Page 128 - UAE Truncal States

Administering a Tribal Society

beduin in the Trucial shaikhdoms lived either permanently or very
frequently in territory which the subjects of successive Rulers of Abu
Dhabi claimed as their dor. When in the 17lh and 18th centuries the
confederation of the Bani Yas was developing, the A1 Bu Falah
shaikhs probably exercised their influence chiefly through the age-
old system of agreements for mutual assistance between themselves
and the heads of the tribal subsections; one may also assume that at
least the larger of the permanent Llwa villages also had a headman.
In the 1950s the Bani Yas were still one of the least settled of the
major tribes on the coast because of their diverse economic interests
in various parts of the shaikhdom. The A1 Bu Falah authority had
been accepted by most of the settled Dhawahir in and near the Oasis
of Buraimi, and a varying degree of influence was exercised by Abu
Dhabi’s Rulers over the visiting nomads such as the Manahil, A1
Murrah, 'Afar, or Rashid, and also over tribes settled even in
Dhahirah, at some distance from the Buraimi Oasis.
Because the majority of these people changed their habitat at least
once during the course of a year, there developed two sometimes
quite separate ways of administering the shaikhdom. There was the
system dictated by the geography of the country: a wali, here usually
called amir, was appointed for the main population centres, the Llwa,
the Buraimi Oasis, Dalma and later Tarif, Das Island, and Jabal al
Dhannah. Another system addressed itself to the people as members
of tribal units regardless of their actual abode at any point in time.
The relationship between these tribal units and the Ruler of Abu
Dhabi varied: subsidies were demanded from some of them as a sign
of submission, occasional gifts or regular allowances were given to
others, and for some the regular taxes were waived. Both systems
were necessarily interrelated, because often the same people were
involved at different times in different places.
The methods of administering the shaikhdom in use al least until
the late 1950s will be described firstly by listing the successive
incumbents of certain posts, and secondly by looking at the
manifestations of sovereignty such as tax collection, jurisdiction and
subsidies.

The Ruler’s representatives

Dhafrah
Some time after 1793 the shaikh of the Al Bu Falah exchanged a
village in the Liwa for the growing coastal settlement of Abu Dhabi

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