Page 79 - UAE Truncal States

Clwptar Two

The ascendancy of al ’Ain and the other Abu Dhabi villages in
Buraimi had a lasting effect on the way in which the sheikhdom
functioned. Not only was the emigration of several sections of the
Bani Yas from the LTwa into the Buraimi oasis, usually by way of Abu
Dhabi town, the expression of a social regrouping on the strength of
relative prosperity (from pearling or work in an oil company abroad),
but it went hand in hand with a considerable decline in the interest of
the ruling family in matters concerning the Dhafrah and the LTwa.
Already the sons of Zayid bin KhalTfah, with the exception of
Hamdan, hardly ever visited the LTwa, and even Shaikh Shakhbut
and his brother Shaikh Zayid, who regained the influence which
their grandfather had had over so many tribes outside the limits of
what came to be the territory of the Stale of Abu Dhabi, turned their
full attention to this ancestral homeland of the Bani Yas only when it
was seriously threatened by the Saudi claims. Shaikh Shakhbut
made a tour of the Dhafrah, LTwa and neighbouring districts in 1951
and Shaikh Zayid accompanied the Assistant Political Agent
through that area in 1952; on both occasions the inhabitants of the
LTwa villages voiced their discontent with the apparent neglect they
experienced from the Al Bu Falah Rulers. This, however, did not
influence the basic opinion of the Bani Yas that they were and always
had been subjects of whoever was the Ruler of Abu Dhabi.
But the closely-allied ManasTr look exception to some of the Al Bu
Falah Rulers in Abu Dhabi. This was demonstrated by the hostile
reaction of the ManasTr towards those sons of Zayid bin KhalTfah
who did not recognise the longstanding privileges of the ManasTr and
their entitlement to subsidies. The Na’Tm of Buraimi were also much
less firmly under the influence of the Al Bu Falah Rulers after Zayid’s
death. They eventually gained virtual independence from everyone,
including the Sultan in Muscat, and claimed in 1949 vis-a-vis the oil
company, which had concluded agreements for all the territory of
both Abu Dhabi and Oman, that they should sign their own
agreements as independent Rulers.
Following the concessionary agreements concluded in the late
1930s, the use of a particular area by a certain tribe was translated
into territorial possession. Tribal allegiance to one Ruler or
another—at all times the most important issue in tribal politics—
became the subject of a great deal of probing and research. In
particular, the so called “Buraimi Dispute”,80 although it was the
cause of a regrettable period of bad relations between the two camps,

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