Liwa - n a

Volume 4 • Number 7 • June 2012

LiwaJournal of the National Center for Documentation & Research

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Contents

Creating the Four Pillars of the Emirate

Dr. Peter Hellyer

National Media Council, Abu Dhabi

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Arabian Gulf in the Era of Portuguese Dominance:A Study in Historical Sources

Dr. Mohamed Hameed Al-Salman Dilmun University for Science and Technology, Bahrain

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‘In the Interests of the General Peace’: The Architectural Development of al-Jahilī Fort and its Part within the Policy of Shaikh Zayid Bin Khalīfa in al-‘Ain

Mr. Peter SheehanAbu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi).

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Zayed’s Philanthropy in Global Perspective

Mr. Graeme WilsonMedia Prima, Dubai

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Book ReviewIn the Land of the emirates The Archaeology and History of the UAE. (Dr. Mark J. Beech)

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The story – or the legend - of the foundation of Abu Dhabi town has been frequently told. It reports how a party of Bani Yas tribesmen, setting out from Liwa in around 1761, had come to the coast and had come across the tracks of a gazelle. They followed the tracks to the shore, only to find that the gazelle had waded across to an adjacent island. Crossing the shallow waters themselves, they picked up the tracks again and followed them to a spring. There is no convincing story of what happened to the gazelle, but the tribesmen recognised the importance of a source of fresh water on the island, and returned to Liwa to tell the Al Nahyan Sheikh, Dhiyab bin Isa, the chief of the emerging Bani Yas confederation. He, shrewdly, immediately grasped the significance of the discovery and ordered a settlement to be established on the island that became known as Abu Dhabi – The Father of, or the Possession of, the Gazelle.

There is another story – much more prosaic – written down by Lieutenant S. Hennell of the English East India Company in 1831. The island, he wrote, “was sometimes visited by the Beniyas fishermen, as a place well adapted for the prosecution of their employment; but on these occasions they were under the necessity of taking their supplies of water with them. One of these individuals, however, having occasion to dig into the ground, was delighted to find the pit fill with tolerable water; a discovery which induced the visitors to take up their permanent residence on the island of Aboothabee.” 1

The story of the hunters and the gazelle is delightful. But, as is often the case with romantic stories, it doesn’t tell the whole story, if, indeed, there is any truth in it at all. The fact is that there had been settlement in the Abu Dhabi area long before that. There is evidence, for example, of occupation adjacent to Abu Dhabi airport in the Neolithic period, the Bronze Age and the Late pre-Islamic period, 7,000 years to 2,000 years ago.2 The Bronze Age civilisation on Umm al-Nar island flourished from around 2,700 BC to 2,200 BC.3

Creating the Four Pillars of the Emirate* Peter Hellyer

*An early version of this paper was presented to a conference on ‘Abu Dhabi: 250 years of development”, organised by the Emirates Heritage Club on 19th & 20th December 2011 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the foundation of the United Arab Emirates. The Emirates Heritage Club is thanked for its agreement to its publication, in English, here.

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On the island of Abu Dhabi itself, there is also evidence of occupation that pre-dates the arrival of those hunters from Liwa. From the area of today’s Central Bank, for example, pottery was found around 25 years ago that has been dated to the beginning of the Christian era, 2,000 years ago. More pottery has been recovered from the area where the Golf and Equestrian Club is now situated, some of which has been dated to the medieval period, somewhere between the 10th and 13th Centuries AD, although no evidence has been found of the existence of a permanent settlement on Abu Dhabi island at this period.4 Gasparo Balbi, the Court Jeweller of the Serene Republic of Venice, in a book published around 1580, included in a list of names of islands and areas in the southern Arabian Gulf that were then renowned for their importance to the pearling industry the name ‘Cherizan’, which has been interpreted as being the Khor Qirqishan, which lies immediately to the west of the island of Abu Dhabi.5

It is, however, fair to say that the decision by Sheikh Dhiyab bin Isa to order the establishment of a small settlement was of enormous importance in creating the structure of what has become the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.

To understand why, one must delve deeper into the past. There is little about Abu Dhabi in ancient travellers’ tales or in the older historical archives, apart from mentions of ‘Tawwam’ (Al Ain / Buraimi) and ‘Baynuna’ and it is, therefore, also necessary to look at the information provided through archaeological excavations and surveys.

