Page 145 - UAE Truncal States

Chapter Three

Subsidies and other manifestations of authority
The payment of subsidies by a Ruler to a tribe is as much a
manifestation of authority as the collection of taxes and the letting of
concessions. It had, for instance, become customary for the tamlmah
of the NaTm, living in Buraimi village, to obtain a share of the tax
collected in kind on the dates of the Dhawahir villages, and another
share went to the shaikhs of the Dhawahir.01 Other tribes, subsec­
tions or even individuals were also paid subsidies, but this did not
necessarily develop into an institution which was observed by
subsequent Rulers.
Shaikh Zayid bin Khalffah used subsidies extensively for his
policy of arronclisscment of his influence over non-Bani Yas tribes.
Not all of his sons followed this policy, and by withholding the by
then customary subsidies some lost the support of important tribes
such as the Manaslr.02 It was known that during the 1950s Shaikh
Zayid bin Sultan regularly paid subsidies to the*Awamir, which they
called shafiyah. The fact that a tribe as large as this could and did
expect these subsidies from the Ruler of Abu Dhabi, and in turn
offered allegiance, shows that such payments played an important
role in maintaining the authority of the Ruler—just as much as
routine administration.
A similarly intangible and yet quite important manifestation of
administrative authority over a tribal group was the provision of
retainers. Each of the A1 Bu Falah shaikhs had a retinue who stayed
with them wherever they went. They were mostly armed but
untrained tribesmen who received a regular payment about twice a
year. At a time when the pearling industry did not bring in the cash
that it used to, and when there was not yet enough work with the oil
company, it was an important privilege for a tribe to lodge many of its
men in the retinue of the Ruler or one of his family.
In the 1950s the Ruler of Abu Dhabi had as many Manaslr
retainers as Bani Yas, if not more. According to one source he had 85
regularly-paid retainers from the Manaslr and 24 from the Mazarl'
section of the Bani Yas. Another source claims that he had 12
Manaslr and 20 Bani Yas. The difference is most probably that the
latter estimate included the two dozen or so close confidants
(mularzlyah: originally from laraz, lax) who were always with him,
served as falconers and even made the coffee and cooked when the
party was in the desert hunting, while the former estimate included
people who kept the peace throughout the desert of Abu Dhabi, an

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