Page 67 - UAE Truncal States

Chapter Two

in Qatar and other Qataris. During the winter of 1948/49 some At
Murrah came with their camels to the vicinity of Abu Dhabi town and
their headman Atyar bin Muhammad al Murri presented Shaikh
ShakhbuJ with three camels.

Expansion of Bani Yas territory

Longstanding possession of Dhafrah and the Livva oases
The history of Abu Dhabi is an example of how a coherent beduin
tribe over several generations extended its area of undisputed
dominance, and while remaining under the leadership of one and the
same ruling family it built what amounted to a small “nation-state”.
By the time the disputes over the exact geographical limits of the
Eastern Arabian Rulers’ authority had sprung up as a result of the
signing of oil concessions, the dar of the Bani Yas could be
considered as the territorial extent of the Slate of Abu Dhabi.
The Bani Yas were with 10 to 12 thousand members the largest of
the 40 or so tribes which made up the population of the Trucial States
al the beginning of this century. They were described in the Gazetteer
as “one of the most compact and powerful tribes of Trucial Oman;
their range is practically co-exlensive with the territories of the
Shaikh of Abu Dhabi.”56 Unlike most other equally coherent tribes
on the Peninsula, the Bani Yas do not have one common ancestor who
figures in the recorded genealogies of Arab tribes. However, some
Bani Yas claim that the tribe was in the past one with the 'Awamir
and that both descended from 'Amir bin Sa’sa’, one of whose sons
was called Yas. Both tribes have been mentioned as integral
branches of one tribe,57 but although they are both Hinawi in the
political division within the tribes of Oman and the Trucial Coast,
their immigration routes into the area which they now share,
Dhafrah, have been quite different. The 'Awamir spread from
Hadhramaut eastwards along the edge of the Rub' al Khali, while the
Bani Yas came from Najd, north-west of their present homeland.
Such uncertainty about which tribe actually forms an integral part
of the Bani Yas and which does not indicate that the tribe is a
confederation which was welded together by a common history
rather than by the ties of blood relationship. They were probably a
number of beduin groups which gradually extended their seasonal
migration in search of grazing, from the areas in and around Najd50
into the relatively well-watered Dhafrah, returning to the familiar
wells of the area where they customarily spent the summer with their

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