ال�سنة الثانية • العدد الثالث • يونيو 2010

LiwaJournal of the National Center for Documentation & Research جملة علمية ّحمكمة ي�صدرها املركز الوطني للوثائق والبحوث Volume 2 • Number 3 • June 2010 3 • June 2 • Number Volume

Volume 2 • Number 3 • June 2010 ال�سنة الثانية • العدد الثالث • يونيو 2010 ISSN 1729-9039 ISSN 1729-9039 Liwa Liwa Journal of the National Center for Documentation & Research (NCDR) جملة علمية ّحمكمة ي�صدرها املركز الوطني للوثائق والبحوث

Editor-In-Chief رئي�س التحرير Dr. Abdulla El Reyes Director General of the National Center for Documentation and Research د. عبد اهلل الري�س املدير العام للمركز الوطني للوثائق والبحوث Managing Editor Advisory Board Dr. L. Usra Soffan H.E. Zaki Anwar Nusseibeh مديرة التحرير الهيئة اال�ست�شارية Adviser in the Ministry of Presidential Affairs, Deputy Chairman د. ي�رسى �صوفان Editorial Board of Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) and �سعادة زكي �أنور ن�سيبة Board Member of National Center for Documentation & Research م�ست�شار وزارة �ش�ؤون الرئا�سة، ونائب رئي�س هيئة �أبوظبي للثقافة والرتاث، وع�ضو جمل�س Dr. Jayanti Maitra �إدارة املركز الوطني للوثائق والبحوث Dr. Abdalla Mansy Omari Prof. Mustafa Aqil al- Khatib هيئة التحرير Dr. Aisha Bilkhair Professor of Modern History-Qatar University د. جوينتي مايرتا �أ. د. م�صطفى عقيل اخلطيب Mr. Ali Darwish Imran Dr. John E. Peterson د. عبد اهلل من�سي العمري �أ�ستاذ التاريخ احلديث - جامعة قطر Historian and Political Analyst د. عائ�شة باخلري د. جون بيرت�سون Editorial Secretary Dr. Muhammad Sa’ad al- Muqaddam م�ؤرخ وحملل �سيا�سي Sharifa Al Faheem Assistant Professor of Modern History علي دروي�ش عمران Sultan Qaboos University د. حممد �سعد املقدم Design & Layout �سكرترية التحرير �أ�ستاذ التاريخ احلديث امل�ساعد - جامعة ال�سلطان قابو�س Dr. Sa’ad Abdulla al- Kobaisi Mohamed Adel Assistant Professor of Anthropology �رشيفة الفهيم د. �سعد عبداهلل الكبي�سي UAE University �أ�ستاذ الأنرثوبولوجيا امل�ساعد - جامعة الإمارات العربية املتحدة الت�صميم واالإخراج حممد عادل © National Center for Documentation and Research, 2010 Abu Dhabi, © املركز الوطني للوثائق والبحوث، 2010 �أبوظبي، الإمارات العربية املتحدة The Editor of theLiwa Journal (ISSN 1729-9039) invites the submission of original and unpublished scholarly articles in English and related to archaeology, history and ترحب هيئة حترير جملة ليوا )ISSN1729-9039( بالبحوث العلمية الأ� يلة ص غري املن�شورة، باللغتني العربية .heritage of the UAE and the Arabian Gulf region والإجنليزية، يف مو�ضوعات تخت�ص بالتاريخ والرتاث والآثار للإمارات العربية املتحدة ومنطقة اخلليج العربي. Manuscripts and all other correspondences concerning ‘Liwa’ should be addressed to: تر�سل البحوث وجميع املرا�سلت املتعلقة مبجلة ليوا �إىل العنوان الإلكرتوين [email protected] [email protected] الكتب التي ت�صل �إىل املجلة ملراجعتها ل ُت ّرد �إىل �أ�صحابها. .Books sent for review in the Journal cannot be returned ملزيد من املعلومات ولل�شرتاك يف املجلة يرجى دخول موقع For more details about ‘Liwa’ and subscriptions, access www.ncdr.ae www.ncdr.ae The views expressed in this issue are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily ما ورد يف هذا العدد يعرب عن �آراء ُالك ّتاب ول يعك�س بال�رضورة �آراء هيئة التحرير أو� املركز الوطني للوثائق reflect the views of the Editorial Board or the National Center for Documentation & والبحوث. Research.

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Volume 2 • Number 3 • June 2010 Contents

Mermaids of The Arabian Gulf: Archaeological Evidence for the 3 Exploitation of Dugongs from Prehistory to the Present Dr. Mark J. Beech Cultural Landscapes Manager Historic Environment Department Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH)

The Making of Gulf Ports Before Oil 19 Dr. Nelida Fuccaro Reader in the Modern History of the Arab Middle East, History Department, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

Social and Economic Developments in Trucial in the first half of 33 the Twentieth Century Julian Walker Ex Political Agent and Counselor in the British Embassy,

In Memoriam _ Dr. Ezzeddin Ibrahim 48 Zaki Anwar Nusseibeh Adviser in the Ministry of Presidential Affairs, Deputy Chairman of Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) and Board Member of National Center for Documentation & Research

2 Mermaids of The Arabian Gulf: Archaeological Evidence for the Exploitation of Dugongs from Prehistory to the Present Mark J. Beech

Abstract After Northern Australia the Arabian Gulf contains the second largest population in the world of sea cows or dugongs (Dugong dugon). These shy large marine mammals have been exploited for more than 7,000 years within this region. This paper highlights the economic and ritual use of dugongs by both prehistoric and historic coastal populations. Dugongs provided economically valuable products in terms of meat, oil, fat and hide, but the animals themselves were also venerated at a special monumental site constructed around 5,500 years ago on Akab Island in Umm Al-Qaiwain emirate. Their remains were also used in association with Islamic burial practice during the recent historical period on Marawah Island in Abu Dhabi emirate.

Introduction The sea cow or dugong (Dugong dugon) is a large marine mammal which is one of the four living species of the order Sirenia. It is the only surviving representative of the once-diverse family Dugongidae. It is found in the waters of at least 37 countries throughout the Indo-Pacific, although the majority of dugongs live in the northern waters of Australia between Shark Bay and Moreton Bay1 (Figure 1). Dugongs have a long lifespan of 70 years or more, as well as a slow rate of reproduction, which makes them extremely vulnerable to exploitation. Dugongs can reach an average adult length of 2.7 metres and can weigh up to 300 kilograms. An adult’s length rarely exceeds 3 metres, and females tend to be larger than males. Dugongs eat seagrass and are thus dependent on extensive seagrass beds in order to feed themselves. Such habitats are however under severe threat in the Gulf due to coastal reclamation, the

3 Mark J. Beech

FIGURE 1. Modern Distribution of Dugongs in the World (after Marsh et al. 2002, Fig.1).

construction of artificial islands and the impact of construction along the shorelines of the region. The second largest population of dugongs outside of Australia are those inhabiting the Arabian Gulf. This shy animal is now a protected species in Gulf waters. The modern population is estimated to comprise about 5800 individuals, and the most important habitats for it occur around Marawah island in the UAE, between Qatar and the UAE, as well as between Qatar and Bahrain2. The IUCN Lists the dugong as a species vulnerable to extinction, and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) limits or bans the trade of derived products from dugongs. Despite being legally protected in many countries throughout their range, the major causes of population decline are anthropogenic in origin, such as hunting, habitat degradation and fishing-related fatalities such as being accidentally caught in nets3.

Earliest Evidence for the Exploitation of Dugongs in the Arabian Gulf The earliest evidence for the exploitation of dugong in the Arabian Gulf dates back to more then 7,500 years ago4. Dugong bones were found during archaeological excavations directed by the present author on the island of Marawah in the western region of Abu Dhabi emirate (Figures 2-3). This demonstrates the apparent longevity of the importance of dugong in this region of the Gulf. At the site of MR11, on Marawah Island, butchered segments of dugong were transported to the site to be consumed by the site’s inhabitants. Radiocarbon dating indicates that the site was occupied between about 5700-4400 cal BC (2 sigma

4 Mermaids of The Arabian Gulf

FIGURE 2. Records of Dugongs on Archaeological Sites in the Arabian Gulf and its vicinity. Key: 1. Tell Akaz, Kuwait (n=68), Age: 50 BC - 700 AD, Period: Pre-Islamic. 2. F5 Failaka, Kuwait (n=142), Age: 300 BC - 100 AD, Period: Hellenistic. 3. Siraf, Iran (n=12), Age: 400 AD - 1600 AD, Period: Sasanian/Islamic. 4. Qalat al-Bahrain, Bahrain, Site 519 (n=104), Age: 1450 - 500 BC, Period: Dilmun. Qalat al-Bahrain, Bahrain, Site 520 (n=7), Age: 2150 BC - 1200 AD, Period: Dilmun. 5. Saar, Bahrain (n=12), Age: 2000 - 1800 BC, Period: Dilmun. 6. Al Markh, Bahrain (common in later phase), Age: ?5000 - 4000 BC, Period: Ubaid/Late Stone Age. 7. DA11, island, Abu Dhabi, UAE (present), Age: 5100 – 4500 BC, Period: Ubaid/Late Stone Age. 8. MR11, Marawah island, Abu Dhabi, UAE (present), Age: 5700 - 4400 BC, Period: Ubaid/Late Stone Age. MR4, Marawah island, Abu Dhabi, UAE (many), Age: 1400-1900 AD, Period: Later Islamic period 9. Umm an-Nar, Abu Dhabi, UAE (n=3000+), Age: 2600 - 2000 BC, Period: Umm an-Nar/Bronze age 10. 10. Akab, Umm al-Qaiwain, UAE (frequent), Age: 4769-3400 BC, Period: ?Ubaid/4th mill BC settlement, and later dugong mound c.3500 BC. 11. , /Umm al-Qaiwain, UAE (n=78), Age: 2300 – 1800 BC, Period: Umm an-Nar/Iron age. 12. Ed-Dur, Umm al-Qaiwain, UAE (present but rare), Age: 300BC - 200AD, Period: Ed-Dur. 13. JH57, Jazirat al-Hamra, Ras al-Khaimah,UAE (n=3), Age: ?5000 - 4000 BC, Period: ?Ubaid/Late Stone Age. 14. , Ras al-Khaimah, UAE (n=10), Age: 1200 – 800 BC, Period: Iron Age. 5 Mark J. Beech

FIGURE 3. Dugong remains discovered during Archaeological Excavations of site MR11 on Marawah Island, Abu Dhabi emirate. Dugong rib (top) and scapula (bottom) found in Room 1. These deposits date to more than 7000 years old (Photographs: Dr Mark Beech).

6 Mermaids of The Arabian Gulf calibrated date range). Excavations during the 2004 season of the occupation horizon inside Room 1 revealed a number of dugong rib fragments as well as a shoulder blade (scapula) discarded in the corner of the room (Figure 3). These may have been debris resulting from consumption, although the room also contained disturbed human remains and so they may have been also deliberately deposited as food offerings with the dead. Small quantities of dugong bones were also noted in the late 6th/early 5th millennium BC Ubaid-related settlement on Dalma island5 (Beech 2000). These consisted of a number of poorly preserved rib fragments. A dugong ‘butchery site’ dating to the 5th-4th millennium BC was initially discovered by a team of French palaeontologists on Akab island in Umm al-Qaiwain6. Here a range of skeletal elements were represented, many of which were butchered. A more recent re-investigation of this site by a team of French archaeologists and archaeozoologists has however provided an important re-interpretation of this site as a sacred ritual sanctuary7. These excavations revealed that an Ubaid-related settlement dating to the 5th-4th millennium BC was later followed in around 3500 BC by the construction of a special dugong bone mound. This is discussed in further detail below. Dugong bones were reported as being common in the later phase at the Ubaid-related site of Al-Markh in Bahrain8. The later Dilmun period levels at Qalat al-Bahrain also contained moderate numbers of dugong bones9. A small quantity were also noted at the Dilmun settlement at Saar10. Dugongs were also clearly exploited during the Bronze age of the southern Gulf, as witnessed by finds at both Umm an-Nar and Tell Abraq11. More than 3,000 dugong bone fragments were reported from the original excavations at Umm an-Nar.

Distribution of Dugongs: Ancient and Modern The distribution of modern dugongs in the Arabian Gulf is primarily restricted to the south-west and southern Gulf, between Ras Tanura on the Saudi coast, to Ras Ghanadha, close to the Abu Dhabi-Dubai border in the UAE. Some dugongs occur north-east of Ras Ghanadha, but the shoreline aerial surveys conducted in this area in 1986 and 1999 suggest that there is limited dugong habitat in this region12. The presence of butchered dugong ribs at the Neolithic period site of JH57 at Jazirat al-Hamra, as well as the presence of dugong bones in Iron Age period levels at Shimal, both in Ras al-Khaimah in the northern Emirates is therefore of some note13. Dugongs were also present but rare at the coastal site of Ed-Dur which was occupied from around 200 BC to 300 AD14. Even more remarkable is the discovery of fragments of dugong in Kuwait. Pre-Islamic period dugong remains dating to between 50 BC – 700 AD were identified at the site of Tell Akaz in Kuwait Bay15. Moderate quantities of dugong bones were also

7 Mark J. Beech

recovered from Hellenistic period excavations at site F5 on Failaka Island, and these included a dugong rib with butchery chop marks16. This is well outside the modern day distribution of dugongs in the Gulf. A recent survey in the central and southern Gulf noted no dugongs along the northern coast of Saudi Arabia17. Earlier studies have observed that dugongs do not normally occur in the waters of Kuwait, Iraq and Iran18. There are however archaeological records of dugong bones being found in Iran. Small quantities of dugong bones were recorded in Sasanian/Islamic period levels at the coastal site of Siraf19. Their remains have even been noted at Tal-e Malyan, a second millennium BC highland urban site. It is also reported that artefacts were also manufactured from dugong bones and tusks at a number of prehistoric sites20. Dugongs may of course had a bigger distribution throughout the Gulf in the past than at the present day, and it also likely that some pieces of dugong meat were maybe bartered, exchanged or traded by neighbouring coastal communities. Similarly their skulls, tusks and bones provided valuable raw material for working into artefacts. It is perhaps not surprising that relatively few dugong tusks have been recovered from archaeological sites. This may be because they were carefully curated as useful hand tools or amulets. Elsewhere in the Indian Ocean dugong bones have been discovered at a number of sites. At Quseir in Egypt on the Red Sea it was observed that Roman levels occasionally included mostly large chunks of dugong ribs, some of them chopped. Islamic period levels at the same site contained a humerus from an immature individual, as well as a metapodial21. In Sri Lanka dugong bones have been discovered inland, as well as at Mantai on the north-west coast dating to between 800 BC to 1200 AD22. In the South China Sea at Duyong Cave on the island of Palawan in the Phillipines, thousands of dugong bones were found associated with jar burials dating to between 300 to 500 BC as part of ceremonial deposits23. The most well known accumulations of dugong bones are those found in the Torres Strait Islands, located between Australia and Papua New Guinea. Some of these sites date back to the 14th century AD although some are also comparatively recent in date. These are generally believed to be part of ceremonial deposits. Extensive work on these has been carried out by Ian McNiven and colleagues24.