From a combination of those, it is apparent that, besides the island of Abu Dhabi, there have been three other general geographical areas which have been important in the history of the Emirate, right back to the Neolithic period or Late Stone Age. I term these four locations the Geographical Pillars of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.

One of these is, of course, the Al Ain area. Here, there appears to have been permanent settlement since the Neolithic period. Extensive scatters of flint tools have been found in the nearby desert. From the Bronze Age, there are the Jebel Hafit tombs, the Hili Tomb and associated sites6 and the Qattarah grave, followed by the Iron Age villages at Rumailah7 and Qarn Bint Saud and the so far unpublished fort at the northern end of Jebel Hafit,8 with much else besides.9

It is clear, too, from early chronicles of Omani history that the area was important at the beginning of the Islamic era. Recent archaeological excavations by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage, ADACH, now part of the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority, ADTCA, have uncovered the remains of what seems to have been a substantial township dating back to the early Abbasid period.10 To supplement this from historical sources, Said bin Sirhan’s ‘Annals of Oman’, for example, records that at the end of the 9th Century AD, a strong army, led by the Governor of Bahrain, Mohammed bin Nur, was dispatched to Oman and the UAE by the Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad. Tawwam was among the towns mentioned as having fallen to the invaders, along with Julfar and Nizwa, deep in Oman. Bin Nur was said in the Annals to have ‘filled up the water channels(and) burnt the books’, and ‘Oman passed out of the

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hands of its people”.11

How fascinating it would be to know what those books were !

The Al Ain area is the first of the four Geographical Pillars.

A second geographical area is that of the arc of the Liwa Oasis, although here the evidence of occupation is much more patchy. It was certainly occupied during the Neolithic period, for flint tools have been found nearby, at Jaw Sahhab, the plain just south of the new Qasr Al Sarab hotel, for example.12

But then there is a long gap – no other evidence, as far as I know, has been found of occupation in this area until the Late Islamic period, perhaps the 16th or 17th Centuries AD.

One reason for that, at least during the Bronze Age, is likely to been a sharp reduction of rainfall. During what is called the Neolithic Moist Phase or the Neolithic Climatic Optimum, which ended around 4,000 BC, there was much more rainfall than there is today. Lakes created by winter rainfall would have lasted longer, the dunes would have been lush with vegetation and travelling would have been easier. Once the rainfall decreased, however, travelling would have become harder – and at this time, the camel had not been domesticated. Not until around 1,200 BC were camels available as a means of transport, allowing the resumption of a nomadic lifestyle, but in climatic conditions that were much harsher than they had been 3,000 years earlier.

It is not yet known why there appears to have been no occupation in Liwa from around 1,200 BC until a few hundred years ago – perhaps the archaeological evidence is still waiting there to be found.

By around the 16th Century, though, Liwa seems to have been occupied again. Amongst its inhabitants would have been the Manasir, who also migrated northwards to the eastern coastline of Saudi Arabia, as, indeed, they continued to do until a few decades ago. Other inhabitants are likely to have included elements of the Bani Yas confederation, since it is clear from Gasparo Balbi’s book of 1580 that they were certainly present in the region, for among a list of names of islands in the Gulf that he published is ‘Sirbeniast’, obviously today’s Sir Bani Yas.13

Liwa is the second of the four Geographical Pillars: deep in the desert, on the edge of the great sands of the Empty Quarter, yet, despite its remoteness, not only a place where permanent settlement was possible in the centuries leading up to the foundation of the town of Abu Dhabi in 1761, but also of strategic importance in terms of the lands lying between it and the coast.

The third of the Pillars is the islands of Abu Dhabi, in particular those extending westward from Abu al-Abyadh and the Khor al-Bazm.

Again, it is primarily the archaeological studies that provide the evidence of their importance. On Dalma and Marawah, for example, there were settled village


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communities over 7,000 years ago, whose people kept sheep and goats but who also exploited nearby waters, both for fish and also for pearl oysters.14

Pottery found there indicates that they must already have been trading by sea with the emerging civilisations of Mesopotamia. Other islands, like Ghaghah, to the west of the Sila’a Peninsula, Sir Bani Yas and Kafai also provide evidence of occupation over many thousands of years.15 Sir Bani Yas is of particular significance with regards to the late 6th to early 8th Centuries AD, since it was then the site of a monastery belonging to the (Nestorian) Church of the East, which has provided evidence of trade both northwards to Mesopotamia and eastwards to India. It also provides the only physical evidence of the presence of historic Christianity in south-eastern Arabia.16

