Merchants and Ruling Families : Tribal Society and Its Change in Abu Dhabi and Dubai Emirates

Abstract

Tribes and tribal federation have been indispensable social system in emirates now composing the United Arab Emirates, in order to conquer severe circumstances in the Arabian peninsular. Among all, cooperative relationship in the economic and defense fields were significant. On the other hand, merchants were deeply engaged emirate-scaled business like pearl fishing. Sailors, pilots, divers, brokers, traders and so on, were interrelated and integrated into a corporate body for this pearl-related business. Rich merchants took a role of capitalists for this business. Namely, the merchants had been a patron for this emirate-scaled business involving from ruler to sailors and integrated deeply into the traditional economy. However, these traditional economic system has been changed in the modern history. First, in Dubai emirate, big merchants had become rather independent from the ruler by experiencing two incidents; attempt to topple the ruler in 1929 by the merchants and some of the ruling family members, and city council incident in 1938-39 in which the ruler forcibly dismissed several requests by the merchants. Second, change of traditional society and style of life strongly influenced the traditional economy. Third, because the rulers have become possessing both political power and wealth in their hands, they do not have to create and maintain strong relationship with the merchants. Because of these changes, two different results have been seen; a) The relation between the ruler and people including merchants connected with the tribe or tribal federation has been maintained. b) The relation between the ruler and merchants who do not have any relation based upon tribal system has been lessened. Their significance in the economic field has been reduced as well. In the UAE, tribal system cannot be said as a merely primitive mode of society. The tribal system and relation between the ruler and merchants based on the tribal system have been emphasized even after the experience of the rapid development. Through an examination of this tribal phenomena in the light of relation between the rulers and the merchants, we may reconsider whether the idea of socalled modernization in which tribe is defined as a primitive society can be applicable to this society, and particularity of this society.