The UAE is located on the northern part of the Arabian Peninsula, and lies along the salty waters of the Arabian Gulf. The land itself is mostly flat and almost entirely desert in the interior. To the east, the border with Oman is marked by the Al Hajar Mountains, which rise to a maximum of around 6,500 feet (1981 m), while to the South and West lies a 329-mile (529 km) border with Saudi Arabia. To the west are the small Gulf states of Qatar and Bahrain, while the UAE’s adversary Iran lies just across the water. A number of small islands stand between them, and tensions sometimes flare up over the ownership of two in particular: Lesser and Greater Tunb.
There are no natural harbors along the UAE coastline and fourteen manmade ones, the biggest being Jebel Ali, which is the busiest port in the Middle East. The UAE’s waters are quite rich in fish and marine life and it is possible to see turtles, dolphins, and whale sharks, in addition to edible local delicacies such as hammour and kingfish, although these species have been overfished in recent years. Historically fish represented the major form of protein for Emirati people, supplemented by the occasional mutton or goat.
There are some oases within the interior of the country, notably at Al Ain, which is known as “the garden city” for its greenery and natural hot springs. Here you can find an abundance of date palm trees, as well as mangoes and fig trees. Dates come into all Emirati meals in one form or another, and their stalks and leaves were once used in building local homes.
Much of the UAE’s inland territory is still uninhabited. This doesn’t mean that it is devoid of life, because the desert offers quite a variety of flora and fauna, but traveling in remote areas is not without risk. As well as the obvious dangers of desert scorpions, snakes, and spiders, sandstorms can make driving hazardous, and if it rains, flash floods can appear in mountain wadis (dry river beds). Do not attempt to travel alone into the desert or without informing people of where you are going.
Much of the UAE’s biodiversity can also be found in its lush mangrove forests, which grow in abundance in Abu Dhabi, as well as dotted along the coastline between Dubai and the most-northern emirate Ras Al Khaimah.
Abu Dhabi is the largest Emirate geographically, and the majority of the oil and gas deposits that have so radically transformed Emirati society lie under its desert and coastal waters. While Dubai and Abu Dhabi have developed into sparkling metropolises, the oil wealth has trickled more slowly northwards through to the other Emirates. Umm al Quwain, Ras al Khaimah, and Ajman still had dirt roads and endured electricity outages until recently, and many people there still live in older style homes which seem a world away from the palatial Emirati villas of Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
The climate of the UAE is principally hot and dry, reaching up to 109˚F (43˚C) on the coast and 115˚F (46˚C) in the interior. The hottest temperature ever recorded in the UAE is 125.7˚F (52.1˚C) in July 2002, but while most summer days are significantly cooler than that, it’s the lethal combination of heat with high humidity that makes the UAE’s summers feel so scorchingly sticky. When air conditioning first came to the UAE it must have seemed like a miraculous blessing to its people, who in the past would often venture inland in the summer, for example from Abu Dhabi to Al Ain, to escape the coastal humidity. Desert nights can be cool, but only in the deeper interior does this really have any noticeable impact.
The best time to visit the UAE is in the winter, between November and March, when temperatures range from 50˚F (10˚C) and 82.4˚F (28˚C). In the more mountainous Emirates of Fujairah and Ras al Khaimah, temperatures plunge much lower—it even snowed in Ras al Khaimah in February 2017, much to the delight of local children.
A blanket of thick fog descends on some winter mornings, which tends to cause plenty of chaos on the UAE’s roads. The UAE also experiences the force of the “Shamal” winds in the spring and summer, blowing sand and dust particles up with it. The winds originate in Pakistan and blow through Iraq and Iran. It is advisable to stay indoors with all windows firmly closed during a sandstorm, particularly if you suffer from asthma.
Average annual rainfall in the UAE is approximately 3.9 to 5.9 inches (99–150 mm), and it falls more frequently in the cooler mountainous regions of Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah. Despite acute scarcity it has one of the highest per capita water usages globally. The UAE is keenly experimenting with cloud seeding technology, which appears to have significantly boosted its annual rainfall in recent years. This can be rather unsettling for the country’s residents, who are never quite sure when it rains whether it is a natural occurrence, or a result of human intervention. Rain in the UAE tends to carry sand particles in it, which mean there are inevitably long queues at car washing stations when it stops.
The heavy rain that does fall naturally in the UAE, for about one week every year in December to February, is quite a cause for celebration, especially during years of widespread drought. However, most buildings appear to have been designed with the naïve presumption by the architect that it never rains heavily, which means that during storms, it rains inside, as well as outside. Schools and colleges will usually close, and because of an inadequate drainage on the roads, driving conditions can be hazardous.
