Page 250 - UAE Truncal States
P. 250

Social Aspects of Traditional Economy
         attention in a garden as well as in the houses or elsewhere. In the date
         gardens of the east coast, immigrants from the Persian coast, there
         summarily called baluch, frequently worked in the date gardens,
         drew water from wells and helped with building houses. Some of the
         baluch were paid in kind but most of them earned a wage. In most
         village communities baluch could not marry Arab tribal girls.

         Trade in real estate
         Date gardens everywhere in Trucial Oman could change hands either
         through inheritance or by being sold. The beduin Bani Yas and
         Manaslr bought date gardens in the Llwa; the members of the ruling
         families and the families which prospered in the pearling industry
         bought date gardens in /a/a/-irrigated villages. Zayid bin Khallfah’s
         policy of buying up dale gardens in the Buraimi oasis before the turn
         of the century was followed by his eldest son Khalffah, who, apart
         from establishing the new group of date gardens called Mas'udi, also
         bought many established gardens as they came on the market.65
         Shaikh Muhammad bin Khalifah, following his father’s example,
         became probably the individual in all of Trucial Oman who owned
         the largest number of date palms. Besides buying in al 'Ain and the
         neighbouring villages66 he also bought gardens on the Batinah and
         Shamailiyah.
           It was not uncommon for members of the ruling family or other
         families of one shaikhdom to buy gardens in the territory of another
         shaikh. The Rulers of Dubai have had gardens in Ra’s al Khaimah for
         several generations. The entire oasis of Falaj al 'Ali, where about
         5,000 date palms grew, has been the property of the ruling family of
         Umm al Qaiwain for a long lime. About sixty families who
         permanently live in that oasis have traditionally worked in the date
         gardens for payment in kind. The Ruler’s representative in that oasis
         has frequently not been the head of the tribal families who live there,
         but one of the Ruler’s slaves.

         Establishing new gardens
         There was nothing to stop a tribesman from trying to establish a
         garden anywhere in the desert if he thought that he could find
         enough water in that location to sustain the young date palms. He did
         not have to obtain permission from the Ruler nor from his tribe’s
         shaikh. The same applied to the many still uncultivated hollows
         between the dunes of the Llwa. But if someone else claimed that there
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