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12 The Origins of the United Arab Emirates

These merchants engaged in many forms of trade, both within
the Gulf region itself and as far away as East Africa and India.
Thus, when the pearl economy declined in the 1930s, Dubai alone
had other means of survival.
Dubai lies on the coast between Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, only
seven miles from the latter. It stands astride a creek, which provides
good anchorage and separates the two main quarters of the town:
Day rah, the business section, and Dubai proper.
Little is known of the early history of Dubai, which at one
time came under Abu Dhabi. In 1833, lwo members of the AI-bu-Fa-
lasah section of the Bahi Yas, ‘Udayd bin Sa‘id and Maktum
bin Butti, along with about 800 followers, seceded from Abu Dhabi
authority and settled in Dubai. Before long, Dubai attained the
status of an independent shaykhdom; much of this was owing to
the personal courage and ambition of Maktum bin Butti, who
ruled Dubai until 1852. The changeover from one ruler to the
next was always peaceful, although there was invariably some dis­
agreement about who should succeed. In 1886, for example, Hashar
bin Maktum, who had ruled since 1859, died; the succession of
his brother Rashid was contested by Maktum bin Hashar, the
son of the former ruler. When Rashid died in 1894, Maktum
became ruler, and the sons of Rashid, Mani‘ and Hashar, immediately
formed a conspiracy against him. However, Maktum discovered
their plan in good time and arrested and imprisoned them; they
were later released and went to live in Sharjah. Thirty years later,
they severely challenged the authority of Maktum’s son Sa‘id.
It was during Maktum’s rule, from 1894 to 1906, that Dubai
began to grow as a commercial centre. Maktum himself was liberal
and enlightened, and was quick to seize the opportunity that the
decline of the port of Lingah in Persia offered for Dubai to develop.
Lingah had been governed by the Qawasim, who administered
it as an independent Arab principality until 1887, when the Persian
Government replaced them with Persian officials. Lingah was then
subjected to the reformed customs administration of Persia, which
in 1902 had been handed over to Belgian control. The new customs
regulations put an end to the port’s free trade, and gradually
much of the commercial activity carried on there was transferred
across the Gulf to Dubai. Before 1902, only four or five steamers
called at Dubai annually; in that year, however, twenty-one steam-
ships, primarily of the Bombay and Persia Steam Navigation Com­
pany, made Dubai a port of call. Soon after, in 1904, the British
India Steam Navigation Company began calling at Dubai once
a fortnight.24
The merchants who had previously lived in Lingah began to
settle in Dubai, and others arrived in search of prosperity and