Page 218 - UAE Truncal States

The Traditional Economics

(luring thu course of a year while only aboul 10 were built in Dubai.
The wood for boat building was imported from Malabar or East
Africa, ropes of all sizes came from Zanzibar, and the canvas for the
sails was usually imported from Bahrain or Kuwait, although some
lengths were produced locally. Smaller craft and the dug-outs which
were made from one single tree trunk were imported ready-made
from India; it was not uncommon for a large trading vessel to carry
wood and a ship-builder who made a small boat during the course of
the journey, which he sold in one of the ports. Only the shashah,
which was usually made by the man who later used it, was
constructed entirely from parts of the local dale palm.

Pottery
Some household pottery used in the towns and villages was imported
from Iran, such as the large water storage vessels and big earthen­
ware cooking-pots; other pottery came from further east via India.
There is moderately good clay in some wadis near Ra’s al Khaimah
town and around the Buraimi oasis. Bahlah in Inner Oman was and
still is an important source of household pottery. The items which
were manufactured in these three places and on a smaller scale in
other villages of the Trucial States were brought by boat or camel
caravan to the markets and sold to the communities in the area.52
Much of the locally-made pottery consisted of storage jars of aboul 1
metre in height, used for storage of water and sometimes oil; then
there were water jugs with a round bottom and a long neck which
were hung up in the breeze, so that evaporation through the pores
kept the water cool. A conical pottery beaker was used for drinking.
A speciality of the potteries near Ra’s al Khaimah and the Buraimi
oasis was incense burners, which consisted of a bowl with slits in the
side, set on a broad stem and with a handle; sandalwood Cud) on top
of charcoal embers was burnt in this vessel.53

Metal-work
Most pots, pans and kitchen implements were made of copper and
brass. Coffee-pots were in constant use in every household through­
out south-eastern Arabia; in the Trucial States as in Oman they were
made of copper and usually had a band of decorated brass around
the neck. Most coffee-pots imported into the Trucial States came from
the coppersmiths in Nizwa or 'Ibri by camel caravan.54 There used to
be at least one coppersmith in each major port in the Trucial States;

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