"We had to avoid any contact with Arabs who were not of Rashid and possibly with them, so that the news of my presence here might not be known among the tribes. Groups of Karabo from Hadhramaut mountains had plundered the area last year and then also ran the serious risk of being mistaken for bandits, since the clearly our tracks came from the steppes of the south. But we needed to water the camels and find water for us, so we decided to get as close as possible to the oases of Liwa and then from there send a group to the village to get food for at least another month. Hamad told me that belonged to the Liwa Al bu Falah Abu Dhabi and that they were perpetually at war with the Said bin Maktoum of Dubai. Many raids were ongoing and the Arabs were suspicious of the Coast and on constant alert. "
When you think the rivalry between Dubai and Abu Dhabi , who built the tower longer to Recent economic events of the Dubai Holding delayed with support from Abu Dhabi's cousins \u200b\u200b Until the final move of Burj Dubai Burj renamed Khalifa not forget that not later than a few decades ago the two tribes were still merrily butcher, and not at large. Up to 70 this year region was still largely a tribal area composed of seven independent emirates known as "the Trucial States" because of maritime agreements entered into with the British Crown in order to ensure safe transit of ships en route to India.
As oil has been found for the first time to the 1958 off the coast of Abu Dhabi it took at least ten years before he started a real industrial exploitation. In 68, the British have officially withdrawn from the region and in '71 the two most powerful United realized that the era of oil at the gates would not be a bad idea to put aside their rivalries to manage the secular 'black gold through a federation clearly destined to become very powerful. Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi and Rahid Sheikh bin Seed Al Maktoum of Dubai then shook an agreement which was later ratified by the other sheikhs in the area: they were born the UAE, a federation of seven independent states in a small mountainous peninsula and desert: Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Fujeirah, Ajman, Umm al-Qaiwain and Ras al Khaimah, also known as RAK, said that only a few years later.
The end of the (indirect) British colonization coincided with the surge in world oil prices. The Emirates flourished (in the true sense of the word) and prospered under the guidance of some rulers (in a sense) lit. Sheikh Zayed was considered one of the Fathers of the Fatherland, as well as the famous Sheikh Zayed Road . F u a visionary and dreamer, his successors , Sheikh Rashid and his son, Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid to make those dreams come true. Sheikh Maktoum has passed away in 2006 and today is his brother, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid , who took the honors as vice president of the UAE, Prime Minister, Defence Minister and Ruler of Dubai of course .
At the time of the seven emirates foundation had a total population less than 180,000 scattered in an area of \u200b\u200bdesert and mountains. Today residents of UAE are about four million, one and a half in Dubai. The vast majority of expatriates from the Indian subcontinent, then Asians in general, Arabs from neighboring countries and a bit 'in the West, primarily in English, of course. The
Emaratee - so you define the original inhabitants, we "western expats" simply call "locals" - wear traditional clothes. The dishdasha , which is a long white robe worn over a sarong and sandals for men el ' black abaya that covers many more local women from head to toe. Very rarely and only in women more the elderly ' abaya is also accompanied by burqa, a leather mask covering mouth and nose. In the West the term is used largheggiando a bit 'and extending it to any object likely to fully cover the face, preferably a woman. Proudly dressed in this way Emaratee are still shopping in most fashionable boutiques, driving luxury cars on a highway system that can easily be envied by most developed nations of the world.
"The next morning we arrived at Muwaiqih, one of eight villages in the oasis of Buraimi, where he lived Sheikh Zayed. At the edge of the desert dunes give way to a flat stone and from there you could already see his strong : a large square enclosure with walls of mud about ten feet high. On the right, behind a ruined wall, half buried in sand and there was a grove of palms dry and dusty in the background which could be seen in the distance, the massive block Jebel Hafeet, five thousand feet high and some ten miles. Even more in the almost indefinite, pale blue peaks of the mountains Oman.
"Hamad took us up to Ibri. He knew the desert well and movements of various tribes and there said it was better to stay along the southern edge of Liwa because this area was little known at the time. Normally the plains south of Liwa are preferred by grazing herds of camels Manasi but recently they have been repeatedly raided by marauders in Dubai and then decided to move further west.
The oasis of Liwa is located further south, deep in the desert Rub Al Khali . It was the ancestral home of the royal family of Al Nahyan is a large crescent of oases, each of which originally was no more than two huts barasti and four date palms. A remote location and Bedouin who once could be reached only by camel marches under the sun, thirst, heat and fatigue. Today we will arrive safely on the highway and became the starting point for trips organized through the giant dunes of the Empty Quarter .
Proudly Muslim and historically ruled by a powerful family Al Qasimi, Sharjah has long been the dominant power in this part of the Gulf. Walled city, home to the first airport in the UAE, long commercial port bound from Europe to India and founder of the first school of the region, opened in 1953 ( millenovecentocinquantatrè !). E 'Emirate of more intransigent in terms of customs and the contrast with Dubai can be significant. Its dominance has declined as more and more large ships have started to have problems to enter its narrow and shallow creek preferring to stay in easier of Dubai creek. But p er because of its history and the profound respect for the Sharjah ruling family still enjoys high esteem. About twenty years ago was appointed Arab Cultural Capital and that still continues to proclaim, in spite of its plans to "landscape beautification" (which means trying to planting grass and flowers in the desert) is now just a pleasant little dormitory town and industrial area of \u200b\u200bDubai.
"We came Sharjah May 10 (1948 ed) . Flanking the airport via the skeletons of abandoned cars, piles of empty cans, broken bottles, piles of rusty barbed wire and pieces of paper flying everywhere. A generator in the distance and struck a Jeep on the slopes, leaving the smell of smoke, oil and gasoline. Sharjah was a small Arab town on the beach, miserable and decadent as Abu Dhabi, but infinitely more miserable because it was covered with waste brought here from who knows where. "
North of Sharjah emirates there are two children: el'impronunciabile Ajman Umm al-Quaiwain ( which means "The Mother of something I have not yet understood" ). Both have developed from small fishing villages on the coast. Today is the first known for its traditional shipyards from which comes most of the dhow the area while the second, in honor of its marine origin, has a (relatively) important center of Search fisheries.
up north, bordering the Oman and the Musandam Peninsula , there Ras al-Khaimah. an emirate rich in history as Sharjah boasts periods of rule over the entire region. Ras al-Khaimah is rich in water sources and agriculture is unexpectedly developed: there are rumors of even the cultivation of strawberries, which are then exported to Europe. Other attractions RAK are hot springs in the mountains Hajfar , date palm plantations hidden in the District and a number of ghost towns. Around here there was the powerful Julfar , fortified city that ruled over the area until the eighteenth century when it was abandoned improvvisamene. In this coastal mountains and fjords is also Telegraph Island, a rock has become famous around the world and then quickly forgotten, disappeared along with the glory days of the telegraph.
But of all these places we will have time to talk about it more calmly, as a result.
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NOTE: All of these quotes are taken from post Arabian Sands, by Wilfred Thesiger . The book was published for the first time in London in 1959 and tells of his travels in the desert of Arabia from 1945 to 1949. In the Italian version is published by Blacks and Pozza called Arabian sands, although I think it would be more correct to translate it into sands of Arabia. I recommend the same author also When the Arabs lived Water, a title that is really a bad translation from the original The Arab of the Marshes. I fear that both are slightly out of print so you will not be easy to find.
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