Page 272 - UAE Truncal States
P. 272

A City Stale - Example Dubai

          Sketch of the town before work on the creek began
          The town and the people
          The first house built of concrete blocks was constructed in 1956. A
          large number of inhabitants of Dubai lived in palm-frond (barasli)14
          houses until well into the 1960s. These barasli quarters usually
          contained compounds for extended families grouped together in
          clusters of related families. Between these groups of two to about five
          compounds, the alleyways were often just a little wider than those
          which provided access to the compounds within the group. The
          quarters of different tribal relationship were usually quite separate
          from each other, especially in the settlements of fishermen along the
          shore of al Jumairah and between Dairah and the date gardens. In the
          quarters where coral and mud-brick houses predominated, the alleys
          were nowhere wide enough to let a car pass through. There was no
          need for wide spaces between houses since each house and
          compound was built to provide the maximum of privacy inside, with
          high walls connecting the various buildings within the compound;
          there were no windows, or only very small and high ones, opening on
          to the street, and there were high walls and screens on the outward-
          looking side, even on the rooftop terraces. Transport within the town
          was possible only on donkey or camel until the beginning of the
          1960s, when some roads were opened up by the municipality. Traffic
          between Dubai and Dairah was largely by rowing-boats (called
          'abrah). There were, and still are, a number of fixed landing points on
          either side of the creek. On Fridays the passage was free for people
          from Dairah who went to attend the midday prayer in the big mosque
          on the Dubai side of the creek.
            The first motor car on the Trucial Coast was imported in 1928 by
          the Residency Agent, Tsa bin 'Abdul Latif, in Sharjah, for use
          between Sharjah and Ra’s al-Khaimah. The first car in Dubai was
          brought in about 1930 by Muhammad bin Ahmad bin Dalmuk, who
          gave it to Shaikh Sa'Id bin Maktum. Cars could be driven over the
          salt-flats (sabkah) and along the beach at low tide, but had to be left
          well outside the built-up quarters of Dubai. In the late 1930s a taxi
          service operated in Dubai and between Dubai and Dairah around the
          eastern end of the creek. Another service, owned by Shaikh Maktum
          bin Rashid, had a monopoly over journeys between Dubai and
          Sharjah.
            In a society where consumer goods in bottles, tins, and plastic
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