History of Dubai

Dubai is the quintessential home of sand, sun and shopping. A century ago, it was a peaceful town where Bedouin traders and pearl divers lodged in coral-and-gypsum huts. Today the merchants have gone beyond the horizons. Futuristic skyscrapers stand alongside the mosques and wind towers;

Dubai boasts tremendous development at a pace that is unimaginable anywhere else in the world.

If we delve into the ancient history of this area the archaeological finds suggest that humans have been living here since at least 3000 BC. Excavations at Jumeirah, south of Dubai, recently discovered a 6th-century caravan station, proving that the area's population was keeping the trade routes alive during this period. Around the same time, the Sassanids, a Persian dynasty who had inhabited the mouth of Dubai Creek since 224 AD, were driven out by the Umayyads, who came to stay and brought Islam with them.

Exploiting their prime location between the Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean, the new inhabitants, working with the old, began re-establishing old trade routes and spreading the word of Islam. As trade boomed, merchant dhows (ships) sailed as far as China, and returned with silk and porcelain for the Middle Eastern and European markets and this maritime high reached its crescendo between 750 and 1258 AD.

By the late 16th century the Portuguese attempted to control local trade and succeeded in a way that many coastal settlements were practically abandoned, and the tribes took refuge in oases far from the coast. The British finally gained control of the region's waterways in 1766. Dubai stood amidst the local power struggles and European imperialism. In 1833 a neighboring tribal power, the Bani Yas under the leadership of Maktoum bin Butti the founder of the Al-Maktoum dynasty, raided Dubai with eight hundred Bani Yas soldiers, into the Bur Dubai area. The Al-Maktoum family still rules the emirate today.

In 1892 Sheikh Maktoum signed an exclusive business deal with the British and in 1894 permitted a full tax exemption for foreign traders. In 1966, oil was discovered and the economy started to thrive. By that time the British had already decided to head home, and in 1971, Dubai became the seventh emirate of the newly formed UAE.

The story of Dubai reads like a rags-to-riches tale, and indeed, it is hard to imagine a place elsewhere in the world that has developed at such a pace, in such a short time, for so many different people.