Page 474 - Truncal States to UAE_Neat
P. 474

Notes to Chapter Six

                    in the refinery which was completed there in 1937 drew thousands of
                    hands out of the declining pearling industry.
                 62  It is extremely difficult to identify such groups and therefore to verify
                    this status within village communities in the Trucial Slates. Material
                    concerning the origin, name and status of the bayasirah has been
                    compiled and evaluated by J.C. Wilkinson in an article in Arabic
                    Studies, vol. 1, 1974 entitled “Bayasirah and BayadTr”, pp. 75-85.
                 63  See Lorimer, Geogr., p. 453.
                 64  Most of the information which the author could obtain so far on the
                    position of a bldar in the Trucial Stales oases corresponds with an
                    account of his duties, payment etc. in Oman, which are described by
                    Wilkinson, “Bayasirah”, pp. 80ff.
                 65  Khalffah bin Zayid bought for instance a garden called “al khris" from a
                    certain Salim bin 'Ali in 1940 for 150 Rupees. This garden was situated
                    in Mas'udi, and must therefore have become Salim’s property originally
                    as a gift from that same shaikh, because it was he who established
                    Mas'udi in the first place. See Lorimer, Geogr., p. 264 and UK Memorial
                    II, Annex F, no. 5, p. 256.
                 66  According to the documents reproduced in the UK Memorial II, Annex
                    F, no. 5, pp. 256f, he paid in four transactions recorded for the years 1946
                    and 1949 between 530 Rupees and 1,700 Rupees for such gardens; the
                    sale always included the mud-brick boundary walls and a stated share
                    of the falaj water (one sixth in the case of the garden in HTli, one quarter
                    in the case of one in Mu'tirid).
                 67  The population table given in the UK Memorial II, Annex F, no. 1, p. 251
                    for the Buraimi oasis during the 1950s, shows that in the villages of
                    Buraimi and Hamasah 94 out of 369 houses were occupied by people
                    who belonged to neither of the local tribes of the oasis and were either
                    shop-keepers in the suq of Buraimi village or farm labourers in the open
                    fields, work which was looked down upon by tribal people.
                 68  As did for instance many Bani Yas, 'Awamir and Manaslr in the Buraimi
                    oasis; see villages with asterisks in table in UK Memorial II, Annex F,
                    no. 1, p. 251.
                 69  This does not apply to the members of the tribe called Balush, which has
                    been in Dhahirah for a very long time and is accepted as if it were an
                    Arab tribe.
                 70  See Lorimer, Geogr., p. 1938f. The Zatat rendered services which the
                    tribal Arab would not perform; many were goldsmiths, blacksmiths,
                    armourers, carpenters and pedlars.
                 71  They are discussed on pages 281ff.
                 72  For details of these American and French ships see Lorimer, Histor., p.
                   654. The incidents of piracy in the Gulf since 1778 are described in
                   Lorimer, Histor., pp. 633ff.
                73  It was estimated at 1816 to consist of some 60 large boats carrying 80 to

               448
   469   470   471   472   473   474   475   476   477   478   479