Because the rainfall is subject to considerable variation, agricultural management can be difficult. Many traditional family farms are running out of groundwater, and are being abandoned. But some farmers are harnessing new technologies to solve the issue of water scarcity. At the Baniyas Center in Abu Dhabi, for example, traditional fish farming is undertaken through a system that uses the fish waste as a fertilizer for hydroponic vegetable tanks. There are even plans afoot to pull an iceberg all the way from Antarctica to Fujairah and convert it to fresh water, in order to ensure the UAE has enough water in the future.
The breakneck speed of the UAE’s urban development would have been impossible without paying a hefty cost to the natural world. The last small stretch of sand dunes that still remains along the E11 road between Abu Dhabi and Dubai has already been earmarked for development, and desert campers have to travel ever further to get out of the UAE’s sprawling megacities to find secluded spots. Oil slicks off the coast of Fujairah are becoming a common occurrence, and although the UAE’s hotel beaches are kept looking pristine by their staff, on undeveloped beaches, immense amounts of plastic are washed up, and volunteers are regularly roped in by local conservation groups to try to clean up the mess.
As well as its deserts and beaches, much of the UAE’s biodiversity can be found in its mangroves forests. In recent years, the Abu Dhabi government has taken the initiative of planting thousands of mangrove saplings, to compensate for those uprooted to build waterside developments. Kayaking in the city’s lush mangroves has become a popular pastime for tourists, but recent luxury developments on Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat and Yas Islands threaten the city’s fragile mangrove eco-system with increased levels of pollution and noise.
The UAE’s abundant supply of oil enables its bright city lights to keep burning, and its enormous malls to be luxuriously appointed and air-conditioned. Emirati citizens still have their energy costs heavily subsidized, although energy bills are now starting to creep up, especially for expatriates.
Bold steps are being taken to embrace alternative energy, and some of the world’s largest solar farms have opened in the desert. Given the low price of gasoline in the UAE, visitors may be surprised at the number of charging points (around 200 in Dubai) for electric cars that are rapidly increasing in popularity. The country’s first nuclear plant was expected to be operational in 2017 but has been rescheduled for 2018, with three more nuclear reactors scheduled to open by 2020.
All these environmentally friendly initiatives are not without good reason, for the UAE stands to face a catastrophic future if global warming continues at the rate some experts are predicting. In 2015, a study in the journal Nature and Climate Change cautioned that by the end of 2090, temperatures in the UAE may become too hot for human survival.
The increase in population in the last forty years has been so rapid that for those who have lived through those years, the UAE is now virtually unrecognizable. In 1975, the total population of the Abu Dhabi Emirate was 211,812 people—merely a fishing village—and in 2016, it was a global metropolis with 2,908,173 residents, approximately 90 percent of whom were foreign workers and their families.
Apart from the oasis city of Al Ain, the sleepy desert towns of Madinat Zayed and Liwa, and the accommodation settlements for oil industry workers Al Ruwais and Delma Island, most people live in the coastal cities, and those based in the country’s interior are mostly Pakistani and Indian farm workers. While most Emirati families own farms, they tend to only visit them at weekends or in holidays, preferring to reside in their suburban villas.
Because approximately 90 percent of the UAE’s population are non-Emirati citizens, visitors don’t always get the opportunity to interact with the locals as almost all the country’s hospitality staff and shop assistants are foreign. The majority of the UAE’s residents are male who come from south Asian countries (58 percent). Workers tend to be recruited on an ethnic basis according to the type of work required, with large cohorts of low-medium level office workers coming from Kerala in India, and manual laborers coming from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. Filipinos do most of the retail and domestic jobs, and generally work at a lower level than their qualifications justify. Those in mid-managerial and technical occupations are usually recruited from Western countries, South Asia, and Arab countries, particularly Egypt and Jordan. The UAE is also increasingly recruiting from Africa, with teachers coming from South Africa, and security guards and taxi drivers from central African countries.
The Emirati people themselves are first and foremost tribespeople, and many of these tribes originated in Iran, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. However, it is seen as a mark of status to be from a “pure” indigenous Emirati family, so if you ask an Emirati from where their descendants originated, you may encounter reluctance to broach the subject. Most Gulf Arabs residing within the borders of the country when independence was declared in 1971, or who had a suitably strong familial connection to a recognized citizen, were accorded citizenship and, in return, were expected to renounce previous political affiliations.
However, Emiratis are increasingly marrying outside of their own tribe and even nationality. In most cases, Emirati men are choosing to take a foreign wife as a second wife, or as an only wife if their first marriage ends in divorce. Some of the most successful Emirati business people are from marriages in which the father is Emirati and the mother is foreign, and some of them have felt that being half-caste has meant they have had to work harder in order to prove themselves worthy in their society. In 2012, Emirati filmmaker Amal Al-Agroobi shed light on the stigma attached to being “half-Emirati” in her controversial documentary of the same name.
Primitive hand axes discovered by archaeologists in Sharjah in 2011, thought to be 100,000 to 125,000 years old, are the earliest evidence of modern humans found anywhere outside Africa, and reveal that early man left Africa much early than previously thought.
