Page 72 - UAE Truncal States
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The Tribal Structure of Society

        Ihe capital, is the most densely populated. It is, however, closely
        followed in size and importance by the area comprising al 'Ain and
        the other five non-Omani villages of the Buraimi Oasis: ]fmi. Hlli,
        Mu'tirid, al Muwaij'i, and al Qattarah. The rule of the Al Bu Falah over
        parts of the economically and strategically desirable oasis is the
        result of the expansion of Bani Yas influence in this area over several
        generations by both warlike and peaceful means.

        Early developments As described in the first part of this chapter,
        Buraimi, the ancient Tu’am, was a favoured target for the tribal
        groups which migrated from Yemen and settled in Oman before the
        Hijrah. The now second most numerous tribe in the oasis, the
        Dhawahir, may have come to the area in this wave of Azdite
        immigration. Their name suggests a long and close relationship with
        the Dhahirah, which has been the name of the mountain foreland to
        the south of the oasis for many centuries.09 The most numerous tribe
        in the oasis, the Na'im, came in a later wave from Yemen along the
        edge of the Rub'al Khali. The almost consistently bad relationship
        between the two tribes may indicate that the latter dispossessed the
        former of much of their property in this area.
          The Bani Yas played a part in the politics of the oasis as early as
        1633, when the already-mentioned Omani shaikh Nasir bin Qahtan,
        who had established himself in al Hasa, attacked the fort of the
        Imam’s wali in Buraimi with the help of “Bedouins of el-Dhafreh”.
        that is, the Bani Yas. On this occasion the Omani possession was
        saved by the intervention of the “chief Wali . . . with an army from
        Nezwa", who “ordered the demolition of all the Forts of el-Jow, except
        that of the Imam, and the enemies were dispersed.”70
          One may assume that those of the beduin Bani Yas who visited the
        vicinity of Buraimi from al Khatam, and who almost certainly used
        the markets of the oasis, were comparing the size of the crop on the
        date palms watered by falaj in Buraimi with that on their palms in the
        Liwa, which had to survive on the water which could be reached by
        the roots. The idea of selling a few camels for the possession of a date
        garden in the Buraimi oasis may have been in the mind of many a
         Bani Yas tribesman, and a number of such transactions at least with
         the Dhawahir inhabitants of the oasis must have taken place already
        early in the 19th century.
           I he Ruler of Abu Dhabi used a dispute between the NaTm and the
        Dhawahir to join forces with the latter because, as he put it in a letter
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