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Notes to Chapter Five

the agricultural methods used in the oasis. See also Stevens. J.H..
“Changing Agricultural Practice in an Arabian Oasis" in Geographical
Journal, vol. 136, Part 3, September 1970, pp. 410-18.
28 See Wilkinson, Water, pp. 74ff, with a graph of the ghayl aflaj in Bithnah
in the Wadi Ham, on p. 75.
29 On average, a garden in the Buraimi Oasis would be irrigated every 12 to
15 days in the winter and about every three weeks in the summer. But
gardens participating in the water from Mu ’tirid falaj had intervals of
20 and 30 days respectively: see Stevens. Geographical Journal 1970, p.
415. See also UK Memorial!, p. 70. For other payments in connection with
aflaj see above, pages 115ff and 179f.
30 The position of 'arif at Mu’tirid was held for some time by the
paramount shaikh of the Dhawahir, Shaikh Sultan bin Surur, before he
became Shaikh Shakhbul’s representative in Jabal alDhannah in 1962.
31 For a description of the traditional agriculture in the Buraimi Oasis see
Lorimer, Geogr., p. 263. There were about 60,000 date trees in the oasis
at that time. See also Cox, Sir Percy, "Some Excursions in Oman”, in The
Geographical Journal, vol. LXVI. no. 3, September 1925, pp. 193-227,
particularly p. 207.
32 See Lorimer, Histor., p. 2220.
33 See India Office Records, R/15/1/236 “Arab States Monthly Summary
1929-1931".
34 Bahrain had a total number of 917 boats, and Kuwait had 461 boats at
that time. See Lorimer, Geogr., p. 1438, and Histor., pp. 2256 and 2220.
35 See Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1973, vol. 17, pp. 504ff.
36 See Lorimer, Histor.. pp. 2262-80 for a description of the pearl banks on
the Arab and the Persian sides. 184 such banks are named and located
by latitudinal and longitudinal co-ordinates for the bay from Ra's
Tannurah to Dubai alone. A chart which was supplied in December
1906 by the naval authorities of the Foreign Department of the
Government of India for this bay is provided in Part III of the Historical
volume of the Gazetteer. A map of the pearl banks was made by Shaikh
Mani'bin Rashid, a cousin of the Ruler of Dubai in 1940.
37 For information about Arab sailing boats and for a photograph of a
pearling sanbuk and an interesting description of life aboard an Arab
dhow (in this case a trading and passenger vessel) see Villier, A.. The
Sons of Sind bad. Scribners Sons, New York, 1940.
38 There are quite extraordinary claims of people spending five or even ten
minutes under water; these must be considered erroneous due to the
lack of proper methods of timing. Ibn Batutah claims that they may even
stay one to two hours; see Voyages d’lbn Batoutah translated into
French by C. Defremery et B.R. Sanguinetti, Paris, 1912 etc., vol. II, pp-

39 The Muslim year has 12 months of 29 or 30 days; since it is only 354 days

440