Page 161 - UAE Truncal States
P. 161

Chapter Four

                 economic political and cultural aspects, the communities living in the
                 Trucial Stales were all moulded by the same Islamic “system of
                 life”.20 In the following paragraphs an attempt is made to trace the
                 many manifestations of this Islamic basis of society through the
                 institutions, customs and ways of life of the people who lived in
                 Trucial Oman before the changes due to outside influences following
                 the discovery of oil.



                 4 The Muslim system of life on this coast
                     during the first half of the 20th century

                In and around the mosques

                The mosque
                There is no ecclesiastical hierarchy in Islam and no administrative
                 and canonised authority such as “The Church". The many mosques
                 in the Trucial States were not linked together under any regional
                 supervisory body, but were places of worship built by and for small
                communities. It was customary for leading families in a settled
                population to build mosques near their family compound for their
                own use in daily prayers and for the use of the neighbourhood.
                 Whenever a mosque was built, some other property (wciqp was
                attached to it which brought in a regular income to pay for its
                maintenance. In the villages of the Buraimi area and in other
                predominantly agricultural settlements of the Trucial Slates this
                property consisted of a date garden or two. In the towns it was
                usually a row of shops in the suq, rented to merchants. The income
                was used to pay for someone to clean the mosque regularly, to
                replenish the water containers if there was no running water nearby,
                and in the case of a larger mosque to pay a salary to the person who
                led the prayers.
                  Every larger population centre had a main mosque where people
                from the whole town congregated on Friday for the midday prayer
                and the address of an imam. The “Friday mosques” were not usually
                built by a Ruler nor by the community as a whole but by individuals.
                In Abu Dhabi the old “Friday mosque” was built by the richest pearl
                merchant and boat owner, Ahmad bin Khalaf al Otaibah, who also
                built a small mosque near his large family compound by the sea.
                  Mosques in the Trucial Stales were built in different styles and
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