Page 438 - Truncal States to UAE_Neat

Notes to Chapter Two

and Co-ordination Statistical Abstract, vol. I, July 1969, p. 11; theMazari’
subsection of the Bani Yas were counted separately (1,287 people), the
remainder of the Bani Yas in Abu Dhabi at the lime were 4,597 people.
The main reason for that decrease was that during the late 1950s whole
families emigrated to Qatar, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia because there
were many opportunities for work with the oil companies or in
construction. When exploration work started in Abu Dhabi the
industry had become much less labour-intensive, due to the advance of
technology. The emigrant tribesmen returned in large numbers only
after the development of Abu Dhabi was well under way a few years
after Shaikh Zayid had become the Ruler. The censuses of 1971 and
1975/76 unfortunately did not register tribal groups.
21 See Lorimer, Gcogr., pp. 1932ff; Kelly, Eastern, pp. 36ff and UK Memorial
II, pp. 291f. See also Government of Bombay, Selections from the
Records of the Bombay Government, Historical and other Information
connected with the Province of Oman, Bahrain and other Places in the
Persian Gulf, Bombay 1856, New Series XXIV, pp. 462f; see also Kelly,
Britain and the Persian Gulf 1795-1880, London, 1968, p. 860 and UK
Memorial II, p. 123. The 19th-century source lists some of the sections
which compose the Bani Yas and gives their assumed original descent;
according to this source the Hawamil formed part of the A1 'Ali and the
Maharibah were originally Bani NaTm. Those major sections which
were mentioned by Lorimer and not by Kelly nor the Memorial are: A1
Falah, A1 Bu Hamir, Qanaisat, Qasal, Bani Shikir, A1 Sultan. The Marar
Rawashid, and Sudan are listed separately by Lorimer, while the
Nuwasir, who are mentioned only in the UK Memorial, are not listed at
all by Lorimer. The A1 Bu Amin, Dahailat, Halalmah, and Thamairat,
who are listed separately in Lorimer, were then already in the process of
merging with the Bani Yas, and are now counted as minor subsections.
The bedouin Jabais of the Memorial are probably the Saba’is.
22 See below, page 46ff. Therefore most of the land which belongs to the A1
Bu Falah village of Muwaij'i belongs now to the heirs of Muhammad bin
Khallfah, who died in 1979; some belongs to Shaikha Latlfah bint Zayid,
the Ruler’s aunt, who also died in 1979, and to other members of the
ruling family. Shaikh Muhammad bin Khallfah also owned most of the
gardens of Mas'udi, some at HTli, al 'Ain, Qattarah, and Mu'tirid. Three
sons of Sultan bin Zayid, Khalld, Hazza', and Zayid, the present Ruler,
inherited and bought date-gardens in JImi, al 'Ain, Qattarah, and Jahili;
see also UK Memorial I, p. 53. Shaikh Zayid and other members of the
ruling family founded in recent years new farms outside the traditional
villages such as Mazyad.
Lorimer, Gcogr., p. 1121f: "All the foregoing Al Bu Mahair are non-
23
nomadic, but a few others, perhaps 20 households, in the Abu Dhabi
Principality are Bedouin in their habits. At Abu Dhabi the Al Bu Mahair
412