The Tunaij ( ar, الطنيج), also spelled as Tanaij (singular Tunaiji ar, الطنيجي), is an Arab tribe in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Tunaij have mostly settled in Dhaid, the inland oasis town of
Sharjah
Sharjah (; ar, ٱلشَّارقَة ', Gulf Arabic: ''aš-Šārja'') is the third-most populous city in the United Arab Emirates, after Dubai and Abu Dhabi, forming part of the Dubai-Sharjah-Ajman metropolitan area.
Sharjah is the capital o ...
Rams
In engineering, RAMS (reliability, availability, maintainability and safety)Hamriyah.
At the turn of the 19th century, there were some 4,000 Tunaij in the Northern Emirates, of whom 1,500 were
Bedouin
The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu (; , singular ) are nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia. The Bedouin originated in the Syrian Desert and A ...
. Influential in tribal politics because they could raise a force of some 500 fighting men, the Bedouin Tunaij used Dhaid as a centre and a fortified tower protected the 70-odd Tunaij houses there (the Na'im maintained a similar arrangement at Dhaid). The Tunaij have been linked to the Bani Qitab.
The Tunaij of Rams were mostly involved in pearl fishing and, during the pearling season, both Bedouin Tunaij and Shihuh would come to the coast to work as seasonal labour.