- Source: Balush (tribe)
The Balush (Arabic: البلوش); singular Al-Balushi (Arabic: البلوشي) is one of the Arab Bedouin tribes. Members of the tribe can be found in Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. The tribe is a branch of Al-Zaffa clan while the origins of Al-Zaffa clan are from the Al-Ahamdah clan. and Al-Ahamdah branched into many tribes in the countries of the Levant, after a migration from Hijaz (Western Arabia) to the Levant started from the lineage [Khozam From Qahtan] until the Tribe Appeared and Named (Balush) in the Levant.
The Balush tribe is one of the Bedouin Tribes.
As Heard-Bay the author of From Trucial States To The United Arab Emirates who denied the descend and the relation between the Balush tribe and the Baloch ethnic as mentioned in her book on page 64.
Lineage
Al-Balush from Al-Zaffa from Al-Ahamda from Khazam bin Bali bin Amr bin Al-Haf bin Quda’ah bin Malik bin Amr bin Murrah bin Zaid bin Malik bin Himyar bin Saba bin Yashjub bin Ya’rub bin Qahtan bin the Prophet Hud.
Migration
One of the Arab Bedouin tribes traveling in the desert they relocated from Hijaz (Yemen) to the Levant, from the main branches of the (Al-Ahmada) and branched from the Zaffa clan in the Levant, (Balqa), then (Al Dhahirah – Sultanate of Oman), then (Al Ain City – Abu Dhabi, UAE).
About the tribe
The Balush of the Dhahirah formed an important element of the settled population in the land between the Trucial Coast and the sultanate. These Balush are not to be identified with the people who had come from the former Omani possession Makran, now part of Pakistan, to serve in the sultan's army as mercenaries, nor are they descended from the Baluchis who settled in Muscat, the coastal towns of the Batinah and the Trucial States (according to the Gazetteer the latter had about 1,400 Baluchis) as traders and fishermen. While these groups retained the use of their language, the Balush of Dhahirah have a tribal organisation, an exclusive dar around their capital Mazam; they are Sunni and speak Arabic.
Relations and conflicts
This explains their usually good relationship with the Bani Yas and in particular their shaikh's co-operation with the Al Bu Falah in the Buraimi area.
At a time of realignment of tribal loyalties during the first decade of this century, the Balush of Mazām had a dispute with and were attacked by their erstwhile protectors the Bani Qitab. When the Beduin Bani Qitab converged on Mazam and hostilities there had claimed some victims, the Balush turned to Zayid bin Khalifah for help.
= The Balush and Bani Qitab
=In February 1906 he collected his forces with the intention of supporting the Balush of Mazām and extracting blood money from the Bani Qitab on behalf of the Balush. The Bani Qitab had difficulty finding support, but the young Rashid bin Ahmad of Umm al Qaiwain eventually adopted their case as an opportunity to challenge Shaikh Zayid's influence over the tribes in the hinterland. A general war over the Balush dispute was, however, prevented by a meeting of Trucial rulers and shaikhs of the hinterland, convened in Khawānij near Dubai in April 1906. It resulted in the written agreement, already mentioned, regarding the rulers' spheres of influence among the Beduin. Shaikh Zayid bin Khalifah assumed the responsibility for following up all the claims, "important or trifling", which the Balush had against the Bani Qitab, and he instructed his wali Aḥmad bin Hilal accordingly.
= The Tribe Approach
=In the 1950s, however, the Balush followed the tribal structure of society example of neighbouring tribes and tried to use as political bargaining points or to obtain handsome subsidies, the keen interest which the sultan of Oman and the king of Saudi Arabia had in the allegiance of these tribes at a time when prospecting for oil commenced in their dar.
= The Hinawi Grouping
=Important tribe of the Bani Ali who traditionally supported the
Hinawi Al Ba Sa'id Sultan live in the Wadi Dhank and Yanqul near
the Al Bu Falah-dominated area of Al Ain. The Balush of Dhahirah
have also traditionally supported the Hinawiyah. Outside this strong
Hinawi grouping west of the Hajar range. there was an important
link with tribes in the north, because the Shihuh, the Habus and the
Zaab are also Hinawi. but the largest Hinawi tribe apart from the
Bani Yas are the Sharqiyin of Fujairah on the East Coast.
