Page 276 - UAE Truncal States

/\ City Stale - Example Dubai
creek. In leaving the pearling industry these people also lost the
security and legal protection of the conventions which governed that
industry; for however harsh some aspects of the system of inherited
debts had proved for some divers, they had been part of a strong
community with a common interest, and they had always had access
to the Diving Court (salifah alghaus) to obtain justice. When Dubai’s
economy came to rely almost entirely on trade in the later 1930s
the same people who once provided the mainstay of the pearling
industry were often the very same people who, as porters, were the
ones without whom the merchants could not move their goods. This
was realised by the leading merchants of the town, and the porters’
status, payment and working conditions became one subject of
discussion in the short-lived Council which was set up in October
1938 by the so-called reform movement led by the Ruler’s cousin
Mani' bin Rashid.21
Domestic slaves
The status of the slaves owned by merchant families and employed
on their pearling boats was being changed too. Dubai’s treaty
relations with Britain forbade the importation of slaves into the
shaikhdom, but did not actually interfere with the internal sale of
people whose status was still that of slaves.22 During the 1930s the
British authorities in the Gulf were under pressure from London to
clamp down on the illicit trade in slaves, and manumission of slaves
who presented themselves to the British Government was being
encouraged. Towards the late 1930s nearly fifty slaves from Dubai
applied during one year for their manumission, mostly to the
Residency Agent in Sharjah.
The reason for the sudden swell of manumissions in 1937/38 was
not necessarily due to increased activity in this matter by 'Abdul
Razaq al Razuqi al Mahmud, the new Residency Agent, but most
likely reflected the steep decline of the prosperity of their masters,
some of whom could no longer afford to provision all or any of their
pearling boats for the annual dive, let alone to feed and maintain all
the members of the household at the same standard as previously
enjoyed. In houses where this was no longer easy to do, some slaves
decided to try to obtain a manumission certificate and fend for
themselves by finding work of their own.
At that time, when some of the merchants even had to sack most of
their beduin retainers, they were obviously not keen to lose their
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