Page 217 - UAE Truncal States_Neat

Chapter Five

being the most treasured possession of every tribal Arab, the market
for more up-to-date models was considerable, especially among the
beduin, but many weapons were re-exported and sold to tribes in
Makran and elsewhere on the Persian Coast. For a time these imports
came mostly through 'Ajman, but the trade shifted to Dubai and
Sharjah. For example 120 rifles were imported during September
1902 and 200 more in October into Dubai; some also came into other
ports. Later in the same year the rulers desired to put an end to these
arms imports and together with the Political Resident in the Persian
Gulf the Rulers of Dubai, Sharjah, Umm al Qaiwain, 'Ajman and Abu
Dhabi made the importation, re-exportation and the sale of new arms
illegal.50
The relationship between the traders, the financiers, and the
various local, Indian and Persian participants in the pearling
industry will be dealt with in more detail in the following chapter.

7 Manufacturing

General
Very few people were engaged in manufacturing items for sale either
within the community of the Trucial States or abroad. Various items
were manufactured for domestic use from the materials that were at
hand. The principal items made from camel or goat hide were
waterbags, sandals, hanging cradles and containers for making
curdled milk. The many uses that the various parts of the palm tree
were put to have already been described.51 Normally none of these
items was made for sale but only for the use of the maker or members
of his family and tribal kin. A communal effort is required to put up
structures such as a frame over a well or to build a khaimah; this
palm-frond house with palm trunks as beams was the predominant
type of house used by most families both on the coast and in the
interior.

Boat building
The most important manufacturing industry was boat building.
Pearling boats, trading vessels and fishing craft, either with sails or
with oars, and of all sizes from the sanbuk downwards were built in
most ports of the coasts. Early this century Umm al Qaiwain was an
important boat-building centre; about 20 boats were built there

192

*