Page 141 - UAE Truncal States_Neat

Chapter Three

household and his retainers, extend hospitality and maintain his
camels, horses, sheep and goals. The rate of agricultural taxation
varied between 5 and 10 per cent, the former being the figure given in
the Gazetteer for the entire area under Qasimi rule.
At limes the majority of owners of dale gardens were exempt from
this taxation because throughout theTrucial States a modification of
the system obtained whereby no tax was demanded from those who
produced less than the nisab, a minimum which varied according to
time and place and was set at 3,600 lbs of dales for the LTwa during
the 1950s.
During the first decade of the 20lh century, when the owners of the
date gardens in the villages of the Buraimi Oasis dominated by the A1
Bu Falah were still Dhawahir, the income of the Ruler of Abu Dhabi
from the eastern part of the sheikhdom was almost exclusively
provided by this tribe. According to the Gazetteer the Dhawahir paid
a fixed tribute of 5,000 jirabs of dates worth one M.T. Dollar per jirab,
and were also obliged to supply lucerne worth some 3,000 M.T.
Dollars for the 100 horses which the A1 Bu Falah kept in the oasis.
The remainder of the population in these villages, such as some
Najadat, did not own land, or if they did their gardens were
insignificantly small. An increasing number of date gardens which
were no longer owned by Dhawahir families had become the
property of members of the Rulers family, and they were exempt
from taxes, although not from the dues collected to maintain the aflaj.
At that time the Bani Yas who owned date gardens in the LTwa were
taxed on their crops. This income was then worth some 2,500 M.T.
Dollars.79
In later decades when the sovereignty of the A1 Bu Falah was
consolidated in the eastern area and when many Bani Yas and other
A1 Bu Falah subjects who earned enough money from the pearling
industry bought date gardens in the Buraimi area, the tribute of the
Dhawahir was abolished and everybody except members of the
ruling family paid taxes at the rate of one jirab for every 10 jirabs of
dates harvested. A Buraimi jirab weighed 70-80 lbs, less than half a
LTwa jirab, so that in effect the lax rate for the /a/aj-irrigated gardens
of the Buraimi villages was at least double that of the date gardens in
the desert.80
During the 1950s the tax return from agriculture also declined.
Only about 40 jirabs were collected in a good year from LTwa. During
the summers of 1950 and 1951 only 10 people in all were taxed on

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