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Chapter Six-

                 harvest or every 10 jirabs (one jirab in the LTwa was 180 lb., and in
                 Buraimi 80 lb.), one jirab was paid as tax; but people who harvested
                less than 20 jirabs from all the trees they owned were exempt. The
                 latter circumstance obtained in most of the gardens east of Thar-
                 waniyah, which is a village situated near the centre of the crescent­
                 shaped string of oases. The Manaslr were exempt from paying lax on
                 dates to the Ruler of Abu Dhabi, thus the wali did not need to visit any
                 of the oases east of Tharwaniyah because they either belonged to
                Manaslr or were in any case loo small. In 1950 45 jirabs of dates were
                 collected from the LTwa, but, due loan invasion of locusts in June 1951
                 the crop was very poor in that year and only 15 jirabs were collected as
                 lax. According to the statement made by the wall of Dhafrah at the time
                 only ten people were taxed in the LTwa in 1950 and 1951.°
                  The Ruler of Abu Dhabi did not collect lax on animals, but some of
                 the Manaslr, A1 Murrah, and a few of the Mazarf section of the Bani
                Yas who at limes left Dhafrah to find grazing further west were
                visited by Saudi tax-collectors, who obtained from them 10 Rupees
                 tax per camel per year in the spring of most years between 1937 and
                 1951. This shows that the importance of camels as the most valuable
                 property had not yet declined among the traditional nomads of the
                area. Among the people who owned property in the LTwa in the early
                 1950s about three dozen owned a pearling boat—in a very few cases
                even two boats, manned by their relatives and neighbours.10
                Although these boats might be left at various places along the coast
                during the winter months, most of them were regarded for purposes
                of administration and taxation as being based on Dalma Island, the
                remainder being based on Abu Dhabi Island. Dalma was an
                important trading centre during the summer, but many families in
                Dhafrah used the suq in Dalma all the year round, rather than
                travelling all the way to Abu Dhabi town.
                   Within the context of the tribal society of the LTwa, owning a boat
                frequently meant that the proceeds from this property—just like the
                date gardens—were shared between the members of an extended
                family; some probably assisted in the building of the boat and its
                maintenance, and many relatives helped as crew. The proceeds of the
                season’s catch were therefore not divided up in the same meticulous
                fashion as had to be the case among hired crews of unrelated town-
                dwellers. Although resources were usually shared within the
                extended family, an individual was always identifiable as the owner
                of a garden, a boat or a camel. He was the person who dealt with the
                tax collector or the qadi in case of a dispute.

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