'File 8/62 III PRINCIPAL SHAIKHS & TRIBES of OMAN.' [‎10r] (19/70)

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This information should be treated only as supplementary to
the much more extensive and ably compiled notes contained in Lomjw^w s
Gazetteer (1905), and the latter should ijasmxi*bly--hd-ccrisulted when more
detailed information is required. These notes are in fact merely an
attempt to bring the infoimation more up to date* They are neither
exhaustive nor, as indicated, can their accuracy be vouched for, though
• where there is a sharp difference from previous accounts, such^steps as
are possible have been taken to check up on the infoimation. figures of
population and rifles must necessarily be estimates of the crudest kind,
and the stated tendencies of the tribes may be no more than the hopes of
the informants. It will be noted that for the most part the population
’ has considerably decreased. This is scarcely surprising since, apart from
epidemics, which, though cholera and plague have taken severe toll, have
been mercifully few, there has been a constant exodus in recent times to
the oil fields and the Muscat Consulate has for some years issued visas on
Omani passports at the rate of some three thousand a year. From these
• jrevised estimates it will be seen that the tribal population of the Sultan
ate may be less than two hundred thousand, and, with the cosmopolixwi
■population of the coastal towns, including Muscat, Mutrah and G-wadur, the
whole population of the Sultanate is probably not in excess of three
hundred thousand, and former estimates of half a million are very likely
excessive. The Sultan himself, though frequently approached, either through
genuine ignorance or an unexplained desire for secrecy, has supplied no
information of value, though few persons can have had better opportunity
for accumulating knowledge through actual contact than his present Minister
for the Interior, Saiyid Aimed bin Ibrahim* His officials are no more
■helpful in this matter and information must be gleaned despite them
/rather than with their assistance.
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• For a better understanding of these notes a brief enumeration
i of the provinces or districts of the Sultanate may be helpful here. To
the north covering the whole tip of the Oman promontory is the Ruus al
• Jibal. Southward (omitting Shamailiyah which is not Sultanate territory)
i is the 3atinah - the coastal plain reaching down almost to Muscat, West
J of the Batinah is Western Hajar, which includes the Jibal Akhdar mountain
"^Xange. « Further inland is DHAHIRAH and, somewhat north, the iBur?Tmv and
Mahadhah tracts, both of doubtful ownership. South and East lie Eastern
Hajir and Sharqiyah, and then following the coast southward, Jalu an,
B a tedn and, finally, at the southernmost extremity, adjoining the Hadramaut
of the Aden Protectorate, Dhofar.
The present situation is one of general peace, with the Sultan’s
influence slightly increasing in the coastal districts, e.g. Batinah,
Dhofar and Sharqiyah , and far better established than in his father s
day, *It seems a pity that all his Walis are selected from his own tribe
and ate often near relations. In Oman proper and Dhahihrah, and East and
West hajar, the Triumvirate continue their rule, and when it comes to it,
it sdems that the vote will almost certainly be for continuation of the
Imams hip in a person other than the Sultan, otherwise this independenoe
will be lost, and at present the most likely candidate, and one who certain
quarters insist has already been nominated, is the eldest son of the
previous Imam, Yahya bin Salim bin Rashid al Kharusi, aged at present
about forty. However,..though seventy two and despite recurring rumours
of failing health, the present Imam is by no means yet dead or even
dying.
A still more