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Chapter Two

                    would not be a threat to the Bani Yas ascendancy in the oasis. Hence
                    the A1 Bu Falah’s growing interest in the affairs of all the other settled
                   and nomadic tribes which were in any way associated with the
                    Buraimi oasis. Inevitably, the latter interest brought the A1 Bu Falah
                   Rulers into conflict with the interests of the other Rulers in the area.

                    Conclusions
                   The number of beduin splinter-groups actually living in Abu Dhabi
                    territory during any one winter has always been impossible to
                   ascertain. The fact that some A1 Murrah as well as Rashid, Manahll
                   and 'Afar groups and some individuals from other Omani and
                   Dhufari tribes came to the Buraimi oasis for the summer or to the
                   desert of Abu Dhabi for the winter shows that until the advent of oil
                   transformed the beduin way of life, the only really lasting authority
                   was the capricious climate. If rainfall was plentiful in the Dhafrah
                   and was scanty elsewhere, many beduin from far away would
                   converge on it; and the traditional users of that dar, the Bani Yas and
                   the Manaslr, knowing full well that they might have to move a long
                   distance to another tribe’s dar some other winter when there would
                   be little rain in Dhafrah, would not object as long as the visitors did
                   not engage in raiding. The desert version of law and order was
                   enforced by rules common and known to all nomadic and semi-
                   settled people of Eastern Arabia. The few disputes which were not
                   settled among the tribes themselves were brought to the A1 Bu Falah
                   Ruler or his wali. The A1 Bu Falah Ruler usually saw to it that the
                   visits even of small groups from the beduin tribes were good
                   opportunities to befriend people whose help might one day be very
                   useful indeed.
                     Once the Buraimi oasis, this focus of tribal interests, had been
                   firmly added to the territory over which the A1 Bu Falah had
                   undisputed tax-authority, they needed as wide a screen of “non-
                   hostility" as could be created by influencing the inter-tribal politics
                   of the whole region. Some of these beduin groups were of only
                   peripheral importance while in Abu Dhabi territory, but were
                   numerous and powerful elsewhere and had powerful friends, or
                   enemies.
                     Tribal politics were concerned with authority over people, not over
                   territory with boundaries. One of the most instructive illustrations
                   for this is the Buraimi oasis in its strategic position.
                     The establishment of a “state" and the delineation of the state’s

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