Page 248 - UAE Truncal States

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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