"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎٧‎٥‎٢] (١٧٨٢/٨٩٥)

752
thrown at first into the opposite scale. No actual hostilities, however
took place among the Trucial Shaikhs in connection with the Shamailiyah
dispute. In 1903, on the return of the Sharjah Shaikh from an
expedition to Shamailiyah, the Shaikh of'Ajman, without prejudice to
an offensive and defensive alliance that existed between himself and
Dihai, entered into a similar arrangement with Sharjah; and thereafter
there was close friendship between them, while the alliance between
Sharjah and Abu Dhabi was also maintained. In 1905 Shaikh Saoar-
bm-Khahd appeared to have relinquished all idea of coercing the
refractory Fujairah headman.
WaS Hatta! A CUri0US difficuIt ^ to produce unforeseen and Bomewhat
1905. ' far-reaching consequences, now occurred in connection with two villages
in the upper part of Wadi Hatta in Western Hajar, a valley through
which runs a route from Dibai in Trucial 'Oman to the town of
Slunas m Batmah. These villages, Hajarain and Masfut, both inhabited
by Biduwat, seem to have belonged originally—as the lower part of Wadi
Hatta does still—to the Sultanate of 'Oman; but about 1870, in the
ui to n of Saiyid Azzan-bin-Qais, on an irreconcileable quarrel taking
place between the two, the people of Masfut placed themselves under tbe
protection of the Bani Ka'ab and the Na'im of Baraimi; and afc a later
period, in the reign of Saiyid Turki, the Sultan of 'Oman in view of
his own inability to defend Hajarain against the Na'im of Baraimi,
acquiesced in its virtual transfer to the Shaikh of Dibai. Such was the
position, when, in 1905, tbe Bani Qitab, actuated by enmity towards the
Na'im of Baraimi, occupied the hills at tbe head of Wadi Hatta, built
a fort (called Hauz) to command the road at a spot known as Jabail,
pioceeded to annoy passing caravans. In these acts they were
untenaneed the people of Masfut, who in so doing apparently took
the opposite side from their Na'im protectors, and by Rashid-bin-Ahmad,
^ and \igoious Shaikh of Umm-al-Qaiwain, who was said to have
supplied funds for the building of the fort; but the Na'im of Baraimi
i ^ Dibai entertained strong objections to the fort and
m the Shaikh of Abu Dhabi, whose opinion coincided with their
p.. . September 1905 the five Trucial Shaikhs held a meeting at
the venerable Zaid-bin-Khalifah in effect presiding; and it
tl "R ^ arent / V t ^ at Jabail fort should be destroyed, and that
an. Qitab should restore Masfut, which village had fallen com-
P e e y under their influence, to the Shaikhs of Raraimi. Shaikh Zaid
Baii Q' Ca ^ 0n Shaikh Rashid to abstain from encouraging the
itab, and he even obtained from him a promise to comply with this
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