Page 467 - Truncal States to UAE_Neat

Notes to Chapter Five

long its beginning—first of Muharram—and all other events in the
Muslim calendar occur 11 days earlier each solar year.
40 See Lorimer, Histor., pp. 2244ff and below, page 293. Similar
approaches, often by the same firms, were made to the authorities on the
Persian side, and in some cases concessions were actually granted by
the Government in Teheran, but they brought nothing except loss to the
operators.
41 See Lorimer, Histor., p. 2248.
42 See Lorimer, Histor., p. 2247.
43 Information which was obtained by interviewing members of the
pearling community especially in Dubai is supplemented by the chapter
on the trade in pearls in the Gazetteer, Lorimer, Histor., pp. 2235ff.
44 The biggest pearls in this category passed through the ra’s (head) with
an 0.18 of an inch wide holes, but not through the bain (inside, stomach);
the smallest pearls were less than 0.11 of an inch in diameter and
therefore fell through the sieves called hadriyah al dail (lower tail).
45 See also below, page 209ff.
46 See Lorimer, Geogr., p. 411.
47 Rice as a staple food of the population of the Trucial States seems to
have assumed its present dominant position only during the 20th
century; it proved its worth particularly as a satisfying, cheap, easy to
store and to cook main dish for the evening meals of the pearling crews.
48 See Lorimer, Geogr., p. 1440. For information about the types of boats
which were traditionally used in the Gulf see Lorimer, Histor., p. 2319ff.
49 See Lorimer, Geogr., p. 1760.
50 See Lorimer, Histor., p. 2568 the general Appendix on the Arms and
Ammunition Traffic in the Gulf, and pp. 2587ff for a table of yearly
imports into Trucial Oman and a copy of the 1902 Arms Agreement. At
that time Ra’s al Khaimah and Fujairah were part of Sharjah.
51 See above, page 176; and also the very detailed studies of the date palms
made by Dowson, V.H.W., particularly his lecture entitled "The Date
and the Arab", in: Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society, 36,1949,
pp. 34-53. See also for the following, Heard-Bey, Asian Affairs, Oct.,
1974.
52 In July 1971 the author saw a caravan of 17 camels carrying nothing but
water containers made in Bahlah for sale in Matrah. Bahlah pots were
taken in the same fashion to the suq in Buraimi.
53 The same model is still now in use in many households in the United
Arab Emirates.
54 The undecorated brass coffee-pots with a belly, which are now being
sold in the suq both old and new, began to come into use in the Trucial
States only about twenty years ago. They are made in al Hasa.
55 Drawings of some such silver jewelry are given by Dostal, Beduinen,
S.56ff. See also Hawley, Ruth, Omani Silver, London, 1978.

441