Oral History

Abstract

Winds of change , riding piggyback on the economic miracle of the past three decades , are sweeping across the UAE landscape , bringing in their wake gusts of liberalism , threatening the foundations of a traditionalist , dormant Arabic society . Nostalgic traditionalists are resisting change . Arab society , swamped by an overwhelming intrusion of migrants , is in a state of flux . The question is not how soon will the traditionalists succumb , but will they ever

OF FALCONS AND SALUKIS

He who does not know his past cannot make the best of his present and

future , for it is from the past that we learn

Even as the priceless oil oozes , trickles and gushes from the bowels of the earth , greasing the modern engine of materialism , the Arab watches reflects , pines for the world left yonder in the stark wilderness of the desert , and sparse , rugged mountains

His was an idyllic life , blending into seasons , which could with a gust of wind turn into a bloody duel , horror and nightmare for the enemy , and sometimes for the Bedouin warrior , when tribes squabbled and clashed over territorial rights and water holes

Winter the Arab trudged , scimitar in the scabbard , with his camels goats , sheep and splendid pure-bred horses for greener grazing pastures Summer saw him succoring the shades of the oasis , where he tended his date gardens , bred and trained his salukis , and nudged his falcons to hunt and kill for luscious meat

Beginning Arab migration in first millennium B .C , till the arrival of the Europeans and well into the nineteenth century , the Arab tribes roamed free in the sandy , mountainous and coastal terrain of what has now politically evolved into the United Arab Emirates

The harsh environment moulded Arab lifestyle . Where fortunes fluctuated with the desert wind , the family and tribe became the bedrock of Arab society . A social structure evolved wherein each family was bound by obligations of mutual assistance to a wide circle of relatives and to the tribe . Selfless hospitality was the source of honour and pride

Our society was based on clan-loyalties as well as marriage ties says the interviewee , a traditionalist , voice surcharged with pathos of a life , shifting sands have dumped into the dustbin of history

The advent of Islam in the 6th century provided a common coalescing religion

There was no direct British conflict with Islam because they to leave the country as it was in poverty , illiteracy , and devoid of all institutions . They left the affairs to society to the sheikhs introduced themselves as colonizers and behaved as such . They did not know anything about Arabic culture . Their behavior made us appreciate our culture and history more and more , and we realized that our dignity as a people cannot be separated from our traditions and culture

The Bedouins cultivated date gardens tapping the water beneath the sands , and through an elaborate irrigation system from mountain aquifers harvesting in the torrid heat between late June and early October . Ripe , boiled and compressed and congealed into nourishing...