In the remote past, Arabia as a whole had a climate with greater rainfall than it does today and agriculture was much more viable. The world’s oldest falaj irrigation system (using underground water channels to water crops), thought to be 3,000 years old is located in Al Ain. The dry climate of Arabia seems to have stabilized in its current nature around five thousand years ago.
Trade flowed through Arabia from important centers such as Mecca from early times, and settlements from the Roman period show evidence of exchange of goods. Frankincense, an important trade good, was carried to Gaza and on to Europe. Eastward, trade routes had been established for thousands of years. Spices from the remote Indonesian islands have been found in the Syrian Desert and date to 2000 BCE, and at least one route passed through the desert, possibly utilizing territory now in the UAE. The most important state in Arabia between 1200 BCE and 275 CE was Saba, known in the west as Sheba (from the legend of the Queen of Sheba), with its capital at Ma’rib (in present day Yemen.) However, it is clear that a number of other smaller states existed and, from time to time, a king with pretensions to become known as a “unifier” emerged. It was more common, though, for tribes to live together in a state of autonomy. These tribes did not necessarily have a common ethnicity but instead represented a group of communities living in close proximity to each other, peaceably, and open to the outside world. Inscriptions and archaeological data reveal that the region was in contact with the Mediterranean states, Egypt, India, and cultures further afield.
In the centuries before the conquest of eastern Arabia by the Sassanian dynasty of southwestern Iran, from 223 CE to 651 CE, the area of the UAE witnessed the growth of local communities, crafts, coinage, and the development of language. The horse was first used at some period during the three centuries BCE, and the symbol of the Arabian horse has been held in great esteem in local culture ever since. During this time a variety of religious beliefs were held, including Christianity. Nestorian Christian monks built a monastery on Abu Dhabi’s remote Sir Bani Yas Island in 600 CE. Thirty-two years later, envoys from the Prophet Mohammed brought Islam to the people of the Gulf Coast. The death of the Prophet led to a rebellion against his new religion, and one of the major battles was fought at Dibba in Fujairah. This was soon suppressed and Islam was exported overseas, using the base at Julfar (modern day Ras al Khaimah) to invade and convert Iran to the faith.
The export of Islam was extremely successful over the next centuries. Muslim courts of the period generally benefited from the wisdom of Islamic scholars and artists, and most rulers were patrons of art and culture. The standard of living in Islamic cities was among the highest in the world. However, different dynasties varied in their willingness to comply with this model and some rulers held more tyrannical ideas. The lives of the people of what is now the UAE continued to depend upon the commerce provided by the sea and its powerful neighboring rulers. The extent to which states could exert their influence over the nomadic Bedouin tribes of the interior was limited, because it was so difficult to travel there and to force people to abide by their laws.
In due course, European powers came to prominence in the Gulf as they sent out fleets to create colonies and improve trade with distant lands. The first to arrive in force were the Portuguese in the sixteenth century, driven by the desire to monopolize commerce in the Arabian Gulf. Dismayed by the stronghold on trade maintained by Muslims wherever they went, they blockaded the ports in the Arabian Gulf and elsewhere. This resulted in severe damage to many Muslim economies, including that of the UAE.
Piracy had been conspicuous in the Gulf for centuries, but the presence of enemies with a different religion multiplied the opportunities for attacks. The Emirati Al Qawasin pirate sheikhs created the Emirate of Ash-Shariqa, now known as Sharjah, as a base for pirate ships operating in the Gulf and beyond. Many modern Emiratis regard them as heroes who stood up to Western dominance.
In the sixteenth century, the Ottoman Turkish Empire succeeded the Egyptian Mamelukes as the preeminent Middle Eastern power, and Ottoman ships became active in the Gulf. The Ottomans did not govern Arabia directly, and a number of autonomous and semiautonomous sheikhs retained control of their local power bases.
Since much of Arabia is desert, in the empty space between coastal cities and oases, nomadic Bedouin tribes were able to move about more or less freely. They came into contact with settled people when it came to trade, when they were wanted as mercenaries, or when their paths crossed with those making the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. A variety of religious schisms caused divisions through the centuries, the most important of which was the development of the Wahhabi tradition in central Arabia in the eighteenth century, which subsequently became extremely influential, particularly in Saudi Arabia. The majority of people on the Gulf Coast have continued to adhere to the “well-trodden path,” and are described as Sunni Muslims. However, Wahhabi believers are more puritanical in their beliefs. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, Wahhabi power had become so great that the Ottoman leaders decided to take decisive military action against them. This resulted in the Ottoman occupation of western Arabia, but acceptance of Wahhabi dominance was recognized on the Gulf Coast. As Wahhabi rulers coalesced to create the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Gulf Coast states retained political independence as Emirates to some extent because they were focused on the sea rather than the land.
