The Origins of the United Arab Emirates—A Political and Social History of the Trucial States

By Rosemary Said Zahlan, St. Martin's Press New York, 1978 278 pp. $25.00

Reviewed by Richard Curtiss

Historians and scholars of the Middle East and the Gulf should enjoy this book by Dr. Rosemary Said Zahlan, a former member of the faculty of the American University of Beirut and of Beirut University College, and the author of a number of studies on the Arab states of the Gulf. She offers a great deal of original material on the ruling families in each of the seven emirates comprising the UAE, early political history, and past overlapping tribal and territorial claims. Her 28 pages of bibliography should be particularly valuable to future researchers.

As a non-specialist in Gulf affairs, however, I was disappointed. It is only in a nine-page epilogue entitled "The Emergence of the United Arab Emirates" that Dr. Zahlan deals with the unique development saga which has steadily and spectacularly unfolded in the lower Gulf throughout the past decade.

My own first sight of the Gulf was in 1951, and in subsequent visits to Kuwait I marveled at the rapid expansion made possible there by seemingly unlimited investment funds. After a series of annual visits in the 1970s to the Arab states of the lower Gulf, however, I realized that while the 11 older" oil-producing countries were undergoing economic and social change that made them almost unrecognizable from decade to decade, in the lower Gulf similar changes were taking place at a much faster, almost unbelievable, pace. Such capital cities as Abu Dhabi, Doha and Muscat-Matrah seemed to change their appearance annually.

Dr. Zahlan, a Bryn Mawr graduate with a doctorate from the London University School of Oriental and African studies, devotes very little space to describing how these developments came about, or to the new challenges they have generated.

Phenomenal Change

She does, however, note that as recently as 1962 a speaker at the Royal Central Asian Society in London was able to state that life in Abu Dhabi had changed very little during the previous two centuries. Sixteen years later, at the time Dr. Zahlan published her book, she could report that "the radical transformation of Abu Dhabi can only be classified as one of the phenomena of the modern era, so rapid and fundamental has it been."

This transformation of the former Trucial Coast began with the discovery of oil off the coast of Abu Dhabi in 1958, and on the Abu Dhabi mainland in 1960. Six years later oil was discovered in lesser quantities off Dubai, and in the same year Sheikh Zaid bin Sultan, who had been serving as Governor of the Eastern province based on Al Ain, took over the rule of Abu Dhabi from his brother, Sheikh Shakhbut bin Sultan.

Under Sheikh Zaid, Dr. Zahlan notes, "the rate of growth of Abu Dhabi" became "three times faster than that of Kuwait, the oil-rich state whose rise to affluence and prominence has become almost legendary."

Paradoxically, at almost the same time that the vast extent of Abu Dhabi's oil reserves became known, the British government announced in 1968 that for budgetary reasons it would withdraw its forces from the Gulf by the end of 1971. For the Trucial States, the British withdrawal provided a catalyst for unity. Abu Dhabi and Dubai settled a longstanding offshore territorial dispute and formed a federation which they invited other Gulf states to join.

Bahrain and Qatar, each for its own reasons, chose to go it alone. Sharjah, Ajman, Umm al-Qaiwain and Fujairah joined the two founding states in accepting a provisional constitution in July, 1971, followed by Ras al-Khaimah in February, 1972.

Common Interests

Helping overcome growing pains, Dr. Zahlan notes, was the fact that "the former Trucial shaykhdoms have more in common than a history of treaty relations with Britain. Their social structure, their geography, their political characteristics, their maritime past and former dependence on pearl fishing all combine to link them."

In the four years since these words were written, fluctuations in the oil market and the shock waves of the Iraq-Iran war have been faced calmly by a UAE government closely directed by its own nationals, while it has participated actively in OPEC, the rapidly-expanding Gulf Cooperation Council, and a number of Pan-Arab organizations.

More impressive to casual visitors to Abu Dhabi and a dozen other cities in or near the UAE, however, are the vast clusters of new buildings, long expanses of paved walkways and divided highways stretching along clean and still colorful waterfronts, spotless new covered markets and schools, and miles of trees and shrubbery where, only a decade ago, there was nothing but sand and sea. In this reviewer's opinion, the book that fully prepares the visitor for what he will see in the UAE and its neighbors, and captures the essence of the miracle being enacted right now in the lower Gulf, is still waiting to be written.

Richard Curtiss, Executive Director of the American Educational Trust, is a Middle East specialist.