The peoples of the Arabian Peninsula have long been blessed with a rich oral tradition through which knowledge, experience and wisdom are passed from one generation to the next. Many of the important events of our history are not recorded anywhere but in the memories of our people. They live on in the stories, myths and legends that our sons and daughters are told by senior family members. Woven together, these stories form the colorful tapestry of our past.
I have always been fascinated by the tales my father and uncles told of the trials and tribulations as well as the joys and triumphs of their lives. As their stories were recounted to me I relieved some of their experiences in my imagination and developed a deep interest in the history of my people. However, as I read more books on the history of the Emirates, I failed to find anything that compared with the stories I had been told by my family. While there were factual historical accounts of events, there seemed to be little written of the people of Abu Dhabi, their heroic struggles against the elements, hunger, poverty and deprivation or their fierce determination to overcome adversity. At the same time I noticed that the story telling traditions which have been part of our lives for generations have now begun to take a back seat to more modern, though far less interesting, channels of communication. I felt we were in danger of losing an important era in our history simply because it might slip away with the passing of the generation preceding my own, so I decided to document some of our recent history myself.
As an eyewitness to the 1950s, 60s and 70s, I felt it was my duty to record and pass on some of the important events of those years to the younger generations and to enlighten newcomers to the United Arab Emirates generally, and to Abu Dhabi in particular, as to what life was like here before the discovery of oil. The changes that have taken place throughout the Emirates over the past three decades have been incredible, difficult to believe even for those who have seen them with their own eyes. Less than fifty years ago our lives hung in the balance almost daily. We placed ourselves in God's hands, praying for protection. In fact, I might not have been here today to write this book had it not been for God's grace protecting me when I was little more than a toddler.
During a trip across the desert to Al Ain from Abu Dhabi in 1950, my mother cradled me in her arm as she rode a camel through the dunes in the hot sun. The seven - day trek was strenuous and tiring and my mother dozed off from exhaustion. I slipped from her arms, became entangled in her dress and dangled on the side of the camel for quite some time before an aunt who was riding ahead turned back to see me suspended, swinging back and forth with the camel's gait. The caravan stopped, I was rescued and all thanked God I had been saved. Today, my own children sleep in the comfort of air conditioning whenever we make the two-hour trip between Abu Dhabi and Al Ain. Times have changed.
Nearly fifteen years after I had hung helplessly from the side of that camel, building had begun in Abu Dhabi. At the time the island sand was used to make the concrete that went into everything that was being constructed. Our teacher told us then that a day would come when there would not be enough sand in Abu Dhabi to build all the roads, houses and buildings we would need for our city. We scoffed at this impossibility. We had enough sand in Abu Dhabi to last until forever and beyond. Less than five years later the impossible became a reality when we had to bring in sand from the desert to meet our construction needs.
When I requested permission from Sheikh Zayed to write about his journey through the troubled waters of the past with the peoples of Abu Dhabi, he gave his assent gladly, telling me it is crucial for us to cherish yesterday if we are to be successful in conquering tomorrow. Though he lives in luxury now, he has never forgotten the difficult years of his life. It is vital that we follow his example by remembering the lessons of the past as well as the courage of our ancestors.I am not a historian. Nor am I am writer by profession. My intention in putting his book together was not to create a historical or literary masterpiece. Rather, it was to highlight, through simple stories, the important events that shaped our future by changing our society from that of the nomadic Bedouin to one that is progressive, organized and equipped with all the tools required to make the most of the modern world. I have told the stories from my own perspective which may in some cases differ from that of others who have studied and commented on our history before me. This is only natural. I refer in particular to how distinctly differently I, as a UAE national, may view our history compared with, for example, how a British subject might see it. This does not mean to say that I hold the present British Government, or indeed its citizens, responsible for the events that took place here in the Gulf from the beginning of the 1800s until we achieved independently in 1971. What happened then is now water under the bridge and we must continue working toward a more balanced and mutually beneficial relationship on both sides.
I took up the challenge of writing this book for the sake of the next generation of the UAE nationals so that they might know of the hardships we suffered before Sheikh Zayed put the oil revenues to work for all our people. My sincere hope is that our children will find enlightenment as well as some lessons hidden within the pages that follow and they will put them to good use as they strive to make their dreams come true.
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