The
major part of the Dubai emirate consists of
rolling sand dunes lapping the foothills of
the arid Hajar mountains in the east. Until
a decade or two ago, the dunes were inhabited
by nomadic bedouin roaming with their flocks
and herds. Today the nomads have all settled,
in villages in the few fertile oases or valleys,
or else in the city.
Modern
Dubai is the product of the past 20 years
of intensive development. Prior to that, Dubai
was a small trading port, clustered around
the mouth of the Creek.
It
had grown gradually from a fishing village
inhabited in the 18th century by members of
the Bani Yas tribe. Its origins, however,
go back into the far more distant past. The
town?s museum displays a rich collection of
objects found in graves of the first millenium
BC at nearby Al-Qusais, while a caravan station
of the sixth century AD was excavated in the
expatriate suburb of Jumairah.
The
village really began to grow in the early
19th century, when some 800 members of the
Bani Yas tribe, the Al Bu Falasah, moved north
and settled in Dubai.
Dubai
lacked the productive hinterland of Abu Dhabi,
with its fertile oases of Liwa and Al Ain
- its inhabitants were committed to life on
the coast, and looked to the sea for their
living. They based their livelihood on fishing,
pearling and sea trade.
By
the turn of the 20th century Dubai was a sufficiently
prosperous port to attract settlers from Iran,
India and Baluchistan, while the souk on Deira
side was thought to be the largest on the
coast, with some 350 shops. The facilities
for trade and free enterprise were enough
to make Dubai a natural haven for merchants
who left Lingah, on the Persian coast, after
the introduction of high customs? dues there
in 1902. These people were mostly of distant
Arab origin and Sunni, unlike most Persians,
and naturally looked across to the Arab shore
of the Gulf finally making their homes in
Dubai. They continued to trade with Lingah,
however, as do many of the dhows in Dubai
Creek today, and they named their district
Bastakiya, after the Bastak region in southern
Persia.
Meanwhile
a flourishing Indian population had also settled
in Dubai and was particularly active in the
shops and alleys of the souk. The cosmopolitan
atmosphere and air of tolerance began to attract
other foreigners too: by the 1930s, nearly
a quarter of the 20,000 population was foreign,
including 2,000 Persians, 1,000 Baluchis,
many Indians and substantial communities from
Bahrain, Kuwait and the Hasa province in eastern
South Arabia. Some years later the British
also made it their center on the coast, establishing
a political agency in 1954.
The
international trade which flowed from Dubai?s
cosmopolitan contracts was the basis of rapidly
increasing prosperity. This gave the city
an early start in development before the beginning
of oil production in the late 1960s. Like
the other towns along the coast, Dubai had
been severely affected by the decline of the
pearling industry, due to competition in the
1930s from Japanese cultured pearls, and by
the drop in trade in the Second World War.
But Dubai contacts and mercantile skills increased
resilience and the ability to profit from
favourable conditions for entrepot trade with
Persia and India after the 1939-45 war.
The
successful early development was due in large
part to the foresight of Dubai's rulers. During
the 20th century the city has benefited from
the stabilizing influence of two exceptionally
long rules: that of H H Shaikh Saeed Bin Maktoum
from 1912 to 1958, followed by that of his
son, H H Shaikh Rashid Bin Saeed al-Maktoum.
For many years prior to his father?s death
in 1958 Shaikh Rashid has played a leading
role in directing the state. Since then he
has guided Dubai in its expansion from a small,
old-world town to a modern state with excellent
communication, and industrial infrastructure,
and all the comforts of contemporary life.
Since 1980 Shaikh Rashid has played a background
role due to ill health but his four sons have
continued his policies in exactly the same
mould.
While
this development has been greatly facilitated
by the discover of oil and its production
from the 1960s, oil revenues in Dubai have
always been a fraction of those in Abu Dhabi,
so Dubai?s growth has always depended partly
on the inhabitants? own entrepreneurial abilities.
Unlike
Abu Dhabi or Sharjah, Dubai has only one substantial
town. While the emirate of Dubai covers 3,900
square kilometers, the population (estimated
at 889,518 in 1990) is largely concentrated
in Dubai town. This has enhanced the popularity
of a number of oases which provide a welcome
break at weekends from the competitive commercial
life of the city. The emirate is mainly desert,
with sand dunes ranging from near white along
the coast to a deep orange inland near the
mountains, and in places dotted with a scrub
of desert bushes and even some large trees.
A
one-and-a-half hour drive along a good asphalt
road leads to Hatta, most easterly of Dubai?s
territories. This pleasantly green valley,
is a small enclave in the dramatic, arid Hajar
mountains and is completely surrounded by
land belonging to Oman, to Ajman and to Ras
al-Khaimah. Here, the charming Hatta Fort
Hotel in its beautiful gardens gives a warm
welcome to visitors.
Nearer
to Dubai, and only about 20 kilometers inland,
are the twin oases of Khawanij and Awir. These
oases, which can be reached in 25 minutes
from the town center, lie in attractively
wooded dune lands. They have been extensively
developed over the past 20 years and boast
fine country houses with superb gardens for
some of Dubai?s leading families. The district?s
ample water supply has enabled local enthusiasts
to create garden so lush and colourful that
the visitor finds it hard to believe that
this is still Arabia.
The
emirate?s largest urban development outside
Dubai city is, however, the industrial complex
of Jebel Ali, 20 kilometers southwest along
the coast. The government has built the largest
man-made harbour in the world, with a dredged
deepwater approach channel stretching far
out to sea, and to create a complete industrial
complex it has established such major undertakings
as an aluminium smelter and gas separation
plant, as well as a residential village of
more than 300 houses.
