Dubai

Dubai or Dubayy (in Arabic: ّ‫ )دبي‬in English refers to either

• one of the seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates on the Arabian
Peninsula, or
• that emirate's main city, sometimes called "Dubai City" to distinguish it from the
emirate.

The ruler of Dubai was the late H.H. Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who
was also the Vice-President of the federation of the United Arab Emirates. The new
Ruler who is also the Vice-President and the Prime Minister of the UAE is H.H. Sheikh
Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who was earlier the crown prince of Dubai is one
of the Sheikh's younger brothers.

Dubai is the second largest emirate in the federation after Abu Dhabi. The emirate is
located on the Persian Gulf, southwest of Sharjah and northeast of Abu Dhabi, and
reaches into the interior. The town of Hatta is an exclave of the emirate of Dubai and
borders Al Wajajah, Oman.

Dubai is different from other members of the UAE because income from oil is only 6%
of its gross domestic product. Most of the emirate's income is from the Jebel Ali Free
Zone (JAFZ) [1] and now, even more from tourism.

History
There are records of the town of Dubai from 1799. Earlier in the 18th century, the Al
Abu Falasa line of Bani Yas clan established itself in Dubai. The city was a dependent
of Abu Dhabi until 1833.

On 8 January 1820, the sheikh of Dubai was one of the people who signed the British
sponsored "General Treaty of Peace" (the General Maritime Treaty).

In 1833, the Al Maktoum dynasty of the Bani Yas tribe left Abu Dhabi and took over
Dubai "without resistance". From that point on, Dubai, a newly independent emirate,
was always struggling with the emirate of Abu Dhabi. An attempt by the Qawasim
pirates to take over Dubai was stopped. In 1835, Dubai and the rest of the Trucial States
signed a maritime truce with Britain and a "Perpetual Maritime Truce" about twenty
years later. Dubai came under the protection of the United Kingdom (keeping out the
Ottoman Turks) by the Exclusive Agreement of 1892. Like four of its neighbours, Abu
Dhabi, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah and Umm al-Qaiwain, its being on the way to India
made it an important place.

In March 1892, the Trucial States (or Trucial Oman) were created.

The town of Dubai was an important port of call for foreign tradesmen (chiefly Indians),
who settled in the town. Until the 1930s, the town was known for its pearls.
After the Gulf Rupee lost value in 1966, Dubai joined the newly independent state of
Qatar to set up a new monetary unit, the Qatar/Dubai riyal. Oil was discovered 120
kilometres off the coast of Dubai, after which the town granted oil concessions.

On 2 December 1971 Dubai formed the United Arab Emirates, together with Abu Dhabi
and five other emirates. This was done after former protector Britain left the Persian
Gulf in 1971. In 1973, Dubai joined the other emirates to adopt a single, uniform
currency: the UAE dirham.

Modern Dubai

Oil supply in Dubai are less than 1/20 that of the emirate of Abu Dhabi, and oil money
is now only a small part of the city's total money. Dubai and its twin across the Dubai
creek, Deira (independent at that time), became important ports of call for Western
manufacturers. Most of the new city's banking and financial centers were in this area.
Dubai kept its importance as a trade route through the 1970s and 1980s. The city of
Dubai has a free trade in gold and till the 1990s was the center of a "brisk smuggling
trade" of gold ingots to India, where gold import was restricted (read the novel Dubai by
Robin Moore).

Today, Dubai is an important place for tourists and port (Jebel Ali, built in the 1970s,
has the biggest man-made harbour in the world), but also increasingly becoming a
center for service industries such as IT and finance, with the new Dubai International
Financial Centre (DIFC). Transport links are helped by its rapidly-expanding Emirates
Airline, made by the government in 1985 and still state-owned. The airline is based at
Dubai International Airport and carries over 12 million passengers every year.

The government has set up industry-specific free zones throughout the city. Dubai
Internet City, now combined with Dubai Media City as part of TECOM (Dubai
Technology, Electronic Commerce and Media Free Zone Authority) is one such enclave
whose members include IT firms such as EMC Corporation, Oracle, Microsoft, and
IBM, and media organisations such as MBC, CNN, Reuters, ARY and AP. Dubai
Knowledge Village (KV) is an education and training hub is also set up to complement
the Free Zone’s other two clusters, Dubai Internet City and Dubai Media City, by
providing the facilities to train the clusters' future knowledge workers.