Selection of Particular Elements The skeletal anatomy of dugong was first described in detail by Everard Home in 183225 (Figure 4). It has extremely dense heavy bones for a marine mammal which makes the identification of even fragmentary pieces fairly straightforward. Where dugong bones have been found on archaeological sites in the Gulf they are commonly represented by rib fragments26. A number of points should be considered though. Dugongs are heavy animals which are difficult to manoeuvre out of the 8 Mermaids of The Arabian Gulf

FIGURE 4. Plan of the ritual dugong bone mound (top) and view during excavation and recording (bottom) on Akab island, Umm Al-Qaiwain emirate. This dates to around 5500 years ago (Photograph and Plan courtesy of Dr Sophie Mery and Vincent Charpentier, French Archaeological Mission to the United Arab Emirates). 9 Mark J. Beech

water. Butchered segments would have undoubtedly been removed from the dugong carcass soon after their capture. It makes sense to remove slabs of dugong meat as rib steaks from the carcass, as such segments would be more manageable to transport. Dugong ribs are relatively heavy and dense, so they clearly survive the ravages of time comparatively well. This is probably why they commonly occur on coastal sites of the region. The bones from the paddle-shaped flipper also occur on archaeological sites. It is worth noting that again this may represent the removal of the flipper from the carcass of dead animals. The author witnessed a number of illegally hunted dugongs on Marawah island in the United Arab Emirates in the mid-1990’s which consisted of carcasses minus their flippers. This limb contains a good chunk of meat which was preferentially removed by the poachers, as it was back in the past. Thankfully, today modern environmental legislation, the presence of the Marawah Marine Protected Area, along with patrol officers from the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi, help to protect dugongs from such poaching activities. Most dead dugongs recovered along the coast of Abu Dhabi today result from accidental bycatch in fishing nets, boat strikes and natural deaths due to the degradation of their habitat by coastal reclamation activities27.

Dugongs: an Economic Resource Dugongs would have provided a rich resource of meat, oil, fat and hide to the prehistoric and historic coastal communities of this region. Dugong meat would have been an extremely rich source of protein and fat. The oil from dugongs had many uses including for cooking, massage, as fuel for lamps, for conditioning wooden boats, and even as medicine. It was reportedly often mixed with its bones, being burned then ground into a preparation. It was considered by some to be an aphrodisiac, and for this reason in the past it has been traded to many countries28. A number of websites claim to sell dugong tears (“air mata”), “semen” and “pearls” as aphrodisiacs29, but these bogus sites are usually selling nothing more than rock salt, glass or mineral items moulded or polished into appropriate shapes! There are however genuine traditional uses for dugong products. Its hide was used by Arabian to make sandals. In Egypt it was also used as shoe leather. Its hide/skin was also used for soldier’s helmets, shields and other protective gear by the populations of the Red Sea and North-East Africa30. In the UAE, dugongs were traditionally captured for their meat, being sold in the fish markets. The caudal and rostral disk muscle were eaten fresh and salted, whereas the flukes, flippers, viscera and remaining head were generally discarded. Interviews conducted between 1986 and 1988 suggested that between 70 and 100 dugongs were sold at that time at the Abu Dhabi fish market per year31. For more than two decades now dugongs in UAE waters are protected by Federal Environment Law no.23 and Article 10 Mermaids of The Arabian Gulf

28/2000 Amiri Decree which prohibits the exploitation of dugongs in the UAE.

Dugongs and Ritual Deposits An important recent discovery by French archaeologists at the previously known Neolithic site on Akab Island in the Emirate of Umm Al-Quwain was a man-made

FIGURE 5. Female Skeleton of a Dugong (after Home 1821). structured platform of dugong bones32. This contained skulls laid in parallel with ribs in sets, together with other carefully placed artefacts (Figure 5). The Akab dugong bone mound is very similar to comparable monuments established much later (14th-20th c.AD) by aboriginal communities on the Australian coasts of the Torres Straits. These Australian dugong bone mounds were mostly part of totemic ceremonial sites, known as ‘kod’ sites, which were sacred sanctuaries usually reserved for men33. They were constructions containing tens to several thousand dugong bones, amongst which were placed other objects such as ornaments, tools, ochre, as well as terrestrial and marine fauna. These mounds were associated with hunting magic rituals34. In Australia, Madagascar as well as a number of other places such as the Trobriand Islands, for example, the dugong is an animal of special status, which was and still is today subject to particular rites concerning its capture, transportation, dismemberment and consumption35.

Graves of the Dugong Hunters? Islamic burial tradition is generally noted by its simplicity. The burial rituals should normally take place as soon as possible and include bathing the dead body, enshrouding the dead body in a white cotton or linen cloth, funeral prayer, burial of the dead body in a grave and positioning of the deceased so that the head is faced towards Mecca. The body is placed directly into an open grave without a casket. Gravediggers then fully

11 Mark J. Beech

bury the corpse, stamping or patting down the grave to shape, typically supervised by the eldest male. After the burial, the Muslims who have gathered to pay their respects to the dead, collectively pray for the forgiveness of the dead. This collective prayer is the last formal collective prayer for the dead. Any grave markers used are very simple and are generally used to indicate the head end of the grave. An archaeological survey of the Ghubba village Islamic cemetery on Marawah Island in 1992 by the Abu Dhabi Islands Archaeological Survey first noted some interesting local variations in Islamic burial practice during the historical period along the coast of Abu Dhabi36. This Islamic graveyard measured about 20m x 40m and had about 100 burials, of which around 20 were of children. The graves were large measuring c.2.5 x 1.2m, with kerb and head and foot stones rising to a maximum of 70cm height. The orientation of the graves was an average of 246-254 degrees. Three of the headstone had holes in them, suggesting that they may have been previously used as boat anchors. Many of the graves had an enamel teapot at their headstones, or on the grave itself. Occasionally there was an enamel jug or basin instead. Two graves had ceramics scattered over them. One particular grave had an inverted painted Julfar style vessel with a smashed based at its head end37. In actual fact, similar grave deposits have been noted for a historical cemetery in the Sultanate of Oman38, although no dugong remains were found in the Omani case. Ceramic remains were deliberately placed on the graves, local informants reporting that the daughter of the deceased chose one of her best pieces to be left at the head of the tomb after it was deliberately broken on the spot to discourage theft. Besides some of the Ghubba village graves having pottery associated with them, two graves from the Late Islamic period cemetery at Ghubba village on the south coast of Marawah Island have interesting deposits of dugong bones associated with them (Figure 6a). These comprised fragments of skull and jaws from juvenile individuals. In each case the remains were placed at the head end of the grave mound. We were told by local Al-Rumaithi informants on the island that these were graves of successful dugong hunters. On the shore of Ghubba village a midden of dugong bones was also discovered during the archaeological survey of Marawah Island (Figure 6b). The site designated as MR4 consisted of an assortment of dugong bones (mostly skull, jaw and rib fragments) together with marine turtle bones, with a handful of Julfar pottery sherds being found adjacent, indicating its historical period date.

Concluding Remarks Marine resources were being extensively traded to the interior of the by the Iron Age period, probably as a direct result of the domestication of the camel opening up new caravan trade routes39. It may well be that the use of dugong hide was more widespread in the past than was previously realised. Simply it may not have 12 Mermaids of The Arabian Gulf

FIGURE 6. Dugong bones placed on Islamic graves (top) and a Late Islamic period dugong bone midden, site MR4 (bottom) at Ghubbah village, Marawah Island (Photographs: Dr Mark Beech). 13 Mark J. Beech

been recognised as ethnographic items are not often subject to stringent analysis and testing. Marine resources have always played a vital role in the survival of early populations inhabiting the coasts of south-east Arabia40. Previous studies have largely concentrated on the important role of fisheries and the exploitation of marine shellfish. The important role of dugong can now be added to our existing knowledge and awareness of significant human-marine interactions. Clearly the early coastal populations of the Gulf had a special and indeed magical relationship with the dugong which provided not only basic economic products but may have also played an interesting symbolic role in their daily lives.

Acknowledgements The author would like to thank Dr. Linda Usra Soffan and Dr. Jayanti Maitra from the National Center for Documentation and Research for their encouragement during the preparation of this article. Earlier research for this paper was carried out during the course of my Phd funded by the University of York, U.K., and the Abu Dhabi Islands Archaeological Survey (ADIAS). An earlier oral version of this paper entitled “An archaeological perspective on the exploitation of dugongs in the Arabian Gulf “ was presented on 29 May 2006 at the Symposium on the Status and Conservation of Dugongs of the Arabian Gulf, Red Sea and Western Indian Ocean, organised by the Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi, sponsored by Total, and held at the Beach Rotana Hotel, Abu Dhabi. Thanks go to Thabit Zahran Al Abdessalaam and Dr. Himansu Das (EAD), as well as to Prof. Helene Marsh and Dr. Tony Preen, all attendees at the meeting, for generously sharing their knowledge and experience of dugongs. Dr Sophie Mery and Vincent Charpentier of the French Archaeological Mission to the United Arab Emirates kindly gave permission to use the plan and photograph in Figure 5. In addition, a number of archaeozoologists kindly shared details of dugong records from various archaeological assemblages in the region, including: Sheila Hamilton- Dyer, Dr. Marjan Mashkour, Dr. Ian McNiven, Dr. Phil Piper, Dr. Ruth Young, and Dr. Melinda Zeder. This paper is dedicated to the Mermaids of the Gulf. Long may they flourish, and be protected from man’s insatiable appetite for destroying our precious oceans.

14 Mermaids of The Arabian Gulf Notes 1. For information concerning the world status of dugongs see: Helene Marsh, Helen Penrose, Carole Eros and Joanna Hugues. 2002. Dugong – Status Reports and Action Plans for Countries and Territories (UNEP/DEWA/RS/02-1, 2002). 2. Preen, A. 1989. Technical Report, Dugongs, Volume 1: The status and conservation of dugongs in the Arabian Region. MEPA Coastal and Marine Management Series, ; Preen, A. 2004. Distribution, abundance and conservation status of dugongs and dolphins in the southern and western Arabian Gulf. Biological Conservation 118: 205–218. 3. Das, H. 2007. Status of Dugongs in Abu Dhabi. Chapt.11, p.184-199, in: Thabit Zahran Al Abdessalaam (ed.), Marine Environment and Resources of Abu Dhabi. Environment Agency Abu Dhabi. 4. Beech M., R. Cuttler, D. Moscrop, H. Kallweit & J. Martin. 2005. New evidence for the Neolithic settlement of Marawah Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 35: 37-56; Beech, M., R. Cuttler, D. Moscrop, H. Kallweit and J. Martin. 2008. Excavations at the Neolithic Settlement of MR11 on Marawah Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates: 2004 Season. Pages 25-53. In: P. Hellyer and M. Ziolkowski (eds.), Emirates Heritage Vol.2 - Proceedings of the 2nd Annual Symposium on Recent Archaeological Discoveries in the Emirates and of the Symposium on the History of the Emirates, , 2004. Zayed Center for Heritage and History, Al Ain; Beech, M. 2007. The Late Stone Age of South-Eastern Arabia: New Results from Excavations on Marawah Island and Umm az-Zamul, Abu Dhabi emirate, UAE. In: J. and J. Orchard (Eds.), Proceedings of the International Symposium - Archaeology of the Arabian Peninsula Through the Ages 7th-9th May 2006. Monograph No.134. Ministry of Heritage and Culture, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman. p.110-141. 5. Beech, M. 2000. Preliminary report on the faunal remains from an ‘Ubaid settlement on Dalma island, United Arab Emirates. Pages 68-78, in: M. Mashkour, A.M. Choyke, H. Buitenhuis and F. Poplin (eds.), Archaeozoology of the Near East IV: Volume B - Proceedings of the fourth international symposium on the archaeozoology of southwestern Asia and adjacent areas. ARC Publicatie 32. Groningen, Netherlands; Beech, M. and E. Glover. 2005. The environment and economy of an Ubaid-related settlement on Dalma island, United Arab Emirates. Paléorient 31/1: 97-107. 6. Prieur, A. and C. Guerin. 1991. Découverte d’un site prehistorique d’abattage de dugongs a Umm al-Qaiwain (Emirats Arabes Unis). Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 2(2): 72-83.; Jousse, A. 1999. The fossil dugongs of Akab island (Umm al-Qaiwain, United Arab Emirates): palaeoenvironmental and archaeozoological implications. Abstract of unpublished Dphil thesis. Centre des Sciences de la Terre, Université Claude Bernard. Lyon 1, France. Sirenews - newsletter of the IUCN/SSC Sirenia Specialist Group, no. 32. 7. Méry, S., V. Charpentier. G. Auxiette and E. Pelle. 2009. A dugong bone mound: the Neolithic ritual site on Akab in Umm Al-Quwain, United Arab Emirates. Antiquity 83: 696-708. 8. Roaf, M. 1975. Excavations at Al Markh, Bahrain. Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 6: 144-160. 9. Uerpmann, M and Uerpmann H-P. 1994.Animal bone finds from Excavation 520 at Qala’at al-Bahrain. In: F. Hojlund and H.H. Andersen (eds.). Qala’at al-Bahrain. Vol.1. The Northern City Wall and the Islamic Fortress. JASP 30:1, p.417-444; Uerpmann, M and Uerpmann, H-P. 1997. Animal bones from Excavation 519 at Qala’at al-Bahrain. In: F. Hojlund and H.H.Andersen (eds.). Qala’at al-Bahrain. Vo1.2. The Central Monumental Buildings. JASP 30:2, p.235-264.

15 Mark J. Beech

10. Dobney, K.M. and D. Jaques. 1994. Preliminary report on the animal bones from Saar. Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 5(2): 106-120. 11. Hoch, E. 1979. Reflections on prehistoric life at Umm an-Nar (Trucial Oman) based on faunal remains from the third millennium BC. In: M. Taddei (ed.), South Asian Archaeology. Papers from the Fourth International Conference of the association of South Asian archaeologists in Western Europe, held in the Istututo Universitario Orientale, Naples. Seminario di Studi Asiatici Series Minor 6, p.589-638; Uerpmann, M. and Uerpmann, H.-P. 2008. Animal Economy during the Early Bronze Age in South-East Arabia. In : E. Vila, L. Gourichon, A.M. Choyke and H. Buitenhuis (eds.): Archaeozoology of the Near East VIII – TMO 49, Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée, Lyon, p.465-485. 12. Preen 2004: 213. 13. Beech, M. and H. Kallweit. 2001. A Note on the Archaeological and Environmental remains from Site JH-57, a 5th-4th Millennium BC shell midden in Jazirat al-Hamra, Ra’s al-Khaimah. Tribulus (Journal of the Emirates Natural History Group) 11.1: 17-20; Van den Driesch, A. 1994. Viehaltung, Jagd und Fischfang in der Bronzeitlichen Siedlung von Shimal bei Ras al-Khaimah, UAE. In: P. Calmeyer, K. Hecker, K. Jacob-Post and C. B. F. Walker (eds.), Beiträge zur Altorientalischen Archäologie und Altertumskunde, Festschrift für Barthel Hrouda zum 65 Geburtstag. Wiesbaden. p.73-85. 14. Van Neer, W. and A. Gautier. 1993. Preliminary report on the faunal remains from the coastal site of Ed-Dur, 1st-4th century A.D., Umm Al-Quwain, United Arab Emirates. In: H. Buitenhuis and A.T. Clason (eds.), Archaeozoology of the Near East - Proceedings of the first international symposium on the archaeozoology of southwestern Asia and adjacent areas. Leiden: Universal Book Services / Dr. W.Backhuys, p.110-118. 15. Tome, Carine. 2003. Les mammifères et les oiseaux dans l’économie des sociétés protohistoriques du Golfe Arabo-Persique (IIIe millénaire avant J.-C. – VIIe siècle après J.-C.). 2 Vols. Phd Thesis. Université Aix-Marseille I – Université de Provence – U.F.R. Civilisations et Humanités. 16. Desse, J. and N. Desse-Berset. 1990. La faune: les Mammifères et les Poissons. In: Failaka, fouilles françaises 1986-1988. Travaux de la Maison de l’Orient 18. Diffusion de Boccard, Paris, p.51-70. 17. Preen 2004: p.210. 18. Preen 1989. 19. Bädstober, A. 2000. Die frühgeschichtliche Meeresfauna von Siraf, einer mittelalterlichen Hafenstadt am Persischen Golf / Iran. Inaugural dissertation zur Erlangung der tiermedizinischen Doktorwürde der Tierärztlichen Fakultät der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München. 20. Tal-e Malyan - Dr Melinda Zeder, personal communication; Iran – Dr Marjan Mashkour and Dr. Francois Poplin, personal communications. 21. Sheila Hamilton-Dyer, personal communication. 22. This is mentioned in: Seran Deraniyagala. 1992. Prehistory of Sri Lanka. Colombo: Department of Archaeological Survey, and in Robin Coningham (ed.), 2006. Anuradhapura: The British - Sri Lankan Excavations at Anuradhapura Salgaha Watta: Volume 2 The Artefacts. Oxford: Archaeopress; and thanks to Ruth Young, personal communication. 23. The Neolithic site at Duyong Cave is associated with the bones of at least 5,000 dugongs, and the sea mammal is thought to have had ritual significance there. At the cave there is also a jar burial site associated with funerary offerings. Dugong bones have also been found at the 9th to 12th century site at Butuan. In the Philippines, the teeth and bones of the dugong are still thought to have magical qualities bringing good luck and fertility and driving away evil and sickness. This is mentioned in Fox, Robert B. 1970.The Tabon Caves; Archaeological Explorations and Excavations on Palawan Island, Philippines. Manila: National Museum.

