Page 231 - UAE Truncal States_Neat

Chapter Six

lo accompany that party together with guides and a group of armed
retainers.13 About fifteen retainers were always on duly to guard the
southern end of Abu Dhabi island; a small fort was constructed on
the mainland in addition to the watch-tower in the middle of the ford.
The amir of Dalma island and the customs official there were also
assisted by a number of the Ruler’s retainers.
When the oil company started drilling in 1950 tribesmen and
townspeople of Abu Dhabi could hope for regularly paid employ­
ment. From the very beginning of the activities of PD(TC) in the
country the company employed some of the Ruler’s retainers on a
regular basis as guards. In the 1950s there were never less than
sixteen guards at the company’s camp, paid by the company and
nominated by the Ruler, and they were periodically rotated as all
other guards in the country. In consequence it was reported by the
European employees of PD(TC) that the security throughout Abu
Dhabi territory was very good, and better than in other parts of Oman
or Trucial Oman which was then all part of the concession area of
PD(TC). The shaikh’s guards were said to be loyal and “in their bedu
fashion disciplined”. The majority of the A1 Bu Falah retainers were
Manasir, the second largest group being Mazin', all of whom
received regular payment twice a year for their services.
During the late 1940s and in the 1950s, an increasing number of
people from the desert and in particular many Manasir went to Saudi
Arabia and Qatar to work with the oil companies there, but they
returned frequently lo their property in the Llwa. According to some
estimates made in 1952 nearly one-third of all the male Manasir were
in al Hasa during any one winter, either with their camels or working
for ARAMCO. The Ruler of Abu Dhabi al that lime knew of about a
hundred Manasir who worked there. When the dispute between Abu
Dhabi and Saudi Arabia over the border between the two countries
came to a head and the movement of the tribal subjects was carefully
recorded by both sides, such migration, even if performed only in
pursuit of improving one’s living, was discouraged. Eventually the
palm trees of the inhabitants of Dhafrah who had resided for more
than one winter in Saudi Arabia or Qatar were confiscated. When
during the early 1960s the number of tribal Abu Dhabi men employed
by the oil companies then established onshore and offshore in Abu
Dhabi territory reached a peak, the Ruler took measures to prevent
the return14 of the people who had been employed elsewhere in the
Gulf, because those who had stayed behind were afraid that they
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