Page 276 - UAE Truncal States
P. 276

/\ 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
                                                                251
   271   272   273   274   275   276   277   278   279   280   281