16 Mermaids of The Arabian Gulf

p. 176; and in: Paz, Victor, and Wilhelm G. Solheim. 2004. Southeast Asian Archaeology: Wilhelm G. Solheim II Festschrift. Diliman, Quezon City: Univ. of the Philippines Press, p.276-288; and thanks to Phil Piper, personal communication. 24. McNiven, I.J. and R. Feldman. 2003. Ritually orchestrated seascapes: hunting magic and dugong bone mounds in Torres Strait, NE Australia. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 13(2): 169-194; McNiven, I.J. 2004. Saltwater people: spiritscapes, maritime rituals and the archaeology of Australian indigenous seascapes. World Archaeology 35(3): 329-349. 25. Home, E. 1822. An Account of the Skeletons of the Dugong, Two-Horned Rhinoceros, and Tapir of Sumatra, Sent to England by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, Governor of Bencoolen. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 111 (1821): 268-275. See the illustration of a skeleton, Plate XX, p.274. 26. See Beech and Kallweit 2001, as well as Beech 2000. 27. See Baldwin, R. 1995. Abu Dhabi and the disappearing dugong. Tribulus (Journal of the Emirates Natural History Group) 5(2): 7-8, and contrast it with Das 2007. 28. Rajamani, L., A.S. Cabanban and R.A. Rahman. 2006. Indigenous Use and Trade of Dugong (Dugong dugon) in Sabah, Malaysia. Ambio 35(5): 266-268. 29. See for example, http://www.bezoarmustikapearls.com/dugong.html 30. Reported in the regional review of the Arabian Gulf region by Marsh et al. 2002. 31. Preen 1989. 32. Méry, Charpentier, Auxiette and Pelle 2009. 33. Haddon, A.C. (ed.). 1904-1912. Reports of the Cambridge anthropological expedition to Torres Straits, Volumes IV and V. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; McNiven and Feldman 2003; McNiven 2004. 34. McNiven & Feldman 2003. 35. Haddon 1904-1912; Petit, G. 1927. Novelles observations sur la pêche rituelle de dugong à Madagascar. Bulletin et Mémoires de la Société d’Anthropologie de Paris 7(8): 246-250; Crouch, J., I.J. McNiven, B. David, C. Rowe and M. Weisler. 2007. Berberass: marine resource specialisation and environmental change in Torres Strait during the past 4000 years. Archaeology in Oceania 42(2): 49-64; McNiven, I.J. and A.C. Bedingfield. 2008. Past and present marine mammal hunting rates and abundances: dugong (Dugong dugon) evidence from Dabangai Bone Mound, Torres Strait. Journal of Archaeological Science 35(2): 505- 515. 36. King, G.R.D. 1998. Abu Dhabi Islands Archaeological Survey – Season 1. Trident Press, London – see in particular Site MR13, p.79-80. 37. King 1998, p.80, Plate 37. 38. Mershen, B. 2004. Pots and tombs in Ibra, Oman. Investigations into the archaeological surface record of Islamic cemeteries and the related burial customs and funerary rituals Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 34: 165-179. Note that at Ibra, in parts of the Batinah and elsewhere in Oman, upright stones were placed vertically to the axis of the grave if the occupant was male, the stones being placed horizontally if they were female. 39. Beech, M., P. Hogarth and C. Phillips. 2008. Zooarchaeological Evidence for Trade in Marine Resources in South-East Arabia. Pages 329-335. In: E. Olijdam and R.H. Spoor (eds.), Intercultural relations between South and Southwest Arabia. Studies in Commemoration of E.C.L. During Caspers (1934-1996). British Archaeological Reports International Series 1826. Society for Arabian Studies Monographs no.7. Archaeopress, Oxford. 40. Beech, M. 2002. Fishing in the ‘Ubaid: a Review of Fish-bone Assemblages from Early Prehistoric Coastal Settlements in the Arabian Gulf. Journal of Oman Studies

17 Mark J. Beech

12: 25-40; Beech, M. 2003.The development of fishing in the United Arab Emirates: a zooarchaeological perspective. In: D.T. Potts, H. Naboodah and P. Hellyer (eds.), Archaeology of the United Arab Emirates: Proceedings of the First International Conference on the Archaeology of the UAE. Trident Press Ltd., London. pp.289-308; Beech, M.J. 2004. In the Land of the Ichthyophagi: Modelling fish exploitation in the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman from the 5th millennium BC to the Late Islamic period - Abu Dhabi Islands Archaeological Survey Monograph 1. BAR International Series 1217. Archaeopress, Oxford; Beech, M. and M. Al-Husaini. 2005. Preliminary report on the vertebrate fauna from site H3, Sabiyah: an Arabian Neolithic / ‘Ubaid site in Kuwait. In: H. Buitenhuis, A.M. Choyke, L. Martin, L. Bartosiewicz and M. Mashkour (eds.), Archaeozoology of the Near East VI: Proceedings of the sixth international symposium on the archaeozoology of southwestern Asia and adjacent areas. ARC Publicaties 123. Groningen, Netherlands. pp.124-138.

18 The Making of Gulf Ports Before Oil Nelida Fuccaro

This article discusses the making of new port towns along the Gulf coast and in the islands of Bahrain from the eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries, that is before the discovery and exploitation of oil - a development which first affected Bahrain in the 1930s. The pre-oil period in the Gulf was characterised by tribal expansion, British imperial encroachment and by the development of both port towns and new states throughout the region. This was indeed an era in which new ‘urban frontiers’ were in the making along the Gulf coast in the shape of expanding urban settlements which thrived at the periphery of established land and maritime empires: the Ottoman and Qajar states and the British Empire which controlled India. The story of how new port towns and inland settlements started to dot the Gulf landscape and how their development, and socio-political and spatial organisation reflected new patterns of state and nation building is not yet well known. 1 On the one hand, the study of pre-oil urban development has been somewhat overshadowed by the spectacular growth of contemporary Gulf cities which have increasingly attracted the attention of scholars, journalists and visitors. For instance, both Abu Dhabi and Dubai are very much in demand, and receiving increasing attention as the prototypes of the twenty-first century world cities, hubs of a trans- national world of capital flows, global luxury and consumerism, and more recently recipients of cultural and tourist development.2 On the other hand, the urban history of the region has been obfuscated by the ‘grand narrative of oil’, that is, by the study of the economic, social and political effects of the oil boom. This narrative has tended to give precedence to the study of processes of modernisation and development rather than focussing on the history of port towns which have played so large a role in the evolution of the modern state.

19 Nelida Fuccaro Urbanisation in the ‘Gulf Frontier’ That the coastal areas of the Gulf constituted both a geographical and political frontier is fairly well established in the historiography of the region which recounts endless tales of tribes, conflict and imperial wars often fought by proxy at sea and on the mainland. As the Gulf is located between Western Asia, the Middle East and the Indian Ocean, its coastal areas were continuously exposed to the power and dominant cultures of maritime and land empires, and to the military might of tribal peoples, often from the desert regions of the Arabian Peninsula. The historical literature on the region shows the influence of war and conflict in redrawing the boundaries of urban, tribal and agricultural settlements. Yet it does not focus adequately on the rise and fall of coastal settlements as the centre of politics and administration, as the arenas of contact and cultural and economic exchange between sedentary, agricultural, nomadic and maritime populations and, last but not least, as the hub of a dynamic regional and cross-regional maritime economy which nurtured the development of the Gulf coast. The importance of this ‘Gulf frontier’ as an ‘urban phenomenon’ in relation to processes of state building becomes apparent in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In this period, the establishment andgrowth of a host of coastal towns underpinned the consolidation of an interconnected network of city- states or quasi city-states which included Kuwait Town, Manama and Muharraq in Bahrain, and Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Ras al-Khaymah in what was known as Trucial Oman (since 1971 the United Arab Emirates). The majority of these settlements were essentially tribal outposts which prospered as centres of trade and of the pearling industry, the major economic resource of the region before oil. In time their commercial success derived from the establishment of ‘free’ port regimes which allowed these settlements to compete with Basra, Bushehr and Lingah, the major regional ports under Ottoman and Iranian control.3 A number of sequential processes underpinned these developments. The first was the resurgence of tribal power throughout the Gulf in the eighteenth century as a reflection of what Chris Bayly has called the ‘tribal breakout’ which undermined the authority of the Mogul, Ottoman and Safavid Empires across South Asia and the Middle East.4 In the eastern Gulf Arab tribes, particularly the al-Qawasim, consolidated their position over a network of ports on the Iranian coast, and on Sharjah and Ras al-Khaymah on the Arab side taking advantage of the collapse of the Safavid Empire in 1722. In the west, ‘Utub groups from mainland Arabia were able to establish new tribal principalities in Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain, what Abu Hakimah has called the ‘Utubi states. Their rise can be readily explained by Ottoman decentralisation in southern Iraq and by the emergence of the first Saudi state in Central Arabia between 1744 and 1818. By 1756 Kuwait, originally a small fishing village, was a growing commercial emporium under ‘Utubi settlers. 5 The migration of tribesmen towards the coast, and across the Gulf waters, brought tribal divisions to the forefront of processes of urbanisation. In fact, competition for the

20 The Making of Gulf Ports Before Oil control of pearl banks became an integral part of the process of sedentarisation and town making. As noted in the 1840s by A.B. Kemball, the Assistant of the British Political Resident at Bushehr: ‘it is by no means uncommon for one of the branches of a tribe [of the Gulf shores] … with a view to secure to themselves greater immunities and advantages, to secede from the authority and territory of their lawful and acknowledged chief into that of another, or to establish themselves and build a fort on some other spot …’ 6 The second factor which favoured the formation of city-states was the consolidation of British informal empire, particularly after 1820 when the Government of India offered ‘protection’ to their tribal rulers. The deployment of the British navy along the Gulf coast restored a degree of peace and security in the often fractured power politics of the region. It also protected the position of local dynasties, increasingly so in the second half of the nineteenth century when the Government of India came to control the external relations of Gulf principalities.7 The third factor was purely economic, the boom of the Gulf pearls in the world markets which provided the material resources for the further development of port economies and for the demographic and physical expansion of coastal settlements. The extent of pearl urbanisation across the region can be hardly overestimated. The population of Kuwait town increased from approximately 6,000 in the 1840s to 35,000 at the turn of the 20th century. In the same period the number of residents in Sharjah increased fivefold; the population of Dubai from 800 in 1834 to 10,000 in 1905; and that of Manama three fold in the last quarter of the century reaching 20,000 around 1900. 8 In the same way as the landscapes and life of contemporary Gulf cities enshrine historical processes of ‘oil modernisation’, ‘westernisation’, ‘development’ and ‘globalisation’, the political, social and spatial organisation of the towns of the pearl boom encapsulated the mercantile world of this age of tribe and empire. The lifespan of coastal towns depended on the ability of their rulers to offer military protection to the harbours and to populations of tribesmen and clients. Essentially these rulers needed to build strong defences, to ensure a steady supply of weapons and to maintain a military force (al-‘askariyyah). In this respect, only the al-Qawasim of Ras al-Khaymah were entirely successful. This town developed into what might be aptly termed as the model fortress town of the era before it was destroyed by the Royal Navy in 1820. It was protected by a shallow lagoon from the sea and surrounded on three sides by walls defended by cannons and by approximately 7,000 armed men.

21 Nelida Fuccaro

1. Map of Ras al-Khaymah printed in Bombay in October 1855, India Office Library.

22 The Making of Gulf Ports Before Oil

The forts, bastions and towers which mushroomed along the coast became the symbol of this new wave of urbanisation but with the exception of Ras al-Khaymah provided precarious defences to expanding settlements. In the nineteenth century Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Sharjah developed outside the walled compounds of the residences of their rulers which overlooked harbours, markets and residential districts. Kuwait Town, Zubara in Qatar and Muharraq in Bahrain did not have permanent city walls although they had forts.9 The establishment of the Pax Britannica after 1820 inaugurated a new phase of urban expansion and state building. The military and political importance of forts and fortifications gradually diminished, and their visual and symbolic meaning as the key elements of Gulf urbanisation and tribal authority lost momentum. In Bahrain, for instance, this phase was marked by the proliferation of al-qusur in the town of Muharraq, the residences of the Al Khalifah family and of their tribal allies which replicated the inward-looking and defensive architecture of the forts where the first rulers of Bahrain had resided outside populated areas. Particularly after the accession to power of Shaykh ‘Isa ibn ‘Ali Al Khalifah in 1869, the al-qusur became the centres of the tribal government of Bahrain (Dar al-Hukumah).10

2. A qasr in Muharraq, 1918 c.a].

In the age of the pearl boom expanding port towns and their socio-political organisation mirrored the geographical horizons of their port economies, rather than reflecting the military capabilities of their rulers. As Kuwait doubled in size in the last quarter of the nineteenth century the town outgrew the wall which separated it from the desert, and became an open settlement. Both Manama and Dubai developed as cosmopolitan immigration units around their natural harbours. In Manama, Bayt 23 Nelida Fuccaro

al-Shuyukh, the residence of the Al Khaifah governor of the city was bombed by the Royal Navy in 1904 following disturbances between Persian and . It was never rebuilt and its site became part of the expanding market complex of the city.