Other islands closer to Abu Dhabi, like Abu al-Abyadh, Rufayq and Al Aryam, also provide evidence of occupation from the Neolithic period onwards.17

Even Saadiyat, to the north-east of Abu Dhabi island, has produced evidence of occupation during the Neolithic period and from the 16th Centuries onwards, with possible evidence also of occupation during the Bronze Age.18

The most important of all of these, however, appears to have been Dalma, where we have an almost-uninterrupted record of settlement over the last 7,000 years. The reason, obviously, is the fact that Dalma has traditionally had access to supplies of fresh water. Indeed, there is a story that the island once had as many as 200 wells,19 and, while this is likely to be an exaggeration, we do know that there was still sufficient, as late as the early 1950s, for fresh water to be exported by sea from Dalma to Abu Dhabi.

With its permanent settlement, Dalma became a major centre for Abu Dhabi’s oldest industry – the pearling industry. Merchants are recorded as coming from as far away as India to purchase the pearls. Indeed, according to one source, “the island was locally called Bombay in the past, so large were the numbers of Indian merchants who would come there to trade in pearls”.20 As a result, Dalma, and nearby islands, like Sir Bani Yas and Ghaghah, were linked into an international maritime trade network that stretched away up the Arabian Gulf and across the Indian Ocean. One tiny, but important, piece of evidence of that comes from fragments of 15th or 16th Century Chinese celadon that have been found at old fishermen’s camps on Sir Bani Yas.21

Centred on Dalma, Abu Dhabi’s Western Islands provide, therefore, the third of the Geographical Pillars of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.

And it is because of the existence of these three pillars – Al Ain, Liwa and the Western Islands – that the fourth pillar, that of Abu Dhabi Island, is of such importance.

If one looks at a map of the UAE, it is obvious that Abu Dhabi island is the closest point on the Arabian Gulf coastline to the important inland settlement of Al Ain. It is also apparent that Abu Dhabi is also situated roughly at the eastern end of a long and shallow embayment that extends all the way to the Qatari peninsula. If one draws

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a line from Abu Dhabi to the top of Qatar, that line encloses almost all of the major pearling beds of the southern Gulf. Indeed, the first British Admiralty Chart of the Gulf, published in 1820, refers to the area as ‘The Great Pearl Bank’.22

At the time that Abu Dhabi town was founded, in the 1760s, there was no other town of any size anywhere along the coast between Dubai and the Qatar peninsula. Small fishing settlements, such as those at Ra’s Bilyaryar, north-east of Abu Dhabi, or near Mirfa, were of minor importance, except to those that based themselves there for at least part of the year. One reason for the lack of settlement was, of course, the lack of access to freshwater supplies.

The inhabitants of the coastline were very skilled at collecting the occasional rainfall, mainly in winter: sophisticated collection systems, including large cisterns, have been found on, for example, Futaisi, Al Aryam, the Dabb’iya peninsula and Marawah.23 The transport of fresh water by sea has already been mentioned, while in some areas, offshore from Sa’adiyat and just off Marawah, for example, there were fresh water springs in the sea that could be tapped. For any settlement to grow beyond the merest rudiments, however, these sources would have been insufficient: larger scale, permanent supplies of water needed to be found.

On Abu Dhabi island, such sources were found – even if it was not a gazelle that led people to them. The water was brackish and supplies were not plentiful, but they did meet the basic needs.

It is this discovery – or re-discovery – of fresh water that led Sheikh Dhiyab to take his decision to establish the new settlement on the island that has grown into the modern city we see today.

The water provided the impetus for the new settlement – but it was other factors that led to it becoming successful, rapidly outstripping the other smaller settlements along the coast. Lieutenant Hennell, writing his report in 1831, noted: “The first establishment (which consisted of twenty houses) took place around the year 1761. The intelligence of water having been found quickly spread through the tribe, and before two years had elapsed, the place had increased to four hundred houses; from which period to the present additions to the population and the dwellings have been constantly making” .24

One factor was its strategic location at the eastern end of the pearl banks. Any tribal leader with a strong presence here, and with allies from the Bani Yas confederation, like the Maharibah, the Qemzan and the Rumaithat, scattered on other islands all the way to Dalma, was well-placed to exert influence over the pearling fleets, regardless of their home ports.

