Page 72 - Truncal States to UAE_Neat

The Tribal Structure of Society
the capital, is the most densely populated. It is, however, closely
followed in size and importance by the area comprising al 'Ain and
the other five non-Omani villages of the Buraimi Oasis: Jlmi, I-IIli,
Mu'lirid, al Mu waij'i, and al Qattarah. The rule of the Al Bu Falah over
parts of the economically and strategically desirable oasis is the
result of the expansion of Bani Yas influence in this area over several
generations by both warlike and peaceful means.
Early developments As described in the first part of this chapter,
Buraimi. the ancient Tu’am, was a favoured target for the tribal
groups which migrated from Yemen and settled in Oman before the
Hijrah. The now second most numerous tribe in the oasis, the
Dhawahir, may have come to the area in this wave of Azdite
immigration. Their name suggests a long and close relationship with
the Dhahirah, which has been the name of the mountain foreland to
the south of the oasis for many centuries.69 The most numerous tribe
in the oasis, the NaTm, came in a later wave from Yemen along the
edge of the Rub'al Khali. The almost consistently bad relationship
between the two tribes may indicate that the latter dispossessed the
former of much of their properly in this area.
The Bani Yas played a part in the politics of the oasis as early as
1633, when the already-mentioned Omani shaikh Nasir bin Qahlan,
who had established himself in al Hasa, attacked the fort of the
Imam’s wali in Buraimi with the help of "Bedouins of el-Dhafreh",
that is, the Bani Yas. On this occasion the Omani possession was
saved by the intervention of the “chief Wali . . . with an army from
Nezwa”, who “ordered the demolition of all the Forts of el-] ow, except
that of the Imam, and the enemies were dispersed.”70
One may assume that those of the beduin Bani Yas who visited the
vicinity of Buraimi from al Khatam, and who almost certainly used
the markets of the oasis, were comparing the size of the crop on the
date palms watered by falaj in Buraimi with that on their palms in the
Llwa, which had to survive on the water which could be reached by
the roots. The idea of selling a few camels for the possession of a date
garden in the Buraimi oasis may have been in the mind of many a
Bani Yas tribesman, and a number of such transactions at least with
the Dhawahir inhabitants of the oasis must have taken place already
early in the 19th century.
The Ruler of Abu Dhabi used a dispute between the NaTm and the
Dhawahir to join forces with the latter because, as he put it in a letter
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