Page 231 - UAE Truncal States_Neat
P. 231

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
                 206
   226   227   228   229   230   231   232   233   234   235   236