Page 76 - UAE Truncal States

The Tribal Structure of Society

dally the oldest, Khallfah, bought up various gardens and a large
proportion of the water rights, if not whole a/laj, and also later
founded the new settlement of Mas'udi. At least until 1887 Shaikh
Zayid seems to have followed a persistent but peaceful policy in his
take-over bid and there are no records of enforced eviction of
Dhawahir and subsequent distribution of the land to all and sundry
among the I3ani Yas.
However, when this general trend of the A1 Bu Falah policy to want
both to own and to rule the oasis first became unmistakably obvious
during the latter decades of Shaikh Zayid bin Khalifah’s rule, the
Dhawahir rebelled. Shaikh Zayid was determined to continue on this
road to success, and having at last arrived at a state of peaceful co­
existence with the Na’im80 he went to war in 1887 with those
Dhawahir who opposed him. It took him one month to subdue them,
and he fell the necessity to take two of the Dhawahir shaikhs as
hostages against further opposition. In 1891, however, he had to
march on the oasis once again, this time supported by the Shaikh of
Dubai with 30 horsemen and 300 camelmen. He captured the main
village of the Dhawahir, then known as fAin Dhawahir (now simply
called al ’Ain), and underlined the changed situation by building a
fort there which was completed in 1897. The other four Dhawahir
villages, Jlmi, Hili, al Qattarah and MuTirid came automatically
under his domination too. although even at the time of his death in
1909 the population in all these villages was still predominantly
Dhawahir. Mas'udi on the other hand was exclusively inhabited by
Bani Yas, while Jahili, of which the Al Bu Falah took possession in
1897, consisted of several dale gardens. These gardens were rapidly
expanded, but only the shaikhs’ gardeners lived there.
As a symbol of his successful annexation as well as for practical
administrative purposes Shaikh Khallfah appointed the paramount
shaikh (lamlmah) of the Dhawahir, Ahmad bin Muhammad bin Hilal,
as his representative in the oasis. He was called vvali, and this step
therefore brings the oasis, or at least the largest part of it, in line with
the so called "dependencies” which other Trucial Rulers and the
Sultan maintained under the administration of walis. He collected
taxes from all the villages under Al Bu Falah rule; in addition, the
Dhawahir also had to pay a subsidy to the Al Bu Falah Shaikh.81
The other villages—Buraimi village, Hamasah, and the village of
Sa'arah—were still mainly inhabited by various branches of the
Na'fm, who continued to receive a regular subsidy from the Sultan.

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