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Chapter Five

Fuel
Before kerosene became widely used as a fuel, wood, charcoal, camel-
droppings and even dale-stones were Ihe only types of fuel available
to most households in the region.50 Therefore perhaps the biggest
strain which traditional Arab hospitality imposed on the economic
situation of a nomadic family was not the camel which was
slaughtered in honour of the guest nor the expensive coffee that was
served afterwards, but the effort required to provide enough fuel to
cook both of them.
In the Buraimi oasis, near Ra’s al Khaimah, along the coastal plain
facing the Gulf of Oman and in the wadis, it was possible for the
families to meet all their fuel requirements from brushwood which
the women collected in the vicinity of the houses. Some types of
acacia, particularly one called liuwaif (prosopis juliflora) are quite
numerous in the outwash plains. But if too much firewood was
collected by the people and the goats were permitted to graze on the
new shoots, the supplies in the neighbourhood of settlements would
be depleted. Eventually the effort needed to gather firewood from
further and further away became too great and the families had to
buy it. There were people who collected wood from other areas which
they sold in the suqs or converted to charcoal, also for sale. In the
Buraimi area the leading group in this trade were the Al Bu Khail
section of the Manaslr, who both manufactured charcoal and look it
by camel to Abu Dhabi.
In the northern shaikhdoms it was the Bani Shalair from Ra’s al
Khaimah and Ru’us al Jibal who made charcoal and look it by coastal
craft from their port of Sha’am to Dubai and Sharjah with firewood
and fish, selling these goods themselves in the markets.60 The
firewood that was brought from the interior (a/ burr) was mostly
halab ghaf (prosopis spicigera). This species is also found near the
coast, and people from Abu Dhabi town used to go to neighbouring
islands and collect this wood for themselves or for sale in the suq.
Because there was no firewood on some of the inhabited islands
further west of Abu Dhabi the fishermen exchanged fish for firewood
!
with the beduin. The hatab samar (acacia tortilis) was exclusively 1
used by the crews of pearling boats for cooking rice and frying fish;
-
although this tree grows on the Arab side of the Gulf, most Rulers
:
and particularly the Rulers of Abu Dhabi forebade the felling of
them, and the entire supply of this wood required by the pearling
boats was imported from Iran. Charcoal was not generally used for

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