Page 81 - The Origins of the United Arab Emirates_Neat

Maintenance of Power: Political and Social babric 57

SMT 51,400, or around £4569, and the sliaykh of Umm al-Qaiwain,
which had Fewer boats and fishermen engaged in pearling than
the larger shaykhdoms had,3 received only 19,269 rupees, or around
£1285, from pearling taxes, but, by obliging the owners of the
boats to buy all their provisions from him, accumulated 80,000
rupees, or around £5333, in the one year.1
Not every man in the shaykhdom had to pay taxes. Exceptions
were usually made for members of the ruling family, and friends
and servants of the ruler. Lorimer listed the exemptions for 1907,
and the figures give a strong indication of the status of the ruler
himself. Abu Dhabi, whose ruling family was small and whose
ruler was strong and secure, made exemptions for only twenty-one
boats, worth 2004 rupees in dues foregone. Sharjah had approximately
the same size ruling family, but, because the ruler himself was
much weaker, exemptions were made for ninety-one boats, to a
total value of 12,062 rupees. Dubai’s ruling family was very large
and exemptions were made for 210 boats, to a total value of
20,528 rupees.5
After ensuring his family’s livelihood, the ruler had minimal
expenses to bear. The only other major claim on his income was
the salaries of his guard in the main towns of the shaykhdom.
The amount differed from place to place, and in Dubai the ruler
paid his guard simply by exempting them from taxes on their
pearl boats.

ADMINISTRATIVE FUNCTIONS
The shaykhdom’s administrative infrastructure was so rudimentary
as almost to be non-existent. The ruler had no civil service; no
judges or law courts, except for the mahkamah\ no army, apart
from his personal guards; and no police force. He could rarely,
if ever, delegate authority to an appointed person or group of
persons without risking his position. Thus, when in 1919 a Somali
sailor was murdered at Ras al-Khaimah by men who then escaped
to Umm al-Qaiwain, Sultan bin Salim of Ras al-Khaimah was
obliged to swallow his pride and accept the situation as it was,
despite the anger of the friends of the murdered sailor, who obviously
considered Sultan irresponsible.6
There were no formal extradition treaties between the shaykhdoms,
and a shaykhdom to which a person wanted in another shaykhdom
escaped would usually grant him refuge rather than return him
to justice. Thus the relationship between the two states (usually
neighbours) would suffer. In the case of the murder of the Somali
sailor, Sultan was clearly loath to start hostilities against Umm