3. Drawing of Bayt al-Shuyukh in the 1880s11

As the towns of the pearl boom grew in population and social complexity, their rulers increasingly negotiated alliances with merchants and with community leaders. As the development of port economies was largely dependent on the influx of merchant capital, tribal rulers and merchants operated in symbiosis. To a certain extent before oil the merchant class provided the resource base for the consolidation of tribal government whose main source of income – with few exceptions - was trade. Often, the most visible institution of government in town beside the Shaykh’s residence, was the gumruk or customs house which in ports like Manama and Abu Dhabi was farmed out by the ruler to merchants. 12 The workers employed in the pearling industry, mostly immigrants and seasonal labourers, and the mercantile communities, particularly Indians and Persians, were important elements in the socio-political organisation of port towns. The former constituted the rank and file of the popular classes, indeed a mobile and turbulent crowd. The latter provided connections to regional and cross regional markets as well as networks of support for immigrant populations. 13 The political complex of these port towns was often fragile. In this respect, Manama and Dubai as the cosmopolitan towns of the pearl boom par excellence developed almost as voluntary associations with a very mobile workforce and immigrant populations which maintained family links and political and commercial connections with their areas of origin: India, Iran and the Arabian Peninsula. 14 24 The Making of Gulf Ports Before Oil The case of Bahrain The islands of Bahrain constituted a sort of microcosm of the new ‘urban frontier’ which emerged after the eighteenth century. For centuries the configuration of settled life and the organisation of coastal towns reflected the demographic and political realities of a frontier society in flux. Before oil the islands were undoubtedly a melting pot: the meeting place of the Arab and Iranian worlds and of Sunni and Shi‘i . As in other areas of the Gulf littoral the new patterns of tribal urbanisation which became apparent in the early nineteenth century underpinned the making of a new tradition of government under the Al Khalifah family which took control of Bahrain in 1783. The establishment of several tribal settlements and of a new capital city, Muharraq, had profound repercussions on existing patterns of agricultural settlements and, more generally, on the tradition of government established under the rule of the Safavid Empire (1602-1717). To complicate this picture in the second half of the nineteenth century Bahrain became the stronghold of the British Empire on the Arab side of the Gulf. By the last quarter of the century Manama, the cosmopolitan port town of the islands, became the busiest entrepôt of the Gulf, a centre of British and European shipping and the world centre of pearling. Some sixty years after the collapse of Safavid rule Bahrain was occupied by tribal contingents belonging to the Al Khalifah family, a branch of the ‘Utub confederation which reached the island from mainland Qatar. As it is well known, the Al Khalifah established themselves in the islands on a permanent basis after the foundation of Muharraq in 1809, a pearling settlement located on a small island to the north east of Manama. Muharraq was the most important of a cluster of new tribal towns (al- Budayya‘, al-Hidd and al-Zallaq) which became the powerhouses of the islands’ pearling economy in the nineteenth century. The tribalisation of Bahrain had triggered a veritable urban revolution. By the early twentieth century approximately 60% of the population of the islands was concentrated in four costal settlements which with the exception of Manama were inhabited almost exclusively by Sunnis of tribal origin. Muharraq housed the majority of the members of the ruling family and together with al-Hidd the al-Fadhil, al-Jalahima and al-Bin ‘Ali tribes. al-Budayya‘ and al-Zallaq remained the semi-independent fiefdoms of the al-Dawasir, a tribal group from Damman who had arrived in Bahrain around the 1840s. These towns constituted close networks of tribal solidarities organised around pearl production. These solidarities are apparent in their tribal quarters (al-firjan)which often included clients (al-mawali), slaves and divers. In Muharraq, the seat of the Al Khalifah administration, the oldest and largest quarters of the city housed the tribal aristocracy of Bahrain, while subordinate tribes, Shi‘i artisans and Hawala merchant communities formed their own enclaves.15

25 Cambridge University Press FUCCARO ISBN HB 978 0521 199902 Map 02 Font: Frutiger Frame size: 110mm x 170mm Proof 6 april 2009 Amend 4 june 2009 Nelida Fuccaro

0 5 10 km al-Samahij 0 5 miles Muharraq Island al-Hidd Muharraq

Barbar Karbabad Bilad Manama al-Diraz Bani al-Qadim al-Budayya Jamrah al-Mahuz al-Qadam Jidd Hafs al-Jufayr Jiddah Island Umm al-Shakhurah Saban Nabi Salih Island Island Jidd Ali Isa Town Sitrah Sitrah Island Rifa al-Qibli Rifa al-Sharqi Umm Nassan Hamad Island Town Awali Al-Damistan

al-Sakhir al-Askar

al-Zallaq

al-Jaw

al-Dur

Modern settlements Tribal settlements Agricultural settlements

Historical towns and their suburbs Ras al-Barr

4. Bahrain’s settlements.

26 The Making of Gulf Ports Before Oil

The tribalisation of Bahrain also brought about an economic, social and political revolution. The Al Khalifah and their allies controlled the pearling industry and became the building blocks on a new economic system which subordinated the non- tribal and agricultural populations of the islands. The transfer of power to the new pearling towns from the old agricultural settlements located inland - such as Jidd Hafs, al-Diraz and Bilad al-Qadim which had thrived in the Safavid period - fostered the creation of a three tier of settlement which separated pearling centres from both agricultural hamlets and from Manama, the historic centre of Bahrain’s entrepôt trade. Tribal solidarities created new urban hierarchies irrespective of the size and economic importance of Bahrain’s towns. In the early twentieth century, Shaykh Muhammad al- Nabhani, the official historian and biographer of the Al-Khalifah family, celebrated in his al-Tuhfah al-Nabhaniyyah, the supremacy of Muharraq and al-Hidd over Manama by referring to them as al-qasbat. With no citadels and fortifications protecting these two settlements, this term was used to suggest that these towns constituted the figurative bastions of al-‘asabiyyah (tribal solidarity) while marking the physical and ideal separation between tribesmen and agriculturalists. Further, the same al-Nabhani celebrated the layout of Muharraq’s inner city, the centre of the tribal administration of Bahrain, as the embodiment of the ‘natural’ order of the tribal hierarchies which supported Shaykh ‘Isa’s government. In his celebratory words Bayt Shaykh ‘Isa (the palace of the ruler) was located at the centre of the residences of his relatives and allies (al-qusur) as ‘al-qamar bayna zawahir al-nujum (the moon among shining stars).’ 16 This new urban and state tradition reflected a new stage in the history of Bahrain, especially if compared with the period of Safavid rule. At least this is what Shi‘i clerics such as Yusuf al-Bahrani who lived in the early eighteenth century and witnessed the collapse of Persian rule tell us. 17 After the collapse of the Safavid administration, rural Bahrain suffered severe destruction. Carsten Niebuhr, who visited the islands in 1765, remarked that some villages had virtually disappeared as a result of depopulation and warfare. In the nineteenth century agricultural production was affected by a new system of land tenure imposed by the Al Khalifah and by the progressive depletion of water resources. Many cultivators were left with a minimum to survive. In the words of a Persian traveller who visited the islands in 1836: ‘They get the inedible dates and the rotten fish.’18 In this general context of urban/rural divisions the port town of Manama developed as the mercantile and cosmopolitan settlement of the Al Khalifah era and as the base of British commercial operations in the Gulf. The town became a sort of imperial metropolis of the Gulf region. Since 1900 the British Political Agency based in town became the champion of its commercial and multi-ethnic tradition which pre-dated the arrival of the Al Khalifah in Bahrain. Public ceremonial, for instance, followed the protocol adopted in British India; it emphasised the position of the British Agency as the protector of the commercial classes of the city which were divided along lines of ethnicity, religion and sect. In June 1926 Charles Belgrave, the British

27 Nelida Fuccaro

advisor to the rule of Bahrain recorded in his diary his first encounter with the city’s merchants organised by Major Daly, the British Political Agent. Wearing his official uniform, Daly introduced Belgrave to the notables as the representatives of the urban population with short speeches in Arabic, Urdu and Persian. The visitors politely reciprocated in their own mother tongues, and the conversation continued briskly in various languages during the reception.19 Early twentieth-century Manama was a social landscape dominated by immigrants and settler populations, sailors and administrators from British India. Manama’s civic spirit was permeated by the acceptance of religious diversity and of the social social separation of its residents along strict communal lines. It was commonplace to encounter a Hindu in white cotton pants and silk-fringed cloth wrapped around his waist alongside a well-to-do Persian wearing a waistcoat, pantaloons, woollen socks and shoes followed the fashion of the Persian port of Bushehr. The topography of the town reflected its organisation as an immigration unit which incorporated both rural and overseas immigrants. Uniquely among the ports of the Arab coast, Manama had few tribal settlers and a large Shi‘i population, both Arab and Persian, which crowded the popular neighbourhoods of the city.20 Influential Shi‘i families from Bahrain’s rural hinterland - such as the al-Jishis, Bin Rajabs and ‘Alawis – lived in symbiosis with its mercantile communities. Rural and overseas immigration readily explains the expansion of the popular neighbourhoods of Manama such as al-Mukharaqah in the late nineteenth century. These neighbourhoods expanded around the houses of influential merchants. The southern portion of al-Hammam quarter, for instance, developed after Ahmad bin Salman bin Khalaf, a Baharna pearl merchant, built its residence there in 1914. Immigration also accounts for the creation of what was the most conspicuous phenomenon of pre-oil urbanisation: the shanty towns of barasti populated by very poor immigrants and seasonal labourers employed in the pearl industry. These shanty towns mushroomed in what was known as al-barriyyah, insalubrious land impoverished by the infiltration of sea water, located to the east and to the south east of the harbour and inhabited by Persians, Baluchis and former slaves. In contrast, the vernacular architecture of Manama spoke the language of an urbanite trans-regional culture. The facades and exterior decorations of merchant houses showed more openness to the outside world than the al-qusur of Muharraq and often displayed a marked Persian influence. Architecture was also evidence of the ambivalent political allegiances of some merchant families to the Al Khalifah family. The two carved lions at the entrance of Bayt Faruq, the residence of the wealthy ‘Arshi family in the ‘Awadhiyyah quarter, paid homage to the Iranian imperial tradition which very controversially rallied the loyalties of many of Manama’s Persian residents. The history of the residences of merchants and of a cluster of religious buildings, particularly the houses of mourning (ma’tams) which were sponsored by influential members of the Shi’i community, is also evidence of the mercantile wealth brought about by the trade and pearl boom of the late nineteenth century.21

28 The Making of Gulf Ports Before Oil

5. Teenagers with barasti structure in the background, Manama 1930s.

29 Nelida Fuccaro

During the pearl boom a powerful merchant class emerged in the city as a result of their increasing cooperation with the Al Khalifah administration of Bahrain. Evidence suggests that Shi‘i Arab and Persian merchants were particularly advantaged as they were employed as tax-farmers in the harbour and in the markets which provisioned the city’s growing population. Further, in the 1880s a powerful syndicate of Indian merchants took over the control of the collections of customs on behalf of Shaykh ‘Isa ibn ‘Ali, the ruler of Bahrain.22 The increasing complex organisation of Manama’s commercial areas and customs facilities reflected the growing cooperation between Bahrain’s tribal elites and Manama’s entrepreneurs. Until the establishment of municipal government in 1919 residential areas were not subject to taxation and had no administrative personality. They remained largely under the control of influential merchants, a fact which clearly continued to favour the bonds of clientele between them and the workforce. In fact, it was clientelism and the patronage of religious institutions such as mosques and ma’tams which united Manama’s merchant classes in the pursuit of social and political prestige, and placed them at the head of urban society, at least until the nationalist agitations of the 1950s. Before the discovery of oil Manama’s socio economic and spatial organisation was radically different from that of Muharraq and of the other pearling centres of Bahrain. In Manama few individuals apart from few influential merchants of tribal descent such as Muqbil al-Dhakir were able to organise their lives and activities around tribal connections. Further, the sphere of influence of the tribal government was somewhat limited by the city’s heterogeneous non-tribal population, by the presence of a powerful cohort of merchants who often had political and commercial connections outside Bahrain and, last but not least, by the intervention of the Government of India, particularly after 1900. In the early twentieth century the central role played in Manama by British imperial policy transformed this port settlement into the natural platform for political reform. This process initiated with the establishment of municipal government in 1919 (the first in the Gulf region) and with the reorganisation of customs facilities few years later under the aegis of the British Political Agency. On the eve of the discovery of oil and following the demise of the pearl industry after 1927, Manama became the new capital of Bahrain, and the centre of its future oil state. That of Manama and Muharraq is indeed a tale of two cities whose development reflected the vicissitudes of the urban and political history of the Gulf coast.

Notes

1. The studies which focus on the urban history of the Gulf are scarce. See as main contributions Christopher M. Davidson, Dubai: the Vulnerability of Success (London: Hurst, 2008); W. Floor, The Gulf. A Political and Economic History of Five Port Cities, 1500-1730 (Washington: Mage, 2006); N. Fuccaro, Histories of City and State in the Gulf: Manama since 1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009).

30 The Making of Gulf Ports Before Oil

2. Davidson, Dubai: the Vulnerability of Success; Christopher M. Davidson, Abu Dhabi: Oil and Beyond (London: Hurst, 2009); A. Kanna, Not Their Fathers’ Days: Idioms of Space and Time in the Arabian Gulf (PhD Dissertation: Harvard, 2006); B. Ghoul, ‘Les Transformations d’une Cite-Marchande: Doubaï, 1971-2001. Impact Global et Dynamique Interne’, Monde Arabe Maghreb-Machrek, 174(2001), 70-74; R. Marchal, ‘Dubai: Global City and Transnational Hub’ in M. al-Rasheed (ed.), Transnational Connections in the Arab Gulf (London: Routledge, 2005), 93-110. 3. H. Fattah, The Politics of Regional Trade in Iraq, Arabia and the Gulf, 1745-1900 (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997), 25-28. 4. Chistopher A. Bayly, Imperial Meridian. The British Empire and the World, 1780-1830 (Pearson Education: Harlow, 1989), 35-52. 5. Ahmad M. Abu Hakima, History of Eastern Arabia, 1750-1800. The Rise and Development of Bahrain, Kuwait and Wahhabi Saudi Arabia (Beirut: Khayats, 1965), 45-90. 6. Kemball, ‘Memoranda on the Resources, Localities, and Relations’ (1845), fiche 1090-91, 94, V/23/217 IOR ( India Office Records). 7. M. Yapp, ‘British Policy in the Gulf’ in A. Cottrell et alia (eds), The Gulf States: A General Survey (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1980), 72-84. 8. John G. Lorimer Gazetteer of the Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia, 2 vols. (Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent Government Printing, 1908, republished by Gregg International, Farnbourough, 1970), vol. II, 454-56, 1051, 1159-61; Brucks, ‘Memoir Descriptive of the Navigation of the Gulf with Brief Notices of the Manners, Customs, Religion, Commerce, and Resources of the People Inhabiting its Shores and Islands’ (1829-1835), Fiche 1096, pp. 545-6, V 23/217 IOR . 9. Kemball, ‘Memoranda on the Resources, Localities, and Relations’ (1845), fiche 1090-91, p. 99, V/23/217 IOR; Brucks, ‘Memoir Descriptive of the Navigation of the Gulf’, pp. 541, 544, 547, V 23/217 IOR; Lorimer, Gazetteer, vol. II, p. 410, 1761-62. 10. Fuccaro, Histories of City and State, 36 and 38. 11. J. Dieulafoy, A Suse. Journal des Fouilles, 1884-1886 (Paris: Hachette, 1888), 47. 12. Fuccaro, Histories of City and State, 77-80; F. Heard-Bey, From to United Arab Emirates (London and New York: Longman, 1999), 249. 13. The historiography of migrant communities in the Gulf is scarce. Contributions include N. Fuccaro, ‘Mapping the Transnational Community: Persians and the Space of the City in Bahrain, c.1869-1937’ and J. Onley, ‘Transnational merchants in the nineteenth-century Gulf’ in M. al- Rasheed (ed.), Transnational Connections in the Arab Gulf, 39-58 and 59-86; Nurah Muhammad al-Qasimi, al-Wujud al-Hindi fi-l Khalij al-‘Arabi 1820-1949 (Sharja: Da’irah al-Thaqafah wa-l ‘Ilm, 2000). 14. N. Fuccaro, ‘Pearl Towns and Early Oil Cities: Migration and Integration in the Arab Coast of the Gulf’ in N. Lafi et al. (eds), The City in the Ottoman Empire: Migration and the Making of Urban Modernity (Routledge: fortcoming). 15. Fuccaro, Histories of City and State, 24-26 and 31-32.