Another factor was its position on the Gulf coast due west of the Al Ain / Buraimi oasis, long established as an important cross-roads and market centre for the western flank of the Hajar Mountain chain. A shorter route to the sea, of course, ran down the Wadi Jizzi to near Sohar, on the Batinah coast, but there is plenty of evidence of use


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being made of the overland route to Abu Dhabi as well. Old camp-sites found along the route, near Al Khatam, for example, have produced extensive amounts of locally-made and imported pottery and porcelain dating from the 18th Century onwards.

A third factor was simply that the emerging township of Abu Dhabi was the only large settlement west of Dubai, an already-established town. It inevitably, therefore, became a preferred destination on the Gulf coast for the tribes, both Bani Yas and Manasir, whose traditional grazing grounds lay in the Dhafrah area, between the coast and Liwa, as well as for the fishing communities living on islands immediately to the north-east and to the west of Abu Dhabi.

Moreover, with no other large towns nearby, as was the case further north along the UAE’s Gulf coast, there were no immediate neighbours who might cast a perennially-covetous eye on Abu Dhabi.

A fourth factor, which remained of relevance until the early 1950s, when the first causeway was constructed across the channel at Maqta, was that Abu Dhabi was an island, accessible on foot only at low tide, and, therefore, more easily defensible than any of the other urban settlements along the southern coastline of the Arabian Gulf. Once the watch-tower was built at Maqta, it was difficult for anyone arriving by land to slip across to the island unobserved – and that was something that certainly proved its worth on several occasions during the 19th Century.

One slight drawback to the location on Abu Dhabi island that was chosen for the establishment of the new town, in the area where the Qasr Al Hosn is now situated and close to the water wells, was the fact that there was no sheltered beach nearby. Passing shipping would have had to anchor just offshore, transferring goods in smaller boats, as, indeed, remained the case until shortly before the UAE was established in 1971. The presence of small coral reefs in the shallow waters – inside today’s breakwater, although now vanished – did, however, provide some shelter.

Moreover, the khors on either side of Abu Dhabi island provided adequate shelter during adverse weather conditions, as they still do. On the west side of the island, indeed, a second village grew up at Al Bateen.

With those advantages, it’s not surprising that the new township of Abu Dhabi grew quickly.

As is well known, the man who caused the new settlement to be established, Sheikh Dhiyab bin Isa, continued to live in Liwa, paying only occasional visits to Abu Dhabi. Not until 1795 did his successor, Sheikh Shakhbut, take up residence on the island, building himself a fortified dwelling that survives today as the oldest part of the Qasr Al Hosn.

By that stage, the town of Abu Dhabi had effectively become the capital of the emerging state, with Sheikh Shakhbut in receipt of the loyalty of the Bani Yas and Manasir resident in Liwa and on the coast and islands. Over the next few years, Sheikh

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Shakhbut also extended his influence to Al Ain, winning the support of the resident Dhawahir tribe and of the nomadic Awamir who roamed the desert borderlands to the south and west.

In so doing, Sheikh Shakhbut achieved two great successes that – even today – underpin the structure of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. The first was to bring together, under his leadership, the four geographical pillars, of Abu Dhabi Island, the Liwa, the Western Islands and Al Ain. The second was to forge the firm alliance of the four major tribes of the region, the Bani Yas, the Manasir, both of whom had been allied for centuries, the Dhawahir and the Awamir.

One further note should be made about the significance of the happy selection of the island of Abu Dhabi as the location for the new township back in 1761. As already noted, it was strategically placed to extend influence over the rich resources of the Great Pearl Bank. At the same time, however, as a new foundation, it lacked the long-standing traditions of maritime commerce that characterised towns further to the north-east, like Dubai, Sharjah and Ra’s al-Khaimah. Its people looked to the resources of the coastal waters and to the interior for their livelihoods, rather than to foreign trade.

With international shipping passing further to the north, closer to the Iranian coast and by-passing the shallow and often dangerous waters of the Great Pearl Bank, there was little reason for the fishermen and pearl-divers of Abu Dhabi Emirate to encounter and to engage in conflict with passing vessels flying the flag of British India. Moreover, Abu Dhabi, unlike the Qawasim of Sharjah and Ra’s al-Khaimah, had no large fleet of its own, powerful enough to challenge the naval might of the British.

