Page 60 - UAE Truncal States

The Tribal Structure of Society

There are more than half a dozen Arab tribes which have the same
name, but the ManasTr of the Arab coast of the Gulf and its
hinterland do not maintain special connections with any of them.
Until very recently the majority of the ManasTr were nomadic; most
sections lived in Dhafrah but in some years many roamed as far away
as Qatar, al Hasa and the Omani-held territory in the vicinity of the
Buraimi oasis. Many of the ManasTr, both settled and beduin, have
always been scattered throughout all the shaikhdoms of the Trucial
Coast.
The leaders of the five distinct sections of the ManasTr were each
recognised as the authorities in all matters concerning internal tribal
affairs, while in many other matters the settled and even the nomadic
groups accepted the authority of the Ruler of the Trucial shaikhdom
in which they lived. This arrangement may be the reason why the
ManasTr have not had within living memory one paramount shaikh.
The five sections are of unequal strength: the larger ones are the Al
Bu Rahmah, the Al BO Mundir and the Al Bu al Sha'ar; the Al Bu
Khail and the Al Bu HamTr are very much smaller.36 In the Gazetteer,
the total number of ManasTr in the area was estimated at 1,400, while
the various authorities who investigated tribal matters in Abu Dhabi
during the 1950s estimated that over 4,000 members of that tribe
lived in the Emirates including Qatar, many of them frequently
changing their habitat. At that time some 2,800 ManasTr usually lived
in the Shaikhdom of Abu Dhabi; 1,200 led a settled or nomadic life in
the towns and hinterland of the other Trucial States.37
In the census of spring 1968, 3,224 ManasTr were counted in the
State of Abu Dhabi. Even taking into account the tendency to
emigrate from Abu Dhabi during the 1950s, this latter figure
indicates that the Gazetteer’s estimate was probably too low. The
way of life of the settled ManasTr usually blended in with the way of
life of the rest of the population of the shaikhdom where they lived.
In Abu Dhabi territory, beduin and settled ManasTr and the Bani Yas
have for at least 150 years lived in harmony, sharing the few
resources that were there to share, in much the same way as different
sections of one tribe would live together. In both tribes some sections
were more settled than others, and some preferred camels and the
desert to pearling and fishing.
The three major sections of the ManasTr all owned property in the
LTwa. Recently, of 42 settlements, some ManasTr were found in 36 of
them.38 Nine neighbouring villages in the eastern half of the LTwa
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