In total, some 14,500 Shihuh had settled the coast, while 7,000 inhabited the mountainous interior, although the members of the tribe would travel seasonally between both domains.
[7] In the warmer months, they migrated mainly to work during the date season, typically to Khasab, Dibba and the Batinah coast of Oman.
[13] Historically, the Shihuh were difficult to govern and their principal northern villages were often secessionist, depending on the inaccessibility of the terrain they inhabited.
One such was keenly felt at Rams where the headman, Abdelrahman bin Saleh Al Tanaiji, concluded an alliance with the Shihuh.
[18] Sultan bin Salim made a complaint to the British Agent, which yielded no effective response, and in June 1921, fighting broke out.
It was eventually the risk of loss to the Indian merchant community (British subjects) that led the British to take action to solve the dispute and, in July 1921, HMS Cyclamen arrived off Rams, where a four-month truce had already been agreed between the Shihuh and Abdelrahman's brother, Muhammad bin Saleh Al Tanaiji, the new wali.
It did not last three days until the parties fell out again and a further treaty negotiation took place with the Sheikhs of the Shihuh and the President of the Muscat Council's private secretary.
[19] The Shihuh and their historical influence over events shaped Dibba, an eastern town which is the confluence of three borders: Sharjah and Fujairah in the UAE and Oman.
[22] British frustration with the wide-ranging conflicts between settled populations and the Shihuh led in 1926 to a proposal to rehouse them at Kalba - and give them control of the Shamailiyah, an area which represents the whole east coast of the present UAE (including newly independent Fujairah) and therefore reduce the clashes which were taking place between Shihuh and the local populations of the villages on the north-west coast.