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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
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