Page 53 - UAE Truncal States

Chapter Two
had date gardens and houses in seven villages of the Liwa but most of
them did not live there permanently. They spent the winter with their
camels in the desert, and many of them went pearling during the
summer in the boats of other Bani Yas. The A1 Bu Falah were the first
of the Bani Yas to acquire property in the Buraimi oasis, and the
members of the ruling family have systematically continued this
policy until now.22
The most numerous section of the Bani Yas is the Al Bu Mahair,
listed by Lorimer as a separate tribe.23 In the 1950s they had only
about 35 houses in Abu Dhabi and another 20 in the Buraimi oasis,
while the majority of the Al Bu Mahair belonged to Dubai (300 to 400
houses), Sharjah (60 houses) and the other ports of the coast. Their
main occupation was pearling and fishing.
The Al Bu Falasah section became well known as the one which
seceded in 1833 to the fishing village of Dubai, which had been until
then under the authority of the Al Bu Falah Rulers of Abu Dhabi.24
The tribal leader of that section became the ancestor of all
subsequent rulers of Dubai. The Al Bu Falasah were among those
Bani Yas who took very readily to the water and engaged in pearling
in Abu Dhabi as well as later in Dubai. Most of the families who
remained with the Ruler of Abu Dhabi had either fishing rights and
lived on the islands or lived in Abu Dhabi town. A few families had
connections with the Buraimi oasis and went there for the summer.
The Rumailhal are a section which lived mostly from pearling and
had no date gardens in the Liwa. At the turn of the century they had
about 100 houses in Abu Dhabi town and on the adjoining coast.
With the decline of the pearling industry, several of the Rumaithat
families moved out to live on the islands north east of Abu Dhabi
town (Sa'diyat and beyond), where they obtained fishing rights. A
few families visited the Buraimi oasis but, having no possessions in
the Liwa, they usually did not go with their camels into the desert
during the winter but entrusted them to other Bani Yas tribesmen for
a fee. They were thus less mobile than most other Bani Yas sections.
A similar life was led by the much smaller section of the Qumzan,25
whose strength in Abu Dhabi was further reduced when, after the
recession in the pearling industry, more than half the Qumzan
families moved to Dubai.
The Qubaisat are in some ways the most representative of the Bani
Yas in that their members were very mobile and participated in all
the occupations which were traditionally pursued by the Bani Yas.
The Qubaisat used to be prominent participants in the pearling

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