The Al-Qawasin pirate sheikhs had skirmished with the British for some time as their control of India intensified. The British inflicted a naval defeat on the Qawasin fleet in 1819, which led to the dynasty’s decline. The next powerbase was the Banu Yas tribal confederation, centered on the Abu Dhabi oases in Al Ain, which was land based rather than maritime in nature. The Al Nahyan faction, principally derived from the Al Bu Falah tribe, rose to become the dominant force in coastal politics, and it is the Al Nahyan clan in Abu Dhabi who rule the UAE today.
Three treaties helped establish the UAE as a discrete state: a 1820 peace treaty among the tribes; an 1853 treaty that established perpetual peace at sea; and a treaty signed in 1892 that restricted the Trucial States and their foreign relations entirely to the discretion of the British state, in return for protection against any attack. The Trucial Coast then became known as the Trucial States, continuing to include Bahrain and Qatar, until their independence from Britain was finally established in 1971.
In the nineteenth century, immigrants came mainly from India and Iran, to make the most of opportunities for international trading in the new port city of Dubai. While the British overlords largely ignored the States, providing such legal infrastructure as was necessary, migrants and indigenous people forged their own, individual culture based on trading and the desert.
The Japanese started producing cheaper, cultured pearls in 1921 and this, combined with the 1930s global depression, hit the UAE’s pearl industry hard and resulted in a period of economic depression and famine. People were even paid in dates, as there was so little money to go around, and the average income in Dubai was just two rupees a day (a 8 ½ lb/3.9 kg) bag of sugar cost 30 rupees.) It was not until 1962 that oil from Abu Dhabi became the first to be exported from the county. From 1952, the Trucial States had established a semi-annual council, but relations with neighbors were not always peaceful. In 1952, the Saudis laid claim to the quiet oasis of Buraimi near the Omani border. When they were expelled three years later by British-led forces, Abu Dhabi retained six villages and Oman three, but tensions simmered between the Emiratis and the Saudis over the territory until 1974.
In 1968, the British announced the withdrawal of all their forces by the end of 1971, which stimulated negotiations among Trucial States leaders as to the formation of a unified state—the United Arab Emirates.
Negotiations were complex, and in 1971, when independence was achieved, both Bahrain and Qatar decided to establish independent states, while Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Fujairah, Ajman, and Umm al Quwain agreed to form the United Arab Emirates. The next year, Ras al Khaimah opted to join the UAE, having initially been reluctant to do so. The first president of the UAE was the widely respected leader of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al Nahyan, who was subsequently re-elected to the post on five-year terms by the rulers of the individual Emirates, until his death in 2004.
Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al Nahyan is still affectionately known by the people of the UAE as “the father of the nation,” as he was the man who drew together the various tribes scattered across the seven Trucial States, unifying them to form one country in 1971.
That he achieved this feat peacefully is a tribute to his visionary leadership, and although he died in 2004, his legacy lives on in his people’s lofty aspirations. It is his picture that is prominently displayed in the grounds of Emirates Palace along Abu Dhabi’s main Cornice road for all those driving by to see. And whenever you enter a hotel in the UAE, a picture of him can be seen hanging above the reception, usually accompanied by pictures of the current leader, Sheikh Khalifa, and also of the Sheikh of the particular Emirate in which the hotel is located.
Sheikh Zayed’s understanding of the developmental needs of his people was astonishingly perceptive and revolutionized what was in living memory an undeveloped strip of barren land, with few apparent resources. Sheikh Zayed was born some time around 1918—birth dates were not then recorded—in Abu Dhabi. The youngest of four sons, he soon distinguished himself by his willingness to learn about the lives of his people, from the pearl fishers to the Bedouin tribes, from whom he developed a passion for falconry. He first took a leadership role in 1946, when he was appointed to govern the oasis villages of Al Ain and the adjoining desert region. From this post he developed his administrative skills and deepened his knowledge of the desert people.
Although oil had been discovered in Abu Dhabi in 1958, and exports began in 1962, under the reign of Sheikh Zayed’s elder brother Sheikh Shakhbut bin Sultan al Nahyan before him, much of this new wealth was hidden away and Emiratis continued to live in poverty. Many still alive today recall having to drink dirty, brackish water dug out from the under the ground, and if a family member in Abu Dhabi become ill, a journey along dirt tracks to Dubai was necessary to reach the nearest hospital—assuming they were lucky enough to have access to a car.
This lack of progress led to frustration among members of the ruling family. Sheikh Zayed rose to power in a bloodless coup, allowing Sheikh Shakhbut to escape to Lebanon.
As a leader, Sheikh Zayed was characterized by his peaceful tolerance of other nationalities and his willing to learn from them, and also by his desire to bring the fruits of development to all the inhabitants of his country; including women. He is often quoted as saying: “The woman is half of society; any country which pursues development should not leave her in poverty or illiteracy.” His point of view was ahead of his time in the Gulf region.