31 Nelida Fuccaro

16. Muhammad al-Nabhani, al-Tuhfah al-Nabhaniyyah fi tarikh al-Jazirah al-‘Arabiyyah (Beirut: Dar Ihya’ al-‘Ulum, 1976), 42-44 and 141. 17. Yusuf ibn Ahmad al-Bahrani, Lu’luat al-Bahrayn fi al-ijazat wa tarajim rijal al-hadith (Najaf: Matba‘a al-Nu‘man, 1966). 18. C. Niebuhr, Travels through Arabia, and other Countries in the East, 2 vols. trans. Robert Heron (Edinburgh, 1792), vol. II, 152; Muhammad Ibrahim Kazeruni, Athar shahrha-ye-bastani sawahil va jaza’ir-i Khalij va darya-ye ‘umani, annotated by Ahmad Iqtidari (Teheran, 1996), 881. 19. Diaries of Charles Belgrave, 5 June 1926. 20. Lorimer reports that the population of Manama in 1905 was approximately 20,000 and included two thirds of Arab Shi’is (Baharna), 1,500 Persian Shi‘i (‘Ajam), 2,600 Arab Sunnis, 2,300 Africans (of which 800 were slaves), 5,000 Hawala, 50 Jews and a substantial number of Indian merchants. Lorimer, Gazetteer, vol. II, 1160. 21. Fuccaro, Histories of City and State, 105-110. 22. Fuccaro, Histories of City and State, 77-78 and 88-89.

32 Social and Economic Developments in Trucial Oman in the first half of the Twentieth Century Julian Walker

This article is based on a chapter of my Sabbatical Paper titled ‘Trucial Oman 1900- 1950’ written in 1972 and 1973 in the Faculty of Oriental Studies, Cambridge. The information reproduced here has been gleaned to a considerable extent from my personal knowledge of the tribes and contemporary conditions and events during my work experience in the Emirates from 1954 to 1960, first as Assistant Political Agent, and subsequently as Political Officer. I was specially assigned to deal with internal Trucial States boundaries, and thereafter, the settlement of boundaries between the Trucial States and the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman. My researches have been further supported by my examination of India Office files, Public Records Office Files (Kew), and records in Cambridge. It may be added however, that more than the official records, my first hand knowledge of the land and its people portrayed in this article, should offer some unique and valuable insight into events and personalities of the Emirates in that era. The inhabitants of the Arabian Coast had no rivers, sheltering mountains, nor a comparatively productive hinterland to help them. Behind them lay the deserts of central Arabia, inhabited by bedu tribal herdsmen who, driven by pressure of population or a uniting faith, would, from time to time, push eastwards to dominate their brothers of the Coast. These latter took naturally to wandering on a sea where commerce, fishing and the pearl banks could, with hard labour, be made to yield a living. It was natural that the Arab coastal dwellers should found maritime city states, ruled by their tribal shaikhs, and that these should struggle to dominate Gulf commerce in the same way as the tribes of the interior strove to control caravan routes, wells and oases.

33 Julian Walker Social Structure at the Beginning of the Century Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, the ethnic structure of Trucial Oman was essentially tribal. The population could be divided into three basic but not exclusive or clearly distinguishable groups, the bedouin of the desert, the inhabitants of the fishing and oasis villages, and the citizens of the coastal towns.

The Bedu The bedu, certain of their innate superiority over villagers and townsmen, proud of their past and desert lineage, jealous of their independence, often poor but unbelievably generous, dominated the desert. They levied tolls on travellers who passed through their territories and considered themselves superior to the settled coastal and oasis populations. The , , Al Bu Shamis, Bani Qitab and Awamir were basically herders of camels rather than of sheep and goats and wandered widely through the barren hinterland. Other tribes such as the and the smaller Tunaij, Khawatir, , and Ghafala were more restricted in their areas of migration. Both groups often supported their settled cousins who appealed for their help in time of need.1

The Villagers The inhabitants of the fishing and oasis villages strung along the Coast, and scattered on either side of the Hajar mountain range, were equally tribal, but more sedentary than the bedu. Often they would be both fishermen and farmers, like the villagers of the East Coast and region. However the inhabitants of Jumairah, Khan, Hira, and Hamriyah concentrated on fishing, raising a few livestock on the side, and the fishermen of Jazirat Zaab went inland to when they wanted to cultivate their date groves. The purely agricultural settlements lay in the ravines which veined the mountains, or in the plains which fringed them to east and west. The large oases such as Buraimi, and Khatt were watered from underground springs through long falajes, or tunnels, which emerged into irrigation channels that criss-crossed the gardens. Each garden owner was entitled to receive water from the falaj on fixed days of the month or hours of the day. They, and the other larger villages of the mountain valleys and plains, might also be dotted with wells from which water was raised in larger skin bags by ox, camel, donkey or human power. The smaller mountain settlements got their water from open springs, through runnels carefully built along the side of the ravines to the small patches of soil, or from little shaduf wells.2 The men of the village tended the date and fruit trees, and the small enclosures of wheat, alfalfa and tobacco, leaving their women and children to watch their herds of goats and sheep in the surrounding country side. Both bedu and villagers cut wood and produced charcoal from the samr (acacia) trees which covered the plains, but their exploitation was carefully controlled. Any man could cut wood for his own fire,

34 Social and Economic Developments in Trucial Oman in the first half of the Twentieth Century but only local men gathered it for sale, and even then the local Shaikh regulated the areas which could be exploited in this way each year.3

The Townsmen The population of the towns was organized on a less strictly tribal basis than that of the desert and villages. The towns had long been a haven for fragmented Arab groups which had left the tribal hierarchy of the desert, and in the nineteenth century, foreigners - Persians, Baluch, Huwala and Indians had begun to settle in them. However, in each coastal port there was normally a dominant tribal faction, often related to the ruling shaikh, the more important and wealthy families of which would be engaged in the pearl fishing industry and the dhow trade. Thanks to their economic predominance based on pearling and shipping, as well as on the needs of the bedu and villagers to visit the urban markets, both to sell their products and buy necessities, the towns had achieved certain predominance over the hinterland. The Rulers in the towns extended their protection to the villagers in return for tribute in the form of zakat on their crops, or a share in the proceeds of their pearl fishing. They also cultivated the support of the bedu by gifts, hospitality, and by employing some of them as armed retainers. Some Rulers, such as those of Abu Dhabi and Umm al Qaiwain, had by means of their status as tribal shaikhs, an alternative source of authority over the bedu of their hinterland, while the Naim Shaikh of Ajman had a tribal influence which extended far beyond the borders of his small principality.4 The authority of the Rulers depended on their personalities, wealth, and the length of their reign. Within the towns, their authority was not necessarily all pervading, since some heads of the leading urban families also had shaikhly status and were wealthier than the Rulers; and because of their pearling and dhow shipping activities controlled as many urban dependents as them. Although the Rulers could often overawe discontented subjects with bedu summoned from the desert, the heads of these families were also able to cultivate bedu supporters. Many Rulers had to take into account the views of their relations and these subjects who were often supported by the more important and wealthy urban families. The Shaikh’s authority was also affected by the freedom of movement amongst the population of the Coast which was a striking feature of the area. There were several examples of whole tribes or tribal sections from the settled people as well as the nomads, migrating together from one place to another, although the greater part of the population movement was made up of the shifting of individuals and small groups. Depending as they did on seafaring and nomadic pursuits, the Trucial Omanis could easily transfer their homes from one district to another without losing their source of income. Their integration into the society of the area to which they transferred was facilitated by the Arab custom of protecting one’s neighbour and one’s protégé (locally known as zabin) or through intermarriage or the Pact of God, Ahd Allah,

35 Julian Walker

by which a man could make a political contract overriding tribal duties. It was this freedom of movement which had obliged the shaikhs of the Coast to agree in 1879 on the treatment of absconding debtors in order to ensure that such runaways could not cause trouble between their states in an attempt to avoid their obligations.

Economic Structure at the Beginning of the Century Pearling The Agreement of 1879 mentioned above, was vital to the continuance of the pearling industry which depended on a system of debt, and on which, after the suppression of conflicts at sea, the Trucial Coast depended almost wholly for its prosperity. The author of the Official British Gazetteer of the period, Lorimer, reported that at the beginning of the century 1,215 boats, carrying 22, 045 men, (the average crew was thus about 18 men per boat) put out from the Trucial Coast for the pearling season.5 Despite the smallness of the population, and the comparative backwardness of the Trucial Shaikhdoms, this fleet was only surpassed in the Gulf by the Bahraini contingent. The Trucial Coast’s pearling banks, which stretched in a broad arc from Dubai to the east coast of Qatar Peninsula, were also the second most important in the Gulf. Of the contingents from the various coastal ports, Abu Dhabi’s fleet of 410 boats was the largest, even though some of these craft might have been slightly smaller than those from the northern part of the Coast. Dubai followed with 335 pearling vessels and Sharjah with 183. There were other sizeable fleets since Khan dispatched a staggering 74 boats, Umm Al Qaiwain 70, Ajman 40, Ras Al Khaimah 33, and Hira and Jazirat al Hamra 25 each.6 There were two principal seasons for diving of which the Ghaus al Kabir, the great diving, lasting from June, when the northwest Shamal winds stopped, until the end of September, was by far the most important. The Ghaus al Bard, or cold diving season, starting in the middle of April and continuing for 40 days, was less popular.7 Pearls, normally of inferior quality, were also gathered by fishermen who waded in the shallows along the Coast when the tide was out. During the Ghaus al Kabir, which sometimes lasted until late October, the coastal settlements were almost denuded of their male population, and the shaikhs employed special guards to protect them against attacks from outside. Such was the demand of the pearling fleets that there was a great summer migration of all available labour to the pearl banks. The Manasir and Bani Yas inhabitants of Liwa would leave their date palms to be harvested by their women and one male member of their family, with casual bedu assistance, and launch their boats which were beached for the winter on all the inhabited islands, as well as at Radim, Mirfa, and Maghirah on the Coast. From Buraimi, some , and a few Naim and Al Bu Shamis trekked to the coastal villages of their fellow tribesmen; the Dhawahir to Abu Dhabi, the Naim mainly to Ajman; and the Al bu Shamis to Sharjah, Ajman and Hamriyah; many Shihuh, who

36 Social and Economic Developments in Trucial Oman in the first half of the Twentieth Century abandoned their parched hill and isolated fishing hamlets during the summer, also provided many pearlers. But the largest contingent of pearl fishermen came from the Batinah coast. As described by Richard LeBaron Bowen, Jr, “in Oman a strange balance of labour has been set up by the coincidence of the pearling season with the date harvest”.8 Starting around June, a flood of men would migrate from the Batinah villages to the Trucial Coast to work in the pearl fisheries. Some went north in camel caravans through the Wadis Ham, Qor, and Hatta, while others went by sailing craft round Cape Musandam. At the same time, there was a counter migration of a stream of women who trekked southwards from the Trucial Coast to the date groves of the Batinah to pick the date harvest. The pearlers from the Batinah were normally accompanied by tribal agents who enlisted their charges with the pearling nakhodas or captains of the pearling craft. This system worked well for thenakhodas , and in 1926, Dubai refused to agree to a suggestion made by Sayyid Hamad Bin Faisal, brother of the Sultan of Muscat, that a Muscati agent should be established in the town to look after Batinah divers. Financing The fitting out of the pearling fleet was a complicated affair.The nakhodas were responsible for the manning and equipping of the boats, which, in the majority of cases, they owned. The crews were normally in debt to thenakhodas from the previous season, and were thus bound to turn up for the next. When they did so, the nakhoda paid them an advance, or salaf, which provided for the crewmen’s relatives while they were on the banks. The nakhodas themselves normally had to borrow money to fit out their boats and maintain the crew while they were aboard. This money came from private sources, merchants or a special class of lender called the musaqqams who, if they did not have sufficient funds available, borrowed them from wealthy Arab or Indian merchants at interest rates ranging between 10 and 25%.9 But by the beginning of the twentieth century, the hold of the musaqqams in the industry weakened, and nakhodas normally borrowed direct from the merchants. When the boats returned at the end of the season, the nakhoda paid each of the members of his crew a tisqam, a sum of money which enabled him and his relatives to maintain themselves until the sale of the pearls was complete. On receiving this tisqam, the diver bound himself to return to the nakhoda for the next season. To sell his catch of pearls, the nakhoda had to take them to a middleman, who after obdurate bargaining, which seldom lasted less than a month or six weeks, purchased them. The nakhoda had to pay 1/5th share of the earnings to the owner of the boat after deducting the expenses incurred for equipment and rations used. The remainder of the earnings was divided into shares depending on the number of men on the boat, and paid to the crew minus the advances received by them. The nakhoda and each diver or Ghais customarily received three shares, while each rope hauler or

37 Julian Walker

saib, responsible for lowering the divers to the sea bed, received two shares, and the oarsmen and extra hands received one share. In a profitable season, generally all went well, but often when the salaf and tisqam amounted to more than the earnings of a crew member for the season, he remained in debt, bound in a form of economic slavery to the nakhoda. The crews’ indebtedness, compelling them to return to the nakhodas’ boat, often worked to the latters’ advantage. But the nakhoda himself was often in debt to the merchants from whom he had to borrow the money needed to make advances to his crew; advances he dared not refuse for fear they might desert and take their employment elsewhere in a competitive industry where the demand for labour was strong. Needless to say, there were strict rules designed to prevent pearling crews defaulting on their nakhodas or their creditors, and local courts called Salifat al ghaus were established to deal with abuses, but abuses often occurred.10

The Pearling System The pearl divers were normally poor Arabs, (free negroes or negro slaves), but there were also some Baluch and Persian divers. By the turn of the century, the large profits to be gained from pearl fishing had attracted respectable Arabs to take up diving. On the Coast, slaves formed the vast majority of the diving profession, and in 1932, it was reported that the percentage of slaves among the diving fraternity was as high as 83%.11 A considerable percentage of the army of men who migrated northwards to the pearl banks of the Trucial Coast from the Batinah were also slaves, whose earnings were taken direct by the tribal agents to their owners. However, negro slaves who learnt diving from their youth, were highly prized and formed the vast majority of the diving profession on the Coast. The rope pullers (saibs), whose work was less arduous if less rewarding, were normally free men. However, the life of a pearler was not an easy one. Diving for long hours in some two fathoms of water, with little food, scanty and often putrid water, in the hot sun was extremely arduous. The divers were also exposed to dangers from sharks, sting rays and poisonous jelly fish. The nakhodas and boat owners often skimped on supplies such as lime juice which could prevent scurvy. Infirm old men and boys sometimes had to dive under compulsion and no records were kept about deaths which occurred on the pearling banks. Divers, who were mostly illiterate, were unable to check on the sales which the nakhodas carried out in their absence, and they could be handed over from one captain to another. The salifat al ghaus were normally composed of nakhodas, and were therefore not sympathetic forums of appeal for crew members. However, generally speaking, the diving fraternity was a happy go lucky one, and even though debts were passed on from father to son, compelling the sons to dive to pay off debts incurred by their dead fathers, these appeared to weigh lightly with them.

