Page 248 - UAE Truncal States
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Social Aspects of Traditional Economy

          3 Socio-economic status of the settled
              population in the oases


          Who owns the land?
          For well over a cenlury the key to the socio-economic situation of the
          society was the material benefit derived from the pearling industry of
          the urbanised ports. But in many respects the way of life in the
          villages in the wadis and oases remained the cultural backbone of
          that society. However inadequate the agriculture and horticulture of
          the oases were in providing for the needs of the local population, the
          tribal people of these states shared with the inhabitants of the rest of
          the Arabian Peninsula the fascination for the possession of fertile
          land and sweet water. Date gardens and the few areas where farming
          other than horticulture is possible are considered to be very valuable
          possessions.
            The value which townspeople, villagers and beduin alike have
          always attached to date gardens was at times quite out of proportion
          to the value in terms of money and of the crop which could be
          obtained from them. The gardens of the oases with running water
          from a falaj or well have always symbolised for people in south­
          eastern Arabia relief from the glaring sun of the desert, from the
          scorching summer heat of the barren mountains, and from the hot
          unpleasant humid atmosphere which lies heavy over the coastal
          towns even during the nights in the summer. Life in the oases during
          the summer was easy, comfortable and entertaining compared to life
          anywhere else in these shaikhdoms during that season. Dates and
          other fruit were picked daily and consumed fresh, there was enough
          food near at hand for everyone including the domestic animals. Men
          and women could enjoy the luxury of a daily bath in the separate
          bath-houses (hammam) built over the aflaj. Families who lived apart
           during the winter all congregated in the same oasis, and socialising
          and visiting between families and neighbours was easier than in the
           desert. Therefore it is not difficult to understand why, when one
          comes to the question of who owned horticultural and agricultural
           land, only the remote small wadi oases were usually exclusively
           owned by the people who worked in them and who lived by them. Of
           the extensive date gardens which line the coasts on either side of the
          Hajar range and the oases on the plains of the mountain foreland
           such as Buraimi, Daid and others, a large part has usually belonged
           to absentee landlords from the coastal towns.
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