Sheikh Zayed increased contributions from Abu Dhabi to the Trucial States Development Fund as a means of enabling all Emiratis to profit from its oil wealth. At the same time, he was determined to preserve the culture of his people, and he introduced enduring initiatives aimed at educating young people into traditional ways of life. Looking both to the past and to the future, Sheikh Zayed achieved great things, as can be seen by comparing the progress of the UAE with that of some other oil-rich nations, which have instead gone down the routes of war and corruption.
Abu Dhabi
28,209 sq. miles (73,060 sq. km.) Pop. c. 2.784 million
The largest and richest Emirate. It is Abu Dhabi’s oil wealth that has paid for most of the development of the entire country. Abu Dhabi is one of the most conservative socially of all the Emirates, particularly in the oasis town of Al Ain, which has preserved many of its traditional customs and includes an oasis which is a UNESCO world heritage site. In Abu Dhabi’s remote desert towns of Madinat Zayed and Liwa, Emiratis still live relatively traditional Bedouin lifestyles and their grasp of English is not as strong as the city dwellers.
Ajman
100 sq. miles (260 sq. km.) Pop. c. 505,000
The smallest Emirate and now almost entirely urbanized, joining with neighbors Sharjah and Dubai as a potential megacity that is strongly reliant on tourism.
Dubai
1,583 sq. miles (4,100 sq. km.) Pop c. 2,885,000
Dubai city occupies a large part of this Emirate, and is the largest city of the federation, Dubai’s strategic geographical location between the East and West has made it a popular stopover for tourists, and a bustling trading center.
Fujairah
444 sq. miles (1,150 sq. km.) Pop. c. 203,000
Fujairah is almost totally mountainous, and its limited economy is based on rock crushing, supplemented by state subsidies and tourism. With its coral reefs and turtles, Fujairah is the UAE’s most popular destination for divers. The traditional culture and dialect of the people is distinct from that of much of the rest of the UAE, as it has been shaped by its reliance on the mountainous and valley farming as opposed to the nomadic rhythms of the desert. The Emirate is home to the UAE’s oldest surviving mosque, Al Fadiyah, which is thought to date to the fifteenth century.
Sharjah
1,004 sq. miles (2,600 sq. km.) Pop. c. 1,400,000
Sharjah has a 5,000-year history of early settlements and its scholarly leader, Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi (who has a PhD in history from Exeter University), has been keen to promote its architecture and traditional conservative culture. It is the only Emirate where alcohol is banned.
Ras al Khaimah
656 sq. miles (1,700 sq. km.) Pop. c. 300,000
For most of its history, Ras al Khaimah was part of the Ash-Shariqah Emirate (Sharjah) and was ruled by the Qawasin pirate sheikhs. This Emirate is now making the most of its rugged mountains, hot springs, and copper-tinted sand dunes by investing heavily in tourism.
Umm al Quwain
301 sq. miles (780 sq. km.) Pop. c. 72,000
Umm al Quwain is the least populated Emirate, It was also part of Ash-Shariqah and its economy was based on both piracy and pearl diving. Visitors can enjoy its sprawling mangrove forests and water park, “Dreamland Aquapark.”
Income from oil exports continued to grow, especially after the increases in oil prices in the 1970s. In the early part of the decade, the price of oil quadrupled as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), of which the UAE was a member, took advantage of the rapid expansion of economic development around the world and the accompanying increase in demand for oil. This increase, which caused a dramatic realignment of global political power and influence, was also closely related to the issue of Arab–Israel relations, since the majority of OPEC members were Islamic countries from the Middle East. The ability of the UAE government to bring about the economic and social development of the country was thereby greatly enhanced.
The long building boom that was sparked has continued until this day and, as the economy becomes more diversified, seems set to continue. However, this was possible only because of national unity, which was far from assured in the 1970s. Dubai and Ras al Khaimah, in particular, were resistant to federal control of their individual affairs, and a dispute between the ruling families of Dubai and Sharjah in the late 1970s led to each side’s armored personnel carriers facing off against each other. The crucial breakthrough occurred when Sheikh Rashed of Dubai agreed to become prime minister and vice president of the UAE in 1979, signaling the end of Dubai’s resistance to the process of federalization. Many of the people from the other Emirates meanwhile, have become marginalized in political terms as Abu Dhabi’s oil wealth subsidizes their own more meagre economies.