Indeed, when a detailed survey of the waters of much of the Gulf was carried out for the English East India Company by John McCluer between 1785 and 1787, it did not cover any of the waters of Abu Dhabi. A retired British naval officer who was himself engaged in mapping the UAE’s waters in the 1950s, and has studied the history of maritime surveys in the region, has noted: “There was no incentive for the British to examine the western part of the Gulf ’s southern shores because there appeared to be little in the way of trading possibilities, while the numerous islands, sandbanks and shoals rendered the area difficult to approach”.25

Thus it was that when the British launched their naval expeditions against the northern emirates, first in 1809 and then again, decisively, in 1819, in their determination to stamp out what they called ‘piracy’, the Emirate of Abu Dhabi was unaffected – and was described by the British as having not been involved in piratical activities.

The reasons for that are many-fold. Abu Dhabi was new; it did not have a large ocean-going fleet of commercial vessels and warships; the focus of its people was on the hinterland and in the shallow coastal waters, not further out to sea. Moreover,


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separated by over 100 kilometres from Dubai, the nearest of the towns of the northern Emirates, it had been able, by and large, to avoid being drawn into their political adventures and entanglements, although that was to change during the 19th Century.

Be that as it may, one key result of the conflict between the Qawasim and the British in the first two decades of the 19th Century was the effective destruction of the once-large Qawasim naval fleet and the consequent reduction of Qawasim power. Abu Dhabi, unaffected by the conflict, was able to continue its growth – and over the course of the 19th Century became the most important land power in south-eastern Arabia.

That part of Abu Dhabi’s history is beyond the scope of this paper. It would not have been possible, however, had the new settlement on Abu Dhabi island not been founded in 1761, 250 years ago. Whether a Bani Yas hunting party was led to a spring by a gazelle or whether an itinerant fisherman dug a hole in the sand is really not of great significance. It was the discovery of fresh water itself that was crucial, coupled with the immediate recognition by Sheikh Dhiyab bin Isa of the importance, not just of the water, but of its location, and his consequent decision to found the new settlement, that marked the beginning of the Abu Dhabi that we know today.

Endnotes:1. Hennell, S. (1831). ‘Historical Sketch of the Beniyas Tribe of Arabs from the year

1761 to the close of the year 1831’. In: Arabian Gulf Intelligence; Selections from the Records of the Bombay Government, New Series, No. XXIV, 1856. Compiled and edited by R. Hughes Thomas. Bombay, 1856 (reprinted by The Oleander Press, Cambridge, 1985). p. 463.

2. De Cardi, B. (1997). ‘Third-Millennium and later pottery from Abu Dhabi Airport’. Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 8: 161-173.

3. Frifelt K. (1991). The Island of Umm al-Nar, Vol. 1. Third Millennium Graves. Jutland Archaeological Society Publication 26/1. Aarhus. And: Frifelt, K. (1995). The Island of Umm al-Nar, Vol. 2. The Third Millennium Settlement. Jutland Archae-ological Society Publication 26/2.

4. Carter, R.A. [2000]. ‘New evidence for the medieval occupation of Abu Dhabi.’ Trib-ulus 10:1 (Spring/Summer 2000). pp. 10-11.

5. Slot, B.J. (1993). The Arabs of the Gulf: 1602-1784. Leidschendam. p. 38

6. Cleuziou, S. (1979). ‘The Second and Third Seasons of Excavations at Hili 8.’ Ar-chaeology in the UAE, II/III. pp. 19-69; Cleuziou, S. (1989). ‘Excavations at Hili 8 – a preliminary report on the 4th-7th campaigns.’ Archaeology in the UAE V: pp. 61-87.

7. Boucharlat, R. & Lombard, P. (1985). ‘The Oasis of Al Ain in the Iron Age. Excava-tions at Rumailah, 1981-1983, Survey at Hili 14.’Archaeology in the UAE IV. pp. 44-62.

8. Dr. Mark Beech, Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority, pers. comm.

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9. See, e.g. Potts, D.T.(2001). ‘Before the Emirates: an Archaeological and Historical Account of Developments in the Region ca 5000B C to 676 AD’, in: Al Abed, I. and Hellyer, P. United Arab Emirates: A New Perspective. Trident Press, London. pp. 28-69.

