Peter Lienhardt

Shaikhdoms of eastern Arabia

Acknowledgements Editors Preface Map of the Sheikhdoms of Eastern Arabia The Political Complex Women and Men The Bedouin Towns and Maritime Activities Sheikhly Families Sheikhs and Their People Editors Epilogue Appendix Select Bibliography Index

The Political Complex

This book is concerned with the traditional society of the Trucial Coast of Oman, more particularly in its political aspect, and with the government of shaikhs as it has existed there over the last two centuries. The society of the Trucial Coast is a small one and the style of government has been highly personal and, in that sense, simple. Excepting for the wider culture of Arabia and of Islam, the society has borrowed relatively little from the outside until very recent years. Foreign models and foreign ideologies1 have played no part in forming its dominant institutions. As the title of heads of state, shaikh, in these little principalities suggests, their form of government is connected with the institutions of the bedouin tribes of the Arabian Peninsula. And bedouin form an important and formidable part of the population. But something beyond tribal institutions has needed to develop, since a large part of the population has traditionally been made up of settled people in coastal towns and villages who depended for their living on the sea. The centres of government of the Trucial shaikhs have been the coastal towns.

The Shaikhs and Their People

The following is a story, possibly literary in origin but related in the Trucial Coast, about Dhu ’l-Qarnain, a figure identified with Alexander the Great and referred to in the Koran,1 but one who has become a part of myth rather than history: Dhu ’l-Qarnain, who was willed by God to spend his life as a wanderer, came in his journeys to a town and spent the night there. He remarked to the people of the town: ‘I see that your mosques are built outside the town, away from the houses.’ They replied: ‘That is so in order that we may gain merit by walking out to them at the time of prayer.’ Dhu ’l-Qarnain then said: ‘I see that your graveyard is close to the town.’ The people replied: ‘That is so in order that we may always be mindful of death.’ Then Dhu ’l-Qarnain remarked: ‘I see that your houses here have no doors,’ and the people replied: ‘That is because we have no spite among us and because no one of us looks at another man’s wife.’ Dhu ’l-Qarnain said: ‘I see that there is no rich man among you in the town’, and the people replied: ‘That is because we like to have no poor man and so we divide our money among those who would otherwise be poor.’ Dhu ’l-Qarnain said: ‘I see that you have no shaikhs.’ The people replied: ‘We have no shaikhs because we settle our disputes among ourselves.’ ‘By God,’ said Dhu ’l-Qarnain, ‘had He not obliged me to live for ever a wanderer I would have passed my whole life among you.’

Editor’s Epilogue

Peter Lienhardt’s study represents, to the best of my knowledge, the first systematic anthropological investigation (conducted over forty years ago) into the political and social conditions of the shaikhdoms of the Trucial States. It is hoped that the present volume will stimulate further anthropological researches into the region that will complement Peter’s research endeavours. However, he left four typed pages of numbered notes which were intended to be incorporated in a conclusion to his book. In these he reflects on some recent developments in the sheikhdoms of the Gulf, and the points raised will be of interest to future researchers on the shaikhdoms of the Trucial States who may find them useful topics for further investigation. I have made a few necessary comments in the form of endnotes but these in no way represent an appraisal of the points enumerated.

Towns and Maritime Activities

All the towns of the Trucial Coast lie on the seashore and have depended for their existence on the sea rather than the desert. Nevertheless, even now, in spite of all the new building that is going on, they retain a desert flavour, different from those Middle Eastern towns and cities where a large peasant population intervenes between bedouin and urban life and provides the strongest element in urban recruitment. In Eastern Arabia the desert sand runs straight down into the sand of the beaches: the coastal towns are desert towns and ports at the same time. There are towns where bedouin move with ease and confidence – bedouin who in the past played a part in the life of the sea, just as townsmen made sorties with their camels into the desert. Towns have grown up in places where there have been anchorages and some fresh water of however poor a quality. Some of them are sited in positions which afford natural defence against land attack.

The Shaikhly Families

A family tree (Fig. 5.1) illustrates the growth of ruling families. It gives the descendants of two of the sons of Sultan bin Saqr, who became shaikh of the Jawasim in 1803. In these two lines are included the shaikhs who are now associated with Ras Al-Khaimah. Other descendants of Sultan bin Saqr are descended through other sons and are associated with Sharjah. These have been omitted. The third generation included in this chart, that is, the generation of shaikhs Muhammed bin Salim (bin Sultan bin Saqr) and Sultan bin Salim (bin Sultan bin Saqr) is still alive. Shaikh Muhammed bin Salim, the father of the present Ruler of Ras Al-Khaimah,1 is probably over seventy years old. His brother Shaikh Sultan bin Salim, himself Ruler until he was driven out a few years ago2 by his nephew Saqr bin Muhammed (bin Salim) who took his place, is considerably younger. The last generation mentioned in any line is made up for the most part of children and young men who have not yet reached an age to be politically important.

Women and Men

A Bahrain proverb says of an inquisitive woman, ‘She’s blind but she still peeps out through the ventilation tower.’ One might ask, why not the window? But the answer is obvious: Arab houses simply present blind walls to the street, unless they have more than one storey, in which case the upper walls may be pierced by a few windows set at such a height that no one can possibly see in through them. Peeping out may be allowed; but it is peeping in that must be prevented. And so must the overhearing of private family affairs.