Whereas the UAE’s relationship with Iran can best be described as one of “mutual distrust,” the UAE has long held a close bond with their “brothers” in Saudi Arabia, with whom they share religious ties and face the same long-term issues of how to wean their economies off reliance on oil money and manage large foreign populations. Political changes in the region triggered by the Arab Spring and the rise of ISIS have prompted the UAE and Saudi Arabia to forge a stronger partnership, and to take a more emboldened role in regional politics. National service was introduced for young Emirati males in 2014. Since 2015, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been fighting a proxy war against Iran by deploying troops to fight in Yemen against the Houthis, and since June 2017, the UAE and Saudi Arabia have broken off diplomatic ties with their neighbors Qatar, who they accuse of harboring extremists. But the UAE’s increasing influence on the world stage is not just down to its military maneuverings and political posturing against Qatar and Iran, but also the benevolent way it spends its wealth to help those in crisis overseas. According to a 2017 report by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the UAE spends more on foreign aid—most notably to Africa and Yemen—than any other nation on earth compared to its wealth. However, because of its strict visa system, the UAE does not accept refugees.
The UAE is a federation in which the seven individual Emirates retain certain powers for themselves, while a federal government oversees state-level policy, such as foreign affairs and defense. On the death of the founding father and president Zayed bin Sultan al Nahyan in 2013, the presidency passed to the next ruler of Abu Dhabi, President Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahyan.
The ruling style of the conservative Al Nahyan family in Abu Dhabi differs considerably to the more liberal-minded Al Maktoums in Dubai. While several of the Al Maktoum women are under the media spotlight playing sports at international level, including show jumping, polo, skydiving, karate, and taekwondo, the more conservative al Nahyan wives and daughters shun the public eye. President Sheikh Khalifa is rumored to be ill and rarely makes public appearances anymore, and it is his younger brother, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan, who is Abu Dhabi’s Sandhurst-educated crown prince and the revered public face of Abu Dhabi. Dubai’s charismatic leader and the UAE’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, is held in high esteem, not just by Dubai’s Emiratis, but by it’s expatriate population too. While he is known for his love of horse racing and his close relationship with the British royal family, in Dubai, he is a man of the people, who has been known to ride the metro and give blood to set an example to others.
The highest authority in the land is the Federal Supreme Council (FSC), which is composed of the seven rulers of the individual Emirates and which meets on a quarterly basis to decide high-level issues. The FSC votes for the posts of president and vice president. The rulers of Abu Dhabi and of Dubai are recognized as the most important members of the FSC, and they can veto decisions if necessary; however, the leaders prefer there to be a show of unity, and any controversial decisions are customarily settled in private.
Historically, Arab rulers have appointed advisors to serve as part of their council in a majlis, and the Federal National Council (FNC) in Abu Dhabi continues this tradition. The FNC has forty members, half appointed by the individual rulers of each Emirate and half voted by members of an electoral college. But this democracy is limited, as electoral college members must be appointed by the ruler. The electoral college has 6,689 members, 14 percent of whom are women. A female candidate from Abu Dhabi, Dr Amal Al Qubaisi, became the first to claim a seat in the FNC and is the region’s first female leader of a national assembly, representing a historic moment for Arab women’s political empowerment.
Voting intentions are influenced by tribal and familial links as well as policy stances. The FNC is permitted to review policy and comment upon it, but has no power to amend it or to introduce legislation independently.
According to the government, there is no need for political parties or leaders, since all necessary debate takes place through the FSC, the rulers’ palace majlis or FNC. If political parties were to arise, it is likely that there would be some pressure to create parties based on tribal allegiances and religion, and this could prove divisive. Religious extremism has a logic that appeals to some people, and the state is anxious about its potential influence. The Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic political party that has gained popularity across the region in recent years, was branded a terrorist group in the UAE in 2014 and many of its supporters have been jailed.
Laws in the UAE are upheld by judges appointed by the president. Individual Emirates have their own courts to deal with civil, criminal, and commercial cases, as well as Islamic courts to administer cases involving family or moral issues, according to Sharia law.
Some judicial decisions have aroused controversy in cases where the subjects are non-Muslim, particularly in child custody cases in which, according to Sharia law, the husband or nearest living male relative is bestowed custody. However, in 2017, judges in Abu Dhabi signed an agreement with Christian clergy giving churches jurisdiction to approve marriages, mediate divorces, and handle child custody, thereby enabling the UAE’s non-Muslim population to skip Sharia law judgement.
The UAE is a full member of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the International Labor Organization (ILO), the Group of 77 (G-77), the United Nations (UN), and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). The UAE is also a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a political and economic alliance that it formed in 1981 alongside Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, and Saudi Arabia. Until political tensions began bubbling up against Qatar in 2017 over accusations that Qatar had been sponsoring terrorist groups, the GCC had proven itself to be a fairly effective forum for diplomacy, agreeing for example on a framework for imposing a goods and service tax (VAT) on its citizens in 2018. But not all GCC agreements have been adhered to. Plans put in place in 2011 for a rail network linking member states appear to have stalled, due to the slump in oil prices.
In December 2017, the UAE announced a new economic and military alliance with Saudi Arabia, forging a “joint co-operation committee” between the two powers, and thereby further weakening the political influence of the GCC.
