Page 217 - UAE Truncal States
P. 217

Chapter Five

                 being the most treasured possession of every tribal Arab, the market
                 for more up-to-date models was considerable, especially among the
                 beduin, but many weapons were re-exported and sold to tribes in
                 Makran and elsewhere on the Persian Coast. For a time these imports
                 came mostly through 'Ajman, but the trade shifted to Dubai and
                 Sharjah. For example 120 rifles were imported during September
                 1902 and 200 more in October into Dubai; some also came into other
                 ports. Later in the same year the rulers desired to put an end to these
                 arms imports and together with the Political Resident in the Persian
                 Gulf the Rulers of Dubai, Sharjah, Umm al Qaiwain, 'Ajman and Abu
                 Dhabi made the importation, re-exportation and the sale of new arms
                 illegal.50
                   The relationship between the traders, the financiers, and the
                 various local, Indian and Persian participants in the pearling
                 industry will be dealt with in more detail in the following chapter.


                 7 Manufacturing


                 General
                 Very few people were engaged in manufacturing items for sale either
                 within the community of the Trucial States or abroad. Various items
                 were manufactured for domestic use from the materials that were at
                 hand. The principal items made from camel or goat hide were
                 waterbags, sandals, hanging cradles and containers for making
                 curdled milk. The many uses that the various parts of the palm tree
                 were put to have already been described.51 Normally none of these
                 items was made for sale but only for the use of the maker or members
                of his family and tribal kin. A communal effort is required to put up
                 structures such as a frame over a well or to build a khaimah; this
                palm-frond house with palm trunks as beams was the predominant
                type of house used by most families both on the coast and in the
                interior.

                Boat building
                The most important manufacturing industry was boat building.
                Pearling boats, trading vessels and fishing craft, either with sails or
                with oars, and of all sizes from the sanbuk downwards were built in
                most ports of the coasts. Early this century Umm al Qaiwain  was an
                important boat-building centre; about 20 boats were built there

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