Page 71 - UAE Truncal States
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Chapter Two

                   fought alongside their Bani Yas allies and neighbours, and the A1 Bu
                   Falah Rulers in turn were often held responsible for the behaviour of
                   the ManasTr.05 One of many examples of this mutual responsibility
                   was the protracted war between Abu Dhabi and Qatar from 1876
                   until 1891, one of the causes of which were raids by ManasTr camel-
                   riders into Qatar territory as far as the immediate vicinity of Doha. In
                   counter-attacks by Shaikh Jasim of Qatar, ManasTr and Bani Yas
                   suffered alike when some 400 camels were carried off from settle­
                   ments in the LTwa. This special relationship, which causes any
                   Mansuri tribesman to call himself an Abu Dhabian in the 1980s, has
                   thus been in existence for several generations regardless of the fact
                   that some ManasTr, as some sections of the Bani Yas and other tribes
                   who visited Abu Dhabi territory once in a while, spent several
                   winters away in Qatar or al Hasa. The ManasTr are, however, still a
                   distinct tribe of their own, and have not become a subsection of the
                   Bani Yas even though at times they have referred certain disputes to
                   the Ruler of Abu Dhabi. The usual practice, however, was that justice
                   was expected first and foremost from the shaikhs of the subsections
                   of the ManasTr and from their own mulawwa'.06
                     The first stage in the establishment of the shaikhdom of Abu Dhabi
                   as one of the important tribal powers in the region was thus the
                   appropriation of all of al Dhafrah by the Bani Yas. They may not have
                   had exclusive domination of the neighbouring grazing areas as far as
                   Oman and Qatar, but even there Bani Yas influence was sufficiently
                   strongly felt by the middle of the 18th century that in the Bombay
                   Selections they are mentioned as follows: “The original seat of the
                   Beniyas, . . . was in Nujd, but on leaving that part of Arabia they
                   settled in the tract of country extending between Biddah fold name
                   for Doha in Qatari and Brymee."07 The standing of the Bani Yas and
                   their Rulers was further enhanced by the fact that the close links
                   which developed between the Bani Yas and the ManasTr meant not
                   only some increase in the tax income of the Al Bu Falah Rulers but
                   was a most welcome addition to the fighting force of the shaikhdom,
                   which was deemed by the already-quoted Captain Taylor in 1818 to
                   have been about “twenty thousand excellent musketeers".08

                   The foothold in the Buraimi area develops into the town of al
                   fAin
                   At the present time, the territory of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi is
                   divided into four administrative units, of which Abu Dhabi Town,
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