Page 176 - UAE Truncal States_Neat

The Islamic Basis of Society

world. He embodies the social standing of the family vis-a-vis other
families, and if he is of true local tribal origin his children will never
be considered anything less than full members of the local tribal
society, even if their mother was of foreign origin. The social rating of
an individual male—and through him of the whole family—depends
first and foremost on the purity of his tribal Arab descent; since the
tribal genealogies, along with some long-established legends thereof,
are common knowledge to most tribal Arabs, the kinship relation­
ships cannot be invented.
But this does not mean that someone of pure tribal Arab stock will
invariably be rated higher than a wealthy man of uncertain tribal
background. The indicator for the social rating on the basis of a
man’s wealth is the level at which he can expect to arrange marriages
for the members of his family. The flourishing pearling industry of
the early decades of this century has provided in the capitals of the
larger Trucial Slates several examples of immigrants who became
wealthy and so acceptable enough to intermarry with the ruling
family of the state. Both the pearling-boat owners and the merchant
communities of the coastal towns established their own social rating
largely on wealth. Eventually the status on account of tribal descent
and the status on account of wealth and property were rated on a par,
and intermarriage became possible at the highest levels of both
pyramids, although it was less common at lower levels. But in every
case the social rating of the male head of the family is the rating that
counts.
Thus, the dominant position of the man, both within the family and
vis-a-vis the outside world, was a given factor and not one which
could be attained. As has been shown earlier, a woman had no
position per se in the world outside the house, while her position
within the family circle was a reflection of her personality and
depended on the way in which she used this confined scope for the
development of her abilities. In this structure of society not the
individual but the family is the smallest unit. Neither man nor
woman has an identity except in the context of the family to which he
or she belongs.

Other members of the household, servants and slaves
In the Trucial States, family ('a’ilah) never meant the family nucleus of
father, mother and children only; even in the rare cases where these
were the only occupants of the household, such an arrangement

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