10. Dr. Mark Beech, Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority, pers. comm.

11. Ibn Sirhan, Sirhan bin Said (1874). Annals of Oman (Translated and Annotated by E.C. Ross). Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. 43, part 1, No. 2. Calcutta. Reprinted by The Oleander Press, Cambridge. 1984. p. 23

12. Harris, A. (1998). ‘A Late Stone Age site south of the Liwa Oasis’. Tribulus 8.2, pp 24-28

13. Slot, B.J. (1993). op. cit. p. 38.

14. See, e.g.: Beech M., R. Cuttler, D. Moscrop, H. Kallweit & J. Martin (2005). ‘New evidence for the Neolithic settlement of Marawah Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.’ Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 35: 37-56; Beech, M. and J. Elders (1998). ‘UAE’s oldest houses discovered.’ Tribulus 8.1: 31; Beech, M. and J. Elders (1999). ‘An ‘Ubaid-related settlement on Dalma Island, United Arab Emir-ates.’ Bulletin of the Society for Arabian Studies 4: 17-21; Beech, M., J. Elders and E. Shepherd (2000). ‘Reconsidering the ‘Ubaid of the Southern Gulf: new results from excavations on Dalma Island, U.A.E.’ Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Stud-ies 30: 41-47.

15. See, e.g.: Hellyer, P. (1998). Filling In The Blanks: Recent Archaeological Dis-coveries in Abu Dhabi. Motivate Publishing, passim; Hellyer, P. (1999). Hidden Riches - An Archaeological Introduction to the United Arab Emirates. Union Na-tional Bank, Abu Dhabi; Hellyer, P. (2004). ‘The Archaeology of Abu Dhabi’s Coastal Zone’. In: Marine Atlas of Abu Dhabi (Loughland, R. … & Hellyer, P. [eds.]). Emir-ates Heritage Club. Abu Dhabi; King, G.R.D. & Tonghini, C. (1998). ‘The western islands of Abu Dhabi: Notes on Ghagha’. Abiel II. pp. 117-142.

16. Hellyer (1998), op. cit.; Hellyer (1999), op. cit; King, G.R.D. & Hellyer, P. (1994). ‘A pre-Islamic Christian site on Sir Bani Yas’. Tribulus 4:2, pp.5-7; Elders, J. (2009). ‘The 6th-8th Century Christian Monastery, Sir Bani yas Island, Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. Conservation Management Plan.’ Unpublished report to the Tourist Development and Investment Company, Abu Dhabi; Elders, J., Percival, J. & Hellyer, P. (in press). ‘The international context of the early Christian monastery, Sir Bani Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. – Recent work and research.’ Paper presented to the 2010 Al Ain Con-ference on the Archaeology of the UAE, organised by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage, ADACH.

17. Hellyer, P. & Hull, D.J. (2002) The Archaeology of Abu al-Abyadh, in The Natural History and Archaeology of the island of Abu al-Abyadh, (R. Perry [ed.] ERWDA, Abu Dhabi; Hellyer, P. [2002]. ‘Newly-discovered Coastal and Island Archaeological Sites in North East Abu Dhabi’. Tribulus 12.1. pp. 5-11.

18. Kallweit, H. & Hellyer, P. (2006). Preliminary Report on the lithic (Late Stone Age) small finds from Sadiyat Island. A Report to HH Sheikh Sultan bin Tahnoun Al Na-


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hyan, Chairman, Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage. Abu Dhabi Islands Archaeological Survey unpublished report.

19. King, G.R.D.(1998). Abu Dhabi Islands Archaeological Survey – Season One. Tri-dent Press, London. p. 47.

20. King, op. cit. p.48.

21. King, op. cit. pp. 43-44.

22. David, Lt.-Cdr. A. (1998). ‘Charting UAE Waters’ in: Hellyer, P. (ed.) Waves of Time. Trident Press, UK. p. 141.

23. Hellyer, Filling In The Blanks, op. cit.

24. Hennell, op. cit. p. 463.

25. David, op. cit. p. 137.

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IntroductionSome historians may believe that facts speak for themselves, while others know from experience that facts emerge from the history of conflicts and differences in the real world.

This study of the era of Portuguese dominance in the Arabian Gulf is an attempt at delving deeper into such facts to verify whether they speak for themselves or they come to light through disputes and disagreements. The paper examines historical facts gleaned from important Portuguese, British, French, Persian and Arabic documentary sources and references covering the period of the Portuguese invasion of the Gulf region, and her political as well as military predominance in that region from 1507 to 1650.