The impact of oil money is present in every aspect of UAE society. It is estimated that Abu Dhabi, which holds the bulk of the UAE’s oil reserves, is the world’s third largest exporter of crude oil and has the fifth largest natural gas reserve. Oil and gas are extracted by a variety of joint ventures between UAE government oil companies, together with large foreign oil companies. The foreign companies provide technical and technological competence, while the local partners offer access to the oil fields.
The economy of Abu Dhabi has until recently been almost entirely dependent upon the presence of offshore oil and gas. But things are changing. 2016 was the year when the impact of sustained low oil prices hit the Abu Dhabi economy hard, and tens of thousands of oil and gas jobs were lost. The government has been trying to speed up the diversification of the economy, with aspiring entrepreneurs being helped to set up companies, for example through free start-up incubator programs held at New York University’s Abu Dhabi campus. As a result of government efforts to diversify the economy, non-oil sectors now account for 70 percent of the UAE’s GDP. It is not known exactly how many years worth of oil the UAE has left: accounts vary from between 40 and 140 years.
At present, the UAE’s economic outlook remains uncertain. Dubai’s economy is somewhat buffered by increased government spending on infrastructure projects designed to prepare the Emirate for the 2020 World Expo that it is organizing, but other Emirates are starting to see cracks in their economic plans. In 2015, Abu Dhabi had the second highest residential rent in the world, but rental prices have been dropping as the market stagnates, and job losses and lower wages prompt more foreign workers to leave.
The government’s plan is to achieve sustainable economic diversity for Abu Dhabi by 2030. To help achieve this, a “sin” tax on soda, tobacco, and energy drinks was introduced in October 2017, and three months later, VAT was introduced at a rate of 5 percent. Other taxes are also now under consideration.
Abu Dhabi is also investing in infrastructure projects spanning the globe, through its sovereign wealth fund (the world’s second largest), the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), which is estimated to have assets of more than USA $800 billion. Approximately 40 percent of all oil revenues are reinvested through ADIA into strategic industries such as hotels, airports, and high-value real estate. At home, in order to lure in more tourists, Abu Dhabi has been heavily investing in futuristic theme parks, museums, and art galleries, such as Louvre Abu Dhabi, which opened in 2017 to much fanfare.
It is rumored that even if the oil revenues were to stop immediately, the profits flowing from investments that have already been made are sufficient to ensure that no Emirati citizen alive today need ever work again.
Emirati citizens are looked after by a generous welfare system, which was built up by Sheikh Zayed in the 1970s to ensure that the new-found oil wealth was distributed fairly among his people. This means Emiratis have access to free healthcare (and despite the high standard of healthcare in the UAE, this even covers most operations abroad), subsidized fuel, electricity, and water, generous government-funded retirement plans, plots of land, free higher education, and a Dh 70,000 grant given to Emirati men when they marry an Emirati woman. The UAE’s generous leaders also pay the debts of Emirati nationals to mark public holidays.
But generosity has its limits. In 2016, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum carried out a surprise spot check of civil service departments and when he found empty desks, nine senior Emirati officials lost their jobs. In a country that attributes a high value on honor, this highly publicized move sent a powerful message to Emiratis that idleness would not be tolerated.
Compulsory military service, which was introduced in 2014, has also been sharpening the work ethic of young Emirati males. Having seen the after-effects of the Arab Spring in other Middle Eastern countries, the UAE’s leaders are acutely aware of the dangers of a restless unemployed youth.
There are three main cohorts of the expatriate society: those (usually Westerners) who come for the adventure of exploring a new country and for possible short-term financial gain. There are the families from war-torn and politically compromised countries such as Libya, Yemen, and Syria, who hang onto their time in the UAE for as long as they can because they are scared for the future of their own country. Finally, there are the workers who have left their families in India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Bangladesh, and other developing countries to build and service the city. This third group usually live in so-called labor camps out in the desert. Their motivations for coming to the UAE are purely financial, and they speak with pride about how they are paying to educate their children back home. After spending their days building and maintaining the UAE’s shiny new towers, malls, and luxury hotels, these workers are transported back to their crude accommodation in buses that often lack air conditioning.
Emiratis are very sensitive to criticism about their treatment of foreign workers, and the UAE government has done a lot to combat the negative image in the international press of men being herded into inhumane living conditions. While working outdoors during the blistering summer heat must be unimaginably tough for construction workers, the law nowadays prohibits them from having to work in the hottest hours of the day between 12.30 p.m. and 3.00 p.m. from May to September. Conditions in the newer camps have improved in recent years, with sites such as Saadiyat Construction Village and Industrial City Abu Dhabi (ICAD) boasting facilities such as a cricket ground, library, a movie theater, markets, and parks. But the older camps still remain. At Sonapur, a mega-camp housing some 200,000 men on the outskirts of Dubai, men sleep ten to twelve in each room in prison-like concrete buildings. A drive into the UAE’s industrial areas, such as Mussafah in Abu Dhabi and in Jebel Ali in Dubai, often feels like entering a bleak post-apocalypse world, devoid of green landscaping, and with rubbish strewn by the sides of the roads. Fights occasionally break out at the camps between different nationalities, as living in such close proximity is a cause of considerable stress.
