Page 195 - The Origins of the United Arab Emirates_Neat

The Reform Movement of Dubai i G i

into Dayrah to attend the marriage ceremony, and were soon able
to occupy the town. There was little fighting, but Hashar bin
Rashid and his son were killed. The members of the majlis did
not resist lor long, half of them surrendering almost immediately.
Mani‘ alone continued to fight. He was besieged in his house,
alone except for the help of his young daughter San‘a, who later
married Shaykh Khalifah bin Sa‘id bin Maktum.52 Finally, however,
together with the remaining half of the majlis, Mani‘ fled to Sharjah.
A sloop was sent to Dubai on i April, and Wcightman arrived
the next day, to ‘clear up the situation’.53 He advised Sa‘id not
to abandon the trend towards a new form of government, and
helped him set up an advisory council of fifteen members, five
of whom had belonged to the old majlis. Shortly after, the situation
in Dubai reverted to normal.
Mani‘ and his party remained in Sharjah, which they used as
a centre of intrigue against Sa‘id. Wcightman hoped that another
ruler on the coast might accept the refugees, since their presence
in Sharjah, a mere seven miles away, was causing Sa‘id to contemplate
an attack. After skilful interventions and machinations, Wcightman
was able to have Mani‘ and his entourage moved to Ras al-Khaimah,
thus averting an outbreak of violence between Dubai and Sharjah.54
But news of Mani°s continued designs on Dubai persisted, and
in October 1939 Sa‘id was so agitated by an uncorroborated report
of a plot against him that he had five men arrested, summarily
tried, and found guilty; their eyes were put out with hot irons
as a punishment.55 This act gave rise to a general feeling of disgust
against Sa‘id and caused a considerable exodus of Dubai residents;
but there could be no doubt that he was at last in full control
of Dubai, his traditional opponents having been all but eliminated
from the field.56
Sa‘id continued to rule until his death in 1958, when his son
Rashid, the present ruler, came to power. Although the rebellious
faction of the Al-bu-Falasah was dispersed after 1939 and all its
power was dissipated by the events that followed the breakdown
of the reform movement, the reforms advocated by the short-lived
majlis left their imprint on Dubai. Of the seven shaykhdoms on
the Trucial Coast, Dubai was the first, in the years following
World War II, to become conscious of the need to alter its social
and economic structure. Long before oil wealth made these alterations
relatively easy, Dubai was in the vanguard of the movement to
modernise the Coast.