) are
traditional enemies and are normally divided by old
blood feuds.
nistoric&lly, the keeping of the tribal peace
between these tv/o elements has been the ‘raison d^tre 1
of the sulatanate wall at nhksab.
The Shihuh, v/hen free from external cares are
thus a house divided aganist itself, but they unite in
the face of the common enemy -traditionally the neighbour
ing ^wASIm tribe, ihe shihuh belong to the ninawi factior
the tyAWASIM to the U-nAFARI faction. The menace which the
^AWASIlti. constituted for the inhabitants of musandam.
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