Investors mostly appreciate the UAE government’s laissez-faire attitude toward the welfare of its workers, who have little hope of appeal against unfair employers. But recent laws have sought to stamp out unreasonable treatment. It used to be the case that workers without a job had just 48 hours to find employment before they had to leave the UAE, but now they have thirty days. In addition, new rules governing how the visa-sponsorship operates introduced in 2016 should theoretically make it easier for workers to change employers before their contract ends if their rights are violated. However, some unscrupulous employers still hold the passports of their employees who are too afraid of repercussions to fight back.
Of all the Emirates, Dubai in particular has been successful in forging a community of long-term (mostly Indian) expatriate families, who feel a sense of belonging to Dubai, and a genuine affection for the city they call home. But Emirati citizenship is closely guarded, and the visa system ensures that foreigners are only welcome in their “home” as long as they are working. The visa system works well for short-term visitors, who come to the UAE for the climate, the outdoors lifestyle, and the chance to save more money than they would do at home. But second generation expatriates whose parents brought them up in the UAE live under the shadow of knowing that if they lose their jobs and cannot find new ones within thirty days, they will be cast out back to a “home” country in which they have never lived, and may not have any close family or friends there to welcome them. This can be a difficult issue to address, as freedom of expression is limited. Those with substantial assets in the UAE can apply for residency, but for those less well placed financially and whose home country is Syria, Yemen, or Somalia, the future can look bleak. They may then be willing to accept poor working conditions for little pay, in order to stay with their families in the only country they know as home.
Since the UAE is only forty-six years old, these expatriates are the first generation to face this problem. As Abu Dhabi and Dubai become major draws for culture in the region, these citizenship issues may need to be re-examined.
BIDOUNS
The bidouns are “stateless” people who were born in the UAE, but have not officially been granted Emirati nationality and therefore cannot appreciate its perks, such as medical insurance and free college education. Bidouns, whose parents often came from Iran or other GCC countries, number between 10,000 and 100,000 in the UAE. Most hold passports from the Comoros Islands, although they have never lived there, because it enables them to hold some form of official identity. The Bidoun tend to be relatively poor because they cannot claim an Emirati-level salary, and as a result can lead them to become involved in criminal activity. In some cases, their resentment leads them to political crimes against the state.
Dubai Creek runs through what, until recently, used to be the heart of Dubai, but massive developments along the coast have meant that this area is today often overlooked. Instead tourists are lured to New Dubai’s latest manmade architectural triumph: the Dubai Water Canal, a 2-mile (3.2 km) long canal that starts at Business Bay and is designed to give waterfront views and pedestrian walkways to shiny new hotels and restaurants.
Today the old creek is almost all that remains of old Dubai, and a bid is underway to give this 8 ½-mile (13 km) strip between Bur Dubai and Deira UNESCO world heritage status. The pace of life is slower here. It is a place where people like to gather to stroll or drink coffee while watching the quaint wooden abra boats, chugging their way back and forth across the water. The cargo boats are dhows, a form of the one-masted trading vessels used by Arabs for centuries to carry goods up and down the coast. Most commercial vessels have shifted their base up the creek to Deira, where thousands of dhows offload cargo from Iran, Somalia, Yemen, India, and other countries in the region.
MUHAMMED ALI’S VISIT TO ABU DHABI
It’s a little known fact that back in 1969, when Abu Dhabi was a backwater fishing village, and before the Emirates had unified to form a country, the great American boxer Muhammad Ali chose to visit. At that time in his life, the three-time world boxing champion had been stripped of his boxing title and barred from the ring, after refusing to fight in the Vietnam war, saying he had “no quarrel” with the Vietcong. He was said to have been on the way back from Mecca after performing his first Hajj, when he stopped off in Abu Dhabi. Ali wanted to visit a desert greenhouse planting project being run at the time by the University of Phoenix, perhaps inspired by the notion of mankind being able to green the desert. Photographs from the time testify that Ali met with Sheikh Zayed and his sons, and came back to Abu Dhabi in 1974 as a guest of Sheikh Zayed.
Ali also fought several boxing matches in Dubai, reportedly in order to raise money to pay for mosques to be built back in the USA. But it is his trips to Abu Dhabi that are more extraordinary simply because this was a period before other international celebrities had even heard of Abu Dhabi, never mind visited. Unfortunately, Ali’s impressions about what he thought of Abu Dhabi and its people have been lost in time. But Ali’s tolerant, peaceful brand of Islam certainly would have chimed with the world Sheikh Zayed was trying to build in Abu Dhabi at the time.