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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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