The Portuguese prior to their arrival in the GulfEstablished in 1147, Portugal was a small coastal kingdom in southwestern Europe, located at the western end of the Iberian Peninsula. Within a few years in the sixteenth century it was able to create the first European empire in the Orient, extending from East Africa and the Arabian Gulf to the Indonesian islands and the China Sea.

From the very outset, the objectives of the Portuguese were mainly economic – search for the black gold of that era (black pepper), the most important ingredient of oriental spices.1 In their quest for oriental spices, the Portuguese used their maritime power backed by their political and administrative apparatus. Since their early exploratory voyages in the Indian Ocean, the Portuguese, unlike the other European powers, had declared their intention to dominate the spice trade either directly, or through their closest allies. Moreover, they encouraged their historians to produce works describing the ‘heroic’ deeds of the Portuguese ‘champions’ during the era of geographic explorations in order to highlight the role of the Portuguese in history.

Through their prolonged presence in the Gulf, the Portuguese left their influence on the history of the region more than any other power. Therefore, it can be said that since the beginning of the invasion of the Gulf by the Portuguese in the early sixteenth century and until the end, the Gulf region passed through unique periods of

Arabian Gulf in the Era of Portuguese Dominance: A Study in Historical SourcesMohamed Hameed Al-Salman

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Mohamed Hameed Al-Salman

political and social developments that had an overall impact on their life. However, it should be pointed out that for many years there was a dearth of critical analysis and objective evaluation of Portuguese presence in the Orient and their domination over Hormuz both at local and international levels.

According to some writers, the Portuguese had managed to dominate the international trade routes by strengthening their hold on strategic positions, important isles and straits through which the world trade passed in the 16th and 17th centuries. They were thus able to control the trans-continental trade between Europe and Asia on the one hand, as well as the trade between the Asian harbors on the other. The Portuguese had also succeeded in diverting the trade via the internal land routes across Asia to the trans-oceanic route via the Cape of Good Hope and on to Europe.2 They came to exercise absolute control over the international trade routes across the Indian and the Atlantic Oceans and established their monopoly of maritime trade through taxation. The major part of Portuguese income came from the sea and not from their lands in the interior.3 Their maritime activities were supported by financiers from the Dutch city of Antwerp who, with their commercial acumen, had perceived the revolutionary changes in international trade that had been brought about by the Portuguese through their maritime activities. They therefore urged the Portuguese to fully expedite the exploitation of the benefits accruing from such changes in the Orient. As a result of the continuous support from Antwerp, Portuguese fleets in the Orient established a virtual bridge between the Orient and their homeland in Portugal and succeeded in establishing their supremacy in the Indian Ocean within a short time.4 Thus, within 80 years, the Portuguese managed to fully control the two arms of trade in the Indian Ocean: the Arabian Gulf route by virtue of the conquests of the legendary Portuguese commander Afonso de Albuquerque, and the Red Sea route.

Portrait of Afonso de Albuquerque. Credit: Luís de Albuquerque, “Os Descobrimentos Portugueses”.

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Arabian Gulf in the Era of Portuguese Dominance: A Study in Historical Sources

When the Portuguese arrived in the Gulf, the region had a low population density. The majority of its inhabitants lived in coastal areas and their economic life depended on pearling, fishing and trade. Means of subsistence in the interior were scarce compared with the coastal areas. In the interior deserts, the Bedouin depended on cattle and horse breeding, income earned from the overland caravan trade and by selling genuine Arabian and Persian horses through the ports of south-eastern Arabia.

Generally speaking, the greatest income was derived from maritime rather than land trade. There were three sources of income from maritime trade: maritime transport trading, fishing and pearl diving. Gulf inhabitants, who lived in the coastal areas, earned their income from the transit trade, especially Indian goods, through the Strait of Hormuz. Hormuz was the most outstanding example of that prosperous trade carried on in the Gulf. Based on the prosperous transit trade, which was the main source of its wealth since the beginning of the 14th century, Hormuz evolved as a great kingdom centered on its port city lying at the entrance to the Gulf. Hormuz had fought several wars in the Gulf and along the coasts of Oman in a bid to control the region by diverting commercial ships from the harbors of its enemies to its own.

A Bird’s Eye View of Modern ReferencesHistorians, whether in Portugal or in the Gulf Cooperation Council States (GCC),5 have not yet succeeded in collecting all the facts relating to the various aspects of Portuguese rule in the Gulf. Historical conferences organized in the Gulf region in past years to address this subject have not gone beyond what is actually known regarding the Portuguese invasion of the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Gulf regions in the early 16th century, and the objectives that lay behind their invasion.