38 Social and Economic Developments in Trucial Oman in the first half of the Twentieth Century Income from Pearling The merchants who bought the pearls were normally a separate group from those who financed the diving. They were divided into Tajirs, or wholesale merchants whose business was brought to their doors by the nakhodas or by Tawwash, petty merchants. The Tawwash went in search of their trade, and either obtained their pearls on shore in exchange for cash or from the pearling fleets at sea in exchange for the supply of provisions. The Tawwash who established themselves on Dalma Island during the season paid taxes to the Ruler of Abu Dhabi. There were many Indian Tajirs and Tawwash on the Trucial Coast, but by the beginning of the twentieth century their numbers increased less rapidly than those of their Arab brethren, who appeared to have gained control of some three quarters of the trade. While the pearling industry was the mainstay of the economy of the Trucial Coast, it was also a great gamble which depended on the output and price of pearls as well as on the weather on the banks. In 1914, 50 Trucial Coast pearling boats and 100 divers were lost in one storm. In the pearl trade, as in other commercial ventures, Dubai profited from the establishment of the Persian Imperial Customs in Lingeh which resulted in Dubai replacing that port as one of the two pearling marts of the Gulf, the other being Manama, Bahrain. Prices fluctuated enormously as did the pearling harvest, but in a good year, Trucial Coast pearl exports could fetch as much as 9 million Rupees. These exports enabled the Coast to import its food supplies, other necessities and even some luxuries. The Rulers drew much of their incomes from the taxes imposed on the pearling industry and trade, the taraz or poll tax on operatives, the naub or tax on boats, a share in the price of valuable pearls sold, and taxation on the tawwash. At the beginning of the century, Lorimer calculated that $M 62,000 out of the Ruler of Abu Dhabi’s total income of $M 75,500 came from pearling. The Rulers of Dubai, Sharjah and Umm Al Qaiwain each received something like Rs. 20,000 net per annum in pearling taxes, and the Al Ali Shaikh made some Rs. 80,000 further per season by compelling boats based on Umm Al Qaiwain to buy supplies from him.12 Needless to say, this important industry needed protection from outsiders, and the British authorities did their best to ensure that foreigners, possibly equipped with modern equipment, did not poach on the pearling banks.13 In 1911, they got the Rulers of the Coast to agree not to grant concessions for the fishing of pearls or sponge to foreigners. In 1912, the Political Resident informed a naturalized British subject in Bombay that no Chief could grant him a concession as the banks of the Coast were the common property of the Arab divers. In 1931, when a Glasgow firm, Tritonia Ltd., had applied for a deep sea diving license, it was similarly discouraged by the India Office. In the same year, the Government of India informed Captain Sir Edward Weedham that fishing for pearls in the Gulf, was contrary to British policy.14

39 Julian Walker Shipping Sea transport by dhow was a very poor second to pearling as the other main prop of the economy of the Trucial ports. These dhows participated in the entrepot trade, distributing goods brought to Dubai by steamer to smaller ports situated on both the Arabian and Persian shores of the Gulf, in Iran, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Several of the towns in Trucial Oman also sent their deep sea craft on longer voyages between the head of the Gulf and India and Africa, carrying dates from Iraq and the Batinah, dried fish, other goods including carpets, and passengers and bringing back wood, grain and other supplies needed on the Coast. These craft sailed from the Gulf with the fair monsoon after the pearling season was over, and returned before the next one, in order to enable divers who did not wish to remain idle for eight months to serve as crew members.15 The long distance dhow trade survived in the age of steamers because the unhurried local craft could act as warehouse as well as means of transport and were not forced by timetables to unload their cargoes cheaply on already flooded markets. During the First World War, the dhows had once again to act as the main means of bringing supplies to the Coast from India when the steamers were forced to stop their calls at Dubai owing to wartime exigencies. As a whole, the dhow trade which was financed on a share and debt system not unlike that of the pearling industry, was profitable, and with its attendant boat building industry, continued to thrive.16

Fishing and Agriculture The purely local occupations of fishing and agriculture also contributed to the economy of Trucial Oman. The waters of the Gulf teemed with life. Large numbers of sardines, called Khasha and Umma locally, according to size, were netted close to the beaches and left to dry there in the sun. Thus processed, they provided cattle fodder, were used as manure on the tobacco fields, and were exported to India and Ceylon. The larger fish formed a staple of Trucial Coast diet, and were even dried for transport inland by camel as malih for use by the oasis settlers of Buraimi and Oman. The water which ran off the Hajar mountains was not profuse, and the soil of the Coast was poor and scanty, so that its agriculture was primitive and scattered. The date groves were inadequate to provide for the needs of the Coast, and dried dates had to be imported from the Batinah and Iraq. The little wheat which was grown in the inland oases and mountain settlements had practically no significance in comparison with the large quantities of rice imported from Iran, India and later Japan. However the oases and hill gardens did produce fruits, especially limes, other citrus fruits and bananas which improved the local diet. There was only one export crop,tumbac (tobacco), the cultivation of which had been eradicated from the Buraimi area by the Wahhabis in the nineteenth century, and which was unclean in the eyes of the Ibadhis of Oman. However, it flourished in the areas of the Wadis Qor and Hatta, especially in the Wadi

40 Social and Economic Developments in Trucial Oman in the first half of the Twentieth Century

Hilu, and in the coastal villages of the Northern Batinah. Fertilised by dried sardines, tobacco used to be exported via the Batinah villages such as Murair, or through Dubai, to smokers in Kuwait and Bahrain. In fact, there were more livestock than crops - cows and chickens scavenged near the settlements, competing with the goats and sheep which also grazed in the mountains, plains and deserts. Camels, some of good breeding, roamed throughout the area, and along with the sturdy little donkeys, were the basis of the local carrying trade. There was adequate meat and milk to feed the population if the necessary food items like dates, rice, coffee and sugar were imported.17

The Decline of the Pearling Industry Both the economy and the social structure of Trucial Oman were adversely affected by the depression in the late 1920s and early 1930s which hit the pearling trade, virtually the sole means of subsistence on the Coast.18 Before the First World War, the pearling industry flourished and had a particularly profitable year in 1909.19 The war period was difficult with poor market conditions in 1914 and 1915; and the moderate years of 1917 and 1918, were hampered by restrictions which stopped the import of the coin into the Coast necessary to finance both the pearl fishing and the export of pearls to India.20 By 1925, Japanese production of cultured pearls, together with a change of fashion in the West where furs and cars became more desirable than jewelry, resulted in a slump in pearl prices which was further aggravated by a series of poor seasons. In 1925, few boats went to the banks, and the poor market and catch of the following year resulted in a reduction of rations for the diving crews. 1926 was thus a bad year, with earnings 40% lower than in 1925. By 1927, the pearling merchants were in difficulties, borrowing at high rates of interest from Indian and Awazi merchants, while a disappointing season plunged them further into debt. The good catch of 1928 was a welcome relief, but prices did not rise. And in 1929, real disaster struck the industry. The harassed merchants were unable to subsidize all the boats available, the catch proved inferior, and the world depression resulted in a further drop in prices. Prominent pearling merchants like Mohammed bin Ahmed bin Dalmuk, a relative of the Ruler of Dubai who had borrowed 2 lakhs (200,000) of rupees from Hindu merchants at 36% interest, were close to bankruptcy. In 1930, the situation was even worse. Fewer boats were equipped, the season was unfortunate, the catch meager, and prices fell 50% below those which prevailed in 1929. Economic distress became widespread on the Coast. 1931 capped the disaster, as once again the catch was poor and with purchases not forthcoming, pearl prices fell a further 50%. The economic distress became acute, the poorer inhabitants appeared to be on the verge of starvation, and even the Rulers felt the pinch. Shaikh Sultan bin Saqr of Sharjah pleaded the financial crisis as the reason for reducing his allowance to Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed, the previous Ruler. After 1931, the seasons and the catches improved, but the pearling fleet was a fraction of its former size, and prices failed to recover. By 1934, the acute and prolonged

41 Julian Walker

depression of the pearl trade resulted in the impoverishment of the merchants. Six of the eight pearl purchasing merchants of Persian origin in Abu Dhabi became bankrupt, even though their fellows who equipped the diving fleet were, in some cases, comfortably solvent. The Headman of told the British that year that owing to the poor price of pearls he could not pay the tribute to Ras al Khaimah required of him under the 1922 Agreement. He also added that if Shaikh Sultan bin Salim continued to insist on the total sum, he was prepared to fight. Throughout the 1930s, the pearling industry of the Trucial Coast remained depressed, but, possibly owing to the interruption of the supply of Japanese cultured pearls, there was a slight recovery during the Second World War. In 1940, although the catch was disappointing, the price of pearls rose by 50%. In 1941, it leapt a further 100% and in 1943, the catch earned three times the amount received in 1942. However, by this time not more than 200 pearling craft left the Trucial Coast for each season. The industry, which had been the mainstay of the economy of the area, had virtually collapsed.

Effects of the Decline of the Pearling Industry The slump in the pearling industry had far reaching effects throughout the Coast. In the towns, bankruptcies amongst the merchants, and the near starvation of the poor, resulted in a decline in security and worsening of law and order within society. In the desert, the bedu, many of whom had been engaged directly in the pearl industry, and others who were affected by the impoverishment of the urban markets where they used to sell their products, sought to alleviate their own distress by raiding the towns and villages and seizing their livestock. They also demanded protection money from the Rulers of the coastal towns and harassed the weaker tribes and inhabitants of the inland villages. Economic distress combined with the political disturbances of the period had a serious impact on the authority of the Trucial Chiefs in general. The was adversely affected since the death of Shaikh Zayed bin Khalifah both by the pearling slumps which resulted in a fall in their incomes, as well as by the political turmoils. However, the protection granted to the Trucial Coast by the British kept the state of affairs under control. In general, the Rulers suffered far less from the decline of the pearling industry than their merchants. Their pearling taxes were reduced, as were temporarily their customs duties collected ad valorem on imports, when Japanese manufactures costing only 1/4 or 1/3 of the value of the goods they supplanted, began to reach the Gulf at the beginning of the 1930s. But they had other sources of income such as taxes on real estate, landing fees and monopolies. Additionally, new sources of income began to appear. Shaikh Sultan bin Saqr of Sharjah received regular annual payments under Civil Aviation Agreements (1932), his Oxide Concession (1935) and his oil concession (1937). Shaikh Said bin Maktum benefited not only from his grant of air facilities to the R.A.F. and Imperial Airways, but also, like the other Rulers, from his Oil Concession Agreement in 1937.

42 Social and Economic Developments in Trucial Oman in the first half of the Twentieth Century

But the occupations and fortunes on which the position of many of the important merchant families of the towns had been based had withered away. By 1934, the merchants of Dubai and Sharjah were no longer willing, or in some cases able, to help finance the Rulers, who in the past had been poorer than they, but subsequently overtook them, thanks to the enjoyment of a fixed income and being comparatively unaffected by the depression in the pearling industry. Many of the merchant families found it difficult in times of poverty to engage successfully in other types of trade. However they retained their social importance, and tried to put this to use to recover their economic position to some extent. Thus throughout the towns of the Trucial Coast, the shaikhs, supported by impoverished merchants, expressed their desire to participate in the administration and have a share in the income of the state. But in most of the states the situation was not favorable to their growth. In Dubai however, members of the Ruling Family who had eschewed politics to remain at the centre of their pearling interests in the beginning of the century, began to show greater interest in governmental affairs with their economic fortunes waning. The Reform Movement initiated in Dubai eventually managed to gain popular support in 1938. But before long, it alienated its supporters and proved to be short lived. In fact, the power of the Rulers over their towns grew during the 1930s with a general increase in state business, its importance, and the revenues attached to it. The fortunes of the old merchant families, even those of shaikhly status, declined, for which British policy was held responsible. In their desire for stability, British representatives on the Trucial Coast dealt mostly with the Rulers, and although they did not intervene openly in internal affairs, their decisions in local politics were influential. The relative power of the Shaikhdoms also changed. It took a long time for Abu Dhabi to recover from the disturbances of the 1920s and the slump in the pearling industry, and in 1946 Shaikh Shakhbut was still trying to prevent his townsmen from emigrating to Dubai. However, throughout Shakhbut’s long reign, the Al Bu Falah gradually recovered their position, which essentially depended on their influence over the bedu of the hinterland. Dubai, boosted by the establishment of the Persian Customs at Lingeh and the migration of Lingeh merchants to Dubai, the introduction of Mail Steamer service, as well as by her Ruler’s encouragement of trade, grew enormously in population and in power. Not only did it attract migrants from other parts of the Coast, but also immigrants from abroad. Consequently, the town of 35,000 which it had become by 1950, was far more cosmopolitan than the village of 19,000 it had been in 1905. Dubai profited greatly from the decline of Sharjah which was blighted by the silting of its creek. In 1939, Shaikh Sultan of Sharjah stated that the depth of Sharjah creek had been reduced from six and seven fathoms to one fathom within living memory, and at the end of the 1930s, the British recorded that that the population of Sharjah town had reduced by half. Ajman benefited from Shaikh Rashid’s good rule, light taxation and respect amongst the bedu, and gained

43 Julian Walker

as Sharjah lost. Umm Al Qaiwain sank gradually with the pearling trade, while Ras Al Khaimah remained fairly prosperous, although the influence of its Ruler over the bedu shrank. Another shift in the balance of power which occurred was that between towns and villages. The coastal villages of Khan, Hira, Hamriyah, Jazirat al Zaab and Rams, weakened by pearling losses, came under the control of the Rulers to whom they owed tribute. The British had always considered these villages as, at best, dependencies of the Rulers, rather than client settlements; and their determination to deal with them through the Rulers accelerated the process. This was especially the case with regard to oil concession agreements, which P.C.L. (Petroleum Concessions Limited) could only conclude with those states which had been recognized by the British Government. On the other hand, on the Shamailiyah Coast, where pearling had less significance in the economics of the coastal settlements, which were isolated from the power of the Rulers of the Coast by the Maritime Truce at sea, and the Hajar mountains and bedu on land, the authority of the former Qawasim suzerains waned. and were both eventually recognized as independent Principalities. The same was, to a lesser extent, true of the oasis villages of the interior. Dhaid split from Sharjah and became a separate fief belonging to Khalid Bin Ahmad who at times assumed control over the Wadis Hilu and Qor. The Ruler of Ras Al Khaimah’s control over his mountain villages weakened. Dubai, with her economic power waxing, managed, however, to retain command in Hatta. The tribal Rulers maintained their grip - Abu Dhabi in Buraimi and Umm Al Qaiwain at Falaj Al Ali; while the Ruler of Ajman not only expanded his estates at Manama, but with the help of the and Biduwat, took over Masfut from his Naim cousin, Shaikh Saqr bin Sultan Al Naimi of Buraimi. The bedu generally gained some predominance over the towns, and the Rulers avoided involvement in bedu troubles since they did not wish to arouse the hostility of the tribes. Tribes which were not closely related to Rulers who had been their suzerains in the past, tended to break away. In the conditions of anarchy which prevailed in the desert, the links binding the tribes together were strengthened, for there was no security there for an individual outside the framework of his tribe. A bedu who disagreed with tribal law as laid down by the elders, could in times of peace have lived separately, but during times of crisis, he had to choose between obedience or seeking shelter in the alien environment of the towns.21 While the balance was tipped away from the towns towards the tribes, the forces which were already destroying the power of the latter elsewhere were delayed in the Trucial States. Each Shaikh bid for the support of bedu tribesmen. The oil concession agreements provided the Rulers with sufficient revenue to pay bedu retainers and protection money to the tribes. However, the penetration of the interior by geologists, and the search for oil, was delayed by the Second World War. While mechanical transport, which was eventually to deprive the camel of its importance 44 Social and Economic Developments in Trucial Oman in the first half of the Twentieth Century in the carrying trade and thus impoverish the bedu, was introduced into the Coast in the 1930s, the poverty of the Coast ensured that the cars there remained few. When War came, the lack of petrol removed most of these from the roads.22 This same poverty held in check the inflation, which in richer areas, raised the prices of the few necessities that the bedu craved beyond reach of their purses. As a result, the tribes remained comparatively powerful until after the Second World War. But with the penetration of foreign influence, especially that of the British authorities and the Oil Company inland, change was inevitably coming. The insistence by those authorities that foreign concerns should only conclude agreements with the Rulers they recognized, persuaded the Bani Qitab and the Khawatir to come to terms with the Qawasim Rulers; and the Naim, Bani Kaab, Al Bu Shamis and other tribes in the region of Buraimi to work with the Sultan. In the 1950s, the creation of the Trucial Oman Levies and the disputes over frontiers were to lead to a quickening of the pace of this change.

The Growth of Exports The population of the Trucial Coast ports, deprived of much of the income they had previously received from pearling, had to find other ways of making a living. The establishment of the Imperial Persian Customs at Lingeh and other Persian ports had led to the emigration of Persian merchants to the Trucial Coast. The troubles in the southern provinces of Iran, especially Baluchistan, where the authority of the central government remained incomplete until after the Second World War, resulted in the influx of a large number of these inhabitants, especially Tangistani seamen, into the Coast which altered the composition of the population there. The merchants retained their links with relatives in their homeland, as did the seamen, who knew every isolated village and landing point on the Persian Coast. Even before the Persian Government in Tehran imposed customs rates up to 200% ad valorem on imports, uncontrolled shipments to Southern Iran had been profitable. When Saudi Arabia imposed rates of up to 100% ad valorem on imports, and Iraq lesser customs dues, these too became attractive destinations for shippers on the Coast where goods were subject to customs dues of 4% ad valorem or less. While the Kuwaitis, Qataris, and Bahrainis took part in this trade, the inhabitants of the Trucial Coast ports easily outpaced them. The Persians complained to the British authorities, but the latter saw no reason to intervene. However, with the arrival of the Iranian Navy’s new ships on the scene, the Arab merchants of the Coast looked for safer destinations for their goods. The profit to be gained from shipments to Iraq was less, but the risks were smaller. So, a few shipments of Trucial Coast origin, together with a mass of Kuwaiti goods, found their way into Iraq. Thus the export trade became an accepted feature of Trucial Coast life, and wherever foreign customs or other government restrictions made it profitable, local talent answered the challenge. And when, after 1947, the Indian Government placed restrictions on the import of

45 Julian Walker

gold into the subcontinent, the merchants of Dubai, often with Kuwaiti financial backing, were ready to take advantage of the resultant opportunity. This brought a measure of prosperity to the Coast which it had not known since the collapse of the pearl trade.

Emigration However, for a long period after the decline of the pearling industry, the Trucial Coast remained the less favoured of the British Protected Shaikhdoms of the Gulf. Its ports had not the maritime resources which allowed Kuwait to profit from the long distance dhow trade to Africa. Bahrain started oil production in 1934, while Kuwait and Qatar followed soon after the Second World War. The wild cat drillings on the Coast, which only started in 1950, remained obstinately unsuccessful for nearly a decade. The inhabitants of Trucial Oman, and of Oman, started a migration from their homeland to work and trade in those areas of the Gulf where oil had been found. As a result, the population of the Coast and even of Dubai fell. But much of the movement was of a temporary nature. The Omanis, who left their tribes and gardens to work in the oil fields, remained abroad for a year or two at the most, and then returned home with sufficient money to support their relatives and families. Another relative then left the Coast for the oil fields to become the breadwinner for a season or two. In the early 1950s, the British Political Agency on the Coast was issuing over 20,000 visas for the other British Protected Shaikhdoms to Omanis each year.23 A constant stream of Omanis thus flowed backwards and forwards through the ports of the Coast, especially Dubai. Dubai profited from their passage, not only by providing launches for the journey up the Gulf, but also by selling goods to the returning oil workers. These workers normally waited until they landed on the Coast to buy the supplies needed for their families, rather than risk their loss or damage during the sea passage. Even during the thirty years of poverty which afflicted the Trucial States between the decline of the pearl industry and the start of the production of oil in Abu Dhabi and, later Dubai, in the 1960s, the latter port gave the impression of a bustling and active market town.

Notes [The R/15 Series from the India Office Library and Records in London cited here have the numbers of the earlier files which were researched during the preparation of my Sabbatical Paper in the 1970s. These file numbers were subsequently changed. The corresponding new file numbers wherever found have also been inserted within brackets beside the old numbers]. 1. This is based on the author’s personal knowledge and experience of the tribes gathered from work among them during 1954-1960. Sir Wilfred Thesiger gives a similar description of the tribes of the region. Shaduf 2. Shaduf wells are wells where water was raised by human power with a skin bag on a long lever. 3. Information about villagers was gathered especially during mapping and researching for frontier delimitation work undertaken by the author. See also Peter Lienhardt, Village Politics in Trucial

46 Social and Economic Developments in Trucial Oman in the first half of the Twentieth Century

Oman, article published by Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 57, April 1957, pp. 460-67. 4. The author’s background knowledge of townsmen was further corroborated by reports from the Residency Agents over the period 1900-1950. 5. J.G. Lorimer, Gazetteer, Vol. I, Historical Part II, Calcutta, 1915, p. 2256. Ibid.6. Ibid.6. 7. Ibid, p. 2228. 8. Richard LeBaron Bowen, article on The Pearl Fisheriesin the Middle East Journal, 1951. 9. Lorimer, Gazetteer, op. cit., p. 2227 10. In addition to consulting Lorimer’s Gazetteer as the basic source, the information presented in this section has been taken from the following India Office Files: R/15/1/781; R/15/2/8/5 Miscellaneous pearling; R/15/2/9/8. Miscellaneous pearling; (R/15/2/343. Pearling Industry 15 Feb1934-10 October 1949); R/15/2/9/14. Artificial Pearls Trucial Coast; R/15/2/10/45. (R/15/2/1349) Pearl diving and pearl trade. 1929-1935. 11. Unlike the notion and practice of slavery in the Americas, in Arabia, a slave could hold an honorable position. 12. R/15/1/381. Recent Fisheries. 13. R/15/2/9/14. Artificial Pearls Trucial Coast. (R/15/2/346. Traffic in Cultured Pearls On Trucial Coast. 1933-1946); R/15/2/10/45. 1929-35. 14. R/15/1/78/1. (R/15/1/616). Pearl Fisheries 13 November 1937-29 May 1940. 15. Trucial Coast sailing Dhows comprising mainly Sambuks, as well as Baghalas, Jalbuts and Badans, were employed in running to India and parts of the Gulf for supplies. According to Villiers, “several ports on the Trucial Coast of Oman also sent their quota of deep sea ships to Africa and India”. See Alan Villiers, Some Aspects of the Arab Dhow Trade, Middle East Institute Journal, 1948. 16. R/15/2/8/13. (R/15/2/296). 1922-31 Bahrain Agency Administration Reports and related papers; R/15/2/8/14. (R/15/2/297). 1932-35 Bahrain Agency Administration Reports and related papers; R/15/2/8/15. (R/15/2/298). 1935-40 31Bahrain Agency Administration Reports and related papers. 17. Most of the information in this section was derived from the author living in the wadis and fishing villages during his frontier work from 1954 to 1960. 18. R/15/1/14/29. 19. R/15/6/509 and R/15/6/510. Administration Reports, 1909 and 1910. 20. R/15/6/514, R/15/6/515, R/15/6/517 and R/15/6/518. Administration Reports, 1914, 1915, 1917, 1918. 21. R/15/3/8/60. Tribes. 22. R/15/2/8/17. (IOR/R/15/2/300). 1944. Bahrain Agency Administration Reports and related papers. 1944. 23. Mohammed Al Gurg, younger brother of Eisa Al Gurg, issued visas from a caravan outside the Agency Office since there was no room in the latter where Julian Walker, Assistant Political Agent, and the Political Agent worked.

47 In Memoriam _ Dr. Ezzeddin Ibrahim Zaki Anwar Nusseibeh

The Ministry of Presidential Affairs mourned on the 30th of January, 2010 the passing away of Dr. Ezzeddin Ibrahim, a distinguished Arab thinker, education pioneer, author, and Islamic reformer, who served as Cultural Adviser at the Ministry since his appointment there in 1971 by the late President of the United Arab Emirates, Dr. Ezzeddin Ibrahim Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyân. 1928-2010 His eventful career reflected the upheavals caused by the tumultuous events of the times he lived in. It was constantly shaped by the momentous changes that swept the Middle East during the last century; an era that had begun in the outbreak of devastating global wars on the international scene that indelibly changed his world, and had ended with the hegemony of a mass globalization that he felt challenged the intellectual and social fabric of his society. The repercussions of those major shifts in the Middle East were cataclysmic throughout the region, leading to the outbreak of violent conflicts and regime upheavals in many of its States, engendering the break- down of traditional systems and values, and the emergence of new ideologies and conflicting cultural cross- currents that still remain unresolved to this day. Throughout those major upheavals the late Dr. Ezzeddin Ibrahim remained an active and committed agent of reform, and an enlightened educationalist and social worker. He sought to meet the challenges posed by the new century, and to mitigate the destabilizing effects of its seismic shifts on his society. His convictions took him on a long odyssey through the Arab world that brought him in the end to his adopted home Abu Dhabi. Everywhere he went he was able to leave behind an acknowledged legacy of excellence and reform in the fields of culture and education.

48 In Memoriam- Dr. Ezzeddin Ibrahim

Dr Ezzeddin was born in Cairo in 1928. He obtained a BA (Honors) from Cairo University, a Higher Diploma in Education and Psychology from Ain Shams University and, later in his career, a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of London. Early in his youth, having experienced at first hand the struggle for freedom of the Arab masses against colonialism and partition, he became a member of the newly formed Islamic Brotherhood. Later on, as he lived through the anger and bitterness that swept the Arab world following the occupation of Palestine in 1948, an act viewed by all Arabs as an outrageous and cruel story of betrayal and injustice, he started to take a more direct part in clandestine political activities during the reign of King Farouk of Egypt. And when a number of his colleagues were arrested by the authorities in 1949, he decided to leave Egypt across the Western Desert to Libya where he was given political asylum by King Idris Al-Senousi. This was the first stage of a life long journey that would take him wide and far across the Arab world. Dr. Ezzeddin’s stay in Libya though was cut short when he returned to Egypt where, together with like minded friends, he formed the Muslim Youth Committee; a movement whose mission, it was stated, was to enhance the intellectual and cultural awareness of the Muslim nation. Once again, he became actively involved in the Islamic Brotherhood movement and was arrested in 1954 when the Egyptian Revolutionary regime in power became overtly hostile to his organization. Among his prison comrades at that time was Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradawi, who became later a leading Moslem jurist and preacher. According to him, Dr. Ezzeddin, far from staying inactive in captivity, was able to ‘turn his detention camp into a mosque and a university for all its inmates’. Following reconciliation between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Revolutionary regime in Egypt, Dr. Ezzeddin Ibrahim was released from detention and in late 1954 left for Syria where he settled for some time in Damascus, working there as a teacher at the Arab Islamic Institute. He married into a reputable Damascene family and had three children, all of whom are now established UAE doctors and professionals. It was during this Syrian part of his eventful life odyssey that the confluence of international and regional developments led once again to a new mutation in his career. The Arabian Gulf region had begun witnessing at the turn of the second half of the last century an era of unprecedented economic boom. This was due to the discovery of oil in the region and its exportation to an energy addicted industrial world in full economic swing at the end of the Second World War. At the same time, the political turmoil prevailing in many Arab countries of the old Levant and North Africa in that same period was forcing many of its young people to emigrate abroad to seek a better life outside the region. It was providential then that a formerly isolated part of the Arab world, one that had in the earlier half of the 20th century suffered most from underdevelopment and economic deprivation, should suddenly become a land of opportunity and a beacon of hope for a whole generation of young Arab professionals.

