Page 106 - UAE Truncal States
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Chapter Three
          Administering a Tribal
          Society






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          1 The “decentralisation” of the administration
              in the wall system of tribal shaikhdoms


          General
          At a time when communication was slow between the scattered
          settlements of the shaikhdoms, each Ruler maintained permanent
          representatives, usually called wali, in the more important popu­
          lation centres of his shaikhdom.1 The fact that his representative was
          in control in that place meant that the Ruler’s authority was at least
          de jure recognised by the population of that remote area and by the
          neighbouring shaikhs. But often enough control over the representa­
          tive himself slipped from the Ruler’s hand and he declared himself an
          independent Ruler.
            The institution of a wali carried more political weight, the more a
          shaikhdom was geographically spread out. Cars and motorboats
          were first brought in any number to the Trucial States by the oil
          companies and became the predominant means of transport only in
          the early 1960s.2 While camels and sailing boats were still the
          principal means of communication, the administration of a large
          shaikhdom such as Abu Dhabi or the Qasimi realm could not easily
          be centralised. The extent to which a Ruler’s personal influence was
          felt in the distant settlements under his sovereignty depended on the
          geographical and economic situation as much as on his choice of a
          wali. The closer the ties of genuine mutual trust between Ruler and
          wali, the more it was possible to delegate authority without running
          the risk of secession. This is a reason why most Rulers put a brother
          or a son in charge of an important "dependency”,3 but this was not
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