Honour Is in Contentment: Life Before Oil in Ras Al-Khaimah (UAE) and Some Neighbouring Regions

Description

Based on interviews and field research, the authors explore the sets of ideas Arab tribespeople from Ras Al-Khaimah had about tribe and community; social and economic networks, and jural contracts for livelihoods and profits; their uses of their environments; the moral relations of credit, debt and labour; ruling; economic and political transformations; and ideas of regional history where conflicts were regarded as disputes over sets of ideas, and informal accounts of tribal and local histories. Their lively descriptions and explanations of life before oil portrayed tribal societies whose relationships were moral rather than political and were between jurally equal persons. All lived from their own resources; 'wealth' was material self-sufficiency; 'riches' the richness of social relationships. Political arenas were decentralised and underpinned by common cultural and moral values. Published sources give a wider context to these ideas and events which show the great complexity and differing perspectives of 'life before oil' in the Gulf. Contents 1 Social matters: social infrastructure, premises and practice Ownership, territory, and residence Group identities and their references “The poetics of dwelling” 2 Sea people, ahl al-bahr, and how they lived Sea trading and carrying Pearling Fishing Changes in coastlines 3 Livelihoods and living on the coastal plains or sayh, and the sands Waters, soils, and livelihood options Livelihoods and profits, ma'ash wa fa'ida, and living 4 Ru'us al-Jibal mountains; livelihoods and living Waters, soils, environments Livelihoods and living in the Ru'us al-Jibal 5 The western Hajar mountains; livelihoods and living Waters, soils, and environments Livelihoods and living in the western Hajar 6 Distribution, trade, investment, credit and debt The second section describes the activities of traders 7 Ruling and Rulers Local terms for persons fulfilling roles in aspects of ruling Local descriptions of ruling in the past Rationales of ruling Changes from the discovery and development of oil 8 'What happened to turn our world upside down?' A brief economic history of the area Changes in traditional sources of profits Date growing areas inland from the coast Sands Ru'us al-Jibal Western Hajar The transformation through modernisation 9 Back to History The Gulf coastal towns and places on the Shamailyya and Batinah coasts Date garden areas of the Sirr Sands Ru'us al-Jibal history is presented as tribal history; Dhahuriyyin; Shihuh; and Habus Western Hajar Bibliography Index List of Figures Plates