During the past twenty years, some studies on Gulf history were published in Portugal. The most important among these is that undertaken by António Dias Farinha 6 which has revealed important details about the emergence of the Portuguese on the political and military scenes during the first half of the 16th century. Farinha highlighted the difficulties of dealing with this vast subject, especially with reference to the massive network of trade and the magnitude of the commercial exchanges at regional and trans-continental levels.

Another study which appeared in the form of an article by Maria Augusta Lima Cruz, dealt with the Ottoman-Portuguese conflict in Basra during the period from 1557 to 1569.7 In this study, the author consulted certain contemporary reports by the Portuguese rulers of India. This is an important study, although it concentrates mainly on Ottoman-Portuguese diplomatic relations.

Perhaps, more important is the study undertaken by the French researcher, Jean Aubin, who headed the team of editors of the well-known French journal Mare—Luso Indicum. His valuable study cites a very important group of Portuguese documents

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dating back to the presence of the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean.8 Aubin had himself completed several important research papers on the Kingdom of Hormuz during the Portuguese era prior to citing Arabic and Portuguese documents. He had thus presented important documentary studies on the economic and political activities of the Kingdom of Hormuz before the arrival of the Portuguese and during their conquest of the Gulf. These studies remain the best, although they do not cover the history of the Gulf until the fall of the Kingdom of Hormuz in 1622.

The information provided by these research studies along with the books published by the distinguished historian, C.R. Boxer, on European overseas expansion in general, and the Portuguese in particular,9 can be of vital significance. The most important of Boxer’s publications are the series on the early European overseas empires, pre-eminent among which is his classic book on ‘Portuguese Seaborne Empire’. One of Boxer’s main subjects was Portuguese overseas expansion. He published several papers which recount the activities of Portuguese imperialist leaders and provide documented information about Portugal’s expansion in the Gulf region, and in her colonies which collectively came under the Estado da India.

Among other outstanding contributions on the history of the Portuguese era in the Gulf region, are the studies undertaken by Niels Steensgaard and Sanjay Subrahmanyam.10 These two authors concentrated mainly on the conflicts between the Portuguese and

Map of the Arabian Gulf in the 16th century. Credit: António Dias Farinha, “Os Portugueses no Golfo Pérsico”.


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other European powers in the early part of the 17th century, as well as on Portuguese economic activity in the Orient in general, and in India in particular.

A Study in SourcesDue to the dearth of information available in modern literature on the Portuguese presence in the Gulf region in particular, it is incumbent to depend on primary sources comprising manuscripts, Portuguese administrative decrees and other government orders which were issued at the time. Translation may also be necessary, especially as the majority of the documents housed in the Portuguese Archives have not been translated into English or Arabic. Another major handicap is the fact that the majority of these documents which form part of the acquisitions of the great Portuguese Archives in Lisbon, are left in drawers or on shelves, and have not been printed yet. Furthermore, the location of many of the original manuscripts which had been transported from Portuguese India to Lisbon during the time of maritime conflict between Portugal and other European powers, remain unknown today. It is believed that many of those manuscripts could have been lost in the sea or burned during conflicts. This may be illustrated by the fact that the British found valuable Portuguese government records relating to Portuguese trade in the Orient when their naval vessels gained control over a number of Portuguese Carrack in 1592.11 However, we do not know what became of those records after that incident.12

Although the Portuguese Archives have a rich collection of documents relating to economic activities in the Orient in general and in India in particular, not all of these necessarily cover Gulf events. Those that do, concentrate on aspects of foreign trade only, and provide limited references that are not adequate for a to obtain a clear picture of the Portuguese era in the region. Thus, a comprehensive picture of the general economic conditions in the Gulf during the Portuguese era is still lacking primarily due to neglect of a thorough search in the archives, research centers and libraries of Portugal and India. Moreover, there are no joint Gulf research teams to undertake the collection and translation of Portuguese documents; all that exists are a few individual research and scholarly endeavors.

In spite of the difficulties facing researchers, it is possible to obtain valuable information from available and accessible Portuguese sources. These can help reconstruct the general history of the Gulf region during the Portuguese era. There are also some Arabic and Persian sources covering the economic and political aspects of the Gulf region in the 16th and 17th centuries. What remains a puzzle at this juncture is the inexplicable silence on the part of Arab and Persