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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. |