49 Zaki Anwar Nusseibeh

Among the top priorities in the Gulf countries at the time, of course, was the need to establish new schools and universities, since education was rightly seen by their Governments as the basis for raising the real standards of living for Gulf citizens, and as a necessary prerequisite for ensuring sustainable growth. The stage was set for inviting Arab expatriates to come there to help implement those goals. Accordingly, Dr. Ezzeddin left Syria for Qatar, marking the third stop in his life journey. Together with a group of other Arab pioneers who included Mahmud Abbas, Kamal Naji and Muhammad Youssef Najjar, he became directly involved in the establishment and development of its educational institutions. His career there included his work as an Education consultant and a Deputy to the Director of Education. Subsequently, he was selected as a member of the Higher Advisory Committee of the Islamic Studies College, an institution affiliated with the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development. Dr Ezzeddin became actively involved in promoting a number of pioneering educational initiatives in Qatar, such as the authoring of contemporary syllabus books on the Arabic language. He also organized a series of educational conferences and courses there, and helped recruit Arab teachers, thus consolidating the administrative foundations of the educational system at the Qatari Ministry of Education. During his tenure in Qatar in the 1950s and early 1960s, fate once again played a major part in his career when he met there with a number of young who had come to Qatar either for education or work. Among those he came in close contact with was Ahmad Khalifa Al-Suwaidi, who was later to play a prominent part in the building of a modern state in the Emirates. That role however had to wait for the accession of the late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al-Nahyan to power in Abu Dhabi in 1966, when he recalled Suwaidi from Qatar and appointed him as Director of his Diwan (Presidential Court).. In the meantime the late Dr. Ezzeddin left Qatar for a position in Riyadh to devote his time to scientific and academic research, having been recruited by the King Saud University (Riyadh University) to teach the Arabic language there. It was while working in Saudi Arabia that he was recruited by Ahmed Khalifa Al-Suwaidi in 1968 to undertake consultancy work with the Abu Dhabi Government in a number of educational, academic, religious, and cultural fields. In 1971 the late Dr. Ezzeddin Ibrahim officially joined the Diwan of the Head of State as Cultural Adviser, where he remained a close confidante and aide to the late Sheikh Zayed for nearly 40 years. Dr. Ezzeddin’s long and distinguished record in Abu Dhabi included his holding of many responsibilities at different times in his career. He was, among other posts, Vice-Chancellor of the United Arab Emirates University (1981-1984), an Adviser to the Ministry of Education, where he was assigned the task of developing curricula textbooks and cooperating with the institutions of higher learning within and outside the state, and an Adviser to the Ministry of Information and Culture, where he initiated

50 In Memoriam- Dr. Ezzeddin Ibrahim a number of seminars, lectures and cultural symposiums. Other responsibilities included his close work with the Ministry of Islamic Affairs and Religious Endowments, where he assumed responsibility for a significant part of charitable work on behalf of the late Sheikh Zayed in the Middle East, Asia and Africa. He also assumed the administration of the Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Foundation for Charitable and Humanitarian Works. Additionally, he served as advisor during the establishment of the General Women’s Union, the Women’s Federation and its subsidiary associations. He also participated in supervising the Chairs of Islamic Studies established by the late Sheikh Zayed in a number of prominent European, Asian and African universities. Dr Ezzeddin’s career included also his participation in a variety of significant regional and international activities. He taught Qur’anic Studies as a Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (USA), supervised the implementation of several Islamic documentary projects in the Arab world, and helped develop cultural programs for various Islamic communities in the west. Additionally, the late Dr. Ezeddin Ibrahim was Adviser to the Islamic University of Mombassa, a member of the Islamic Organization of Medical Sciences (Kuwait), an adviser to the Center for Muslim Scholars’ Contributions to Civilization (Qatar), and a member of the Medical Ethics Board at Khalifa Medical Hospital (Abu Dhabi). It is important to note here that among his varied intellectual interests and concerns was the study of medical ethics from a religious, moral and heritage perspective, a field in which he contributed a number of key working papers at specialized conferences and meetings. The late Dr. Ezzeddin Ibrahim also played a pivotal role in a number of international Islamic and Academic Foundations and Organizations. He was the former President of the Islamic Solidarity Fund, an affiliated organ of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). He held many positions as chairman/member of the Boards of Directors of educational institutions at undergraduate and graduate levels at a number of Arab, Islamic and Western universities, including the Department of Islamic Studies at both Cambridge and Wales universities (UK), the Rabat-based Islamic Educational, Scientific, Cultural Organization (ISESCO), and the Mecca-based Islamic World League. In recognition of those illustrious services in the Islamic field the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), of which he was an active member, eulogized his many qualities and contributions on his passing away as an Arab reformer who promoted “joint Islamic action in the cultural, intellectual and academic spheres and endeavored, for over fifty years, for a stronger inter-Muslim solidarity, through his participation in various international Islamic events, and through his publications, including studies and research papers published in various refereed journals” It went on to say “As an eminent Muslim figure, Dr Ezzeddin Ibrahim, served Islam with

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his wide knowledge and intellect thanks to his middle-stance approach whereby he highlighted the true image of Islam while refuting the fallacies and misconceptions held about it, using a rational modern discourse… Dr Ezzeddine Ibrahim ranked among the most prominent scholars of the Islamic world over the last five decades, thanks to his staunch defense of Islam and the Islamic world’s causes and his struggle against the biased campaigns waged against Islam, its culture and its civilization.” In addition to his contributions to the development of modern Islamic thought, Dr. Ezzeddin Ibrahim had great personal interest in and contributed to the Dialogue of Religions and Civilizations, participating in the symposiums on Dialogue of Cultures organized by ISESCO within the Arab world and in Europe. He has also taught the subject of Cultures and Civilizations’ Dialogue at the Diplomatic Institute of the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The late Dr. Ezzeddin Ibrahim also played an effective role in the World Islamic- Christian Dialogue Movement since its establishment in 1964. He attended a number of regional and world councils in several capitals and represented Islamic delegations and scholars who signed the communiqué on Dialogue, Understanding and Peaceful Coexistence between the Islamic World and Christendom during an audience with Pope Benedict XI in October 2007. His immense knowledge and mastery of a number of languages enabled him to delve deeper into world cultures and religions, and to gain detailed knowledge in them, thus rendering him a gifted and well informed interlocutor in all forums. His discourse was always objective, courageous and scholarly, reflecting his vast store of knowledge and wisdom, as well as his eloquent and inspiring style. It is important to underline in this context that dialogue between religions, in Dr. Ezzeddin Ibrahim’s perspective, should seek neither missionary nor political ends, but rather mutual recognition, understanding and respect. This universal humanistic outlook towards other cultures and religions was of course identical to the vision of his mentor, the late Sheikh Zayed, who expressed this conviction in all his private and public councils. Dr. Ezzeddin was particularly keen on establishing bridges for mutual understanding, tolerance and compassion between the different schools of thought within Islam itself. He best expressed his moderate and tolerant stances in his interviews and books. Particularly notable is his Dialogue for Coexistence within the Islamic Society, in which he stressed the need for dealing with religious, sectarian and ideological differences with respect and understanding. He also emphasized the need for fair and honest dialogue between Muslims and non-Muslims. The late Dr Ezzeddin urged Muslims to be both moderate and tolerant in their intellectual and religious stances, and to refrain from overstating the spread of Islamophobia in the West, which he thought transitory; one for which extremist Muslims themselves

52 In Memoriam- Dr. Ezzeddin Ibrahim are partly to blame. Extremists do not represent the true and moderate nature of our faith. He was severe in condemning those ‘individuals from amongst us who have fallen into the morass of fanaticism and extremism, and who interpreted the precepts of religion based on whim and ignorance, thereby making licit cardinal prohibitions such as murder and the labeling of others as apostates”. Accordingly, he strongly called upon fellow Muslim scholars and thinkers to take corrective measures to rectify this aberrant state of affairs in the Islamic world. As a serious Islamic scholar and thinker, he strongly believed that contemporary Islamic thought should focus on the spiritual aspects of Islam, such as on its doctrinal articulation, acts of religious obedience, and ethics, rather than on the mere elaboration of practical Islamic guidelines to coping with everyday economic, social and political problems in the lives of Muslims. He synopsized these ideas in his treatise Trend of Islamic Thought:, where he wrote “The Islamic revival has initially suffered much due to Muslim rigidity and its neglect of the more practical aspects of Islam. Therefore, early reformers were keen on emphasizing those aspects. Today, we notice that the applied orientation in Islamic thought has become firmly established, but we fear that it may overshadow the other necessary aspects of Islamic thought, needed to develop a clear vision and image in directing an Islamic revival. Therefore, balance is needed with regard to the different trends of Islamic thought so that the practical and spiritual aspects of Islam may be simultaneously addressed with equal vigor. Without such equilibrium, the much desired Islamic renaissance will not become complete.” Dr. Ezeddin Ibrahim authored and co-authored 23 books and wrote several treatises on a range of Islamic affairs, including translated works in conjunction with Denis Johnson Davis (winner of the 2007 Sheikh Zayed Award for Cultural Figure of the Year, who converted to Islam at the hands of Dr. Ezeddin). These translated works included Nawawiya Forties, Qodsiya Forties; Al-Kalam Al Tayeb by Ibn Taymiya and Riyad Al-Saleheen. Under print is his latest book, Topics of the Quran, which includes indexed analyses in Arabic and English. His other works include: “Late Years of Age”; “Combining Supplementary and Alternative Medicine with Modern Medicine: A Cultural and Islamic Perspective”; “ The Arabic Language in public University and Graduate Institutions” and “Dialogue for Coexistence Within the Islamic Society”. Among the most significant projects in which Dr Ezzeddin took particular pride, though still under publication, is the “Encyclopedia of the Principals of Jurisprudence”, a work sponsored by the Sheikh Zayed Foundation for Charity Works, in conjunction with the Jeddah-based Islamic Jurisprudence Academy. Once published, this important work will be a significant move towards bringing together a closer coexistence and affinity between the eight Islamic Schools of thought in contemporary Islam. In this context, he submitted a noteworthy proposal to compile a common collection of Hadith that brings together all the prophetic traditions recognized by both the Sunna and the

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Shi’a. Another proposal was to draft a coexistence document to bring together all the strands of contemporary Islamic schools in a binding statement in which everyone commits to the principles of abstaining from accusing others of apostasy, upholding the absolute respect for all religious and historic symbols. I have personally had the privilege and honor of knowing the late Dr Ezzeddin Ibrahim, both professionally and personally, as a highly respected academic researcher and cultural Adviser. Throughout his career Dr. Ezeddin Ibrahim was a staunch advocate of all that was righteous and just. He stated his opinions in the most candid and straightforward manner and was always true to his own principles and values, free from prejudice or obduracy. He had a deep respect for others and was fully aware of the limits of his responsibilities. I have known Dr Ezzeddin always as a kind and generous person by nature, willing to help others and to serve humanitarian causes. This was the reason why the late Sheikh Zayed assigned him to carry out his vast programs of charitable work in Africa, Asia and the Arab world. Sheikh Zayed in effect had a unique vision of mankind’s shared destiny, and believed deeply that his mission in life was not only to serve his own people, but also to do what he can to alleviate the suffering of others and to give a helping hand to less privileged communities in the world. This meant the construction of clinics, hospitals, schools, and orphanages across the world. Dr Ezzeddin was often his chosen instrument in implementing these humanitarian projects. After the passing away of Sheikh Zayed, Dr Ezzeddin continued to play this role under the directives of HH Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan. I have also known Dr Ezzeddin as a very warm and affectionate person, a compassionate friend who deeply touched the lives of all who met him. Many incidents illustrate the profoundly universal kindhearted and humanitarian aspects of his personal life. An Indian journalist who works with a local English paper once described him to me as a sage who was endowed with a divine karma. Her first encounter with him- as she was to write later in one of her columns, brought her face to face with a “dignified man, who had white hair and a grey beard, and whose face bathed in the light of knowledge, kindness and wisdom”. To her the late Dr Ezzeddin was an incarnation of the highest Hindu spirituality she could envisage. An Italian photographer who had been resident in the Emirates for over three decades, and who was helped in her moment of need by the unsolicited intervention of the late Dr Ezzeddin, who was instrumental in bringing her case before HH Sheikh Mohammad Bin Zayed and thus securing for her a pension and a house, once explained to me that she was convinced that the merciful Doctor- as she called him- was a true saint reincarnated. And when news of his passing away spread across the international web space, messages of condolences and grief spread across the community, mourning him as a great Islamic scholar whose life work contributed in a major way to spreading the true teachings of

54 In Memoriam- Dr. Ezzeddin Ibrahim our faith. A leading Islamic jurist commemorated him on Public television as a ‘most outstanding advocate who devoted his life to the service of Islam and the dissemination of its mission’. Irrespective of the religious, ethnic or doctrinal background of the people who crossed his life path, Dr. Ezzeddin Ibrahim was always recognized by his contemporaries for his outstanding piety, humanity and compassion. I shall always remember Dr Ezzeddin Ibrahim as a close and dearly respected friend and admired tutor. I had heard a great deal about him upon his arrival in Abu Dhabi in the late 1960s. In conjunction with Ahmed Khalifa Al-Suweidi, he had helped develop the first Abu Dhabi Documentation and Research Center to be housed in part of Qasr Al-Hosn, the Ruler’s palace, and he recommended the appointment of the late Dr Mursi Abdullah (another founding pioneer of the new State) as its first Director- (Dr Ezzeddin was later to propose the establishment of the Cultural Foundation). Dr Mursi began his work by researching historical material about the Bani Yas tribes and the Al-Nahyan dynasty, which then had to be published in both Arabic and English (that I helped translate). It was during our work together that Dr Abdullah spoke so highly of Dr. Ezzeddin Ibrahim, encouraging me to make his acquaintance. I must confess that I was initially hesitant to approach such a distinguished scholar and presumed Islamic activist, believing that he would be indifferent, and that in any case there was not much cultural common ground that could bind us. This false impression persisted until a work-related trip in the early 1970s brought us together as part of a delegation accompanying the then Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahmed Khalifa Al-Suweidi. Our first encounter created in me a lasting and overwhelming impression that remains indelibly etched in my memory. He was immediately warm and cordial. As soon as he knew my name, he started to relate the history of Um ‘Amara Al-Maznyia and the story of the keys of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. He also spoke of Abu Yazeid Al-Boustamy, and this naturally led him to discuss the dimensions of Sufi thought in Islam, comparing it to Gnostic thought in various religions. During our entire plane trip he was attentive, enthusiastic and informative. The topics he discussed included the archeological history of Jerusalem, the use of music as an instrument of healing in the Baghdad of Haroun al Rashid, and the criteria for successful translation between languages. On that particular occasion, as well as on countless subsequent others, I discovered how flawed was my initial stereotypical assessment of the unique personality of Dr. Ezzeddin Ibrahim. I came to deeply respect and honor him, and to marvel his vast mastery over a variety of subjects, his wide range of intellectual, cultural and humanitarian interests, and, most of all, his deep humility and boundless compassion. We learnt on that trip that the serious academic is capable of light-hearted banter. As we boarded a Pan-Am flight from Beirut to Istanbul the captain came to welcome us on board and asked us our backgrounds. With his usual wit, Dr. Ezzeddin asked

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him to guess who amongst the five of us were the Minister, the diplomat, the pious theologian, the administrator, and the light hearted poet. Laughingly, the captain said that the poet could be no other than Dr. Ezzeddin. We also found out on the same trip that the pious theologian was also an understanding and tolerant person, and an open minded Muslim, as I was to hear the late Sheikh Zayed afterwards often describe him. In Istanbul, as we all shared a taxi to our hotel, the driver, hearing us talk in Arabic, greeted us warmly and asked us if we were all Muslims. Dr. Ezzeddin told him “With the Grace of God, yes”. The driver, though, looking suspiciously at our then blue-eyed fair-complexioned companion said in the most emphatic terms that there is no way that a ‘Nasrani’ can pass for a Muslim. Dr. Ezzeddin politely and softly said to the driver “Never mind then; we are all Kitabis, believers in the Oneness of God and the multiplicity of His creation. Everything in life is in accordance with the will of the Lord of the Worlds.” I had the real privilege and pleasure of working closely with Dr. Ezzeddin on several occasions over the last four decades in Abu Dhabi, including collaborating with him on different projects in the National Center for Documentation and Research, the Cultural Foundation, the former Ministry of Information and Culture and at the Ministry of Presidential Affairs. I could honestly say that throughout those years I have never heard him once utter a harsh word or express an unkind thought. He was always courteous, gracious, and forthcoming. His scholarship did not in any way understate his wonderful humanism and his sense of humor. He listened to all his interlocutors with equal attention and respect, old and young, experienced or novice. Everywhere he went, Dr Ezzeddin left behind him devoted friends and admirers, captivating the hearts of all who met him. The UAE will always remember him as an eminent scholar, an enlightened reformer, a diligent public servant, and a man of universal humanism. It will also remember him as a loving father, a warm friend, and a dearly missed son of the land. His life took him to many countries as he strove to contribute to the cause of enlightenment and knowledge in the Arab world, and to preach the centrist and compassionate Islamic faith. In his writings and teaching he urged all Muslims to repudiate ignorance, extremism and violence, and he called for dialogue and understanding between all cultures and religions. For his last stage in his life’s long and fruitful journey, Dr Ezzeddin elected Abu Dhabi as his home and country. On his passing away, the public outpouring of grief and sadness that was shared by the large crowds that came to his funeral there, led by Crown and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed forces His Highness Sheikh Mohammad Bin Zayed flanked by his brothers, senior officials and family and friends, was the final and definitive testimony of the love and regard he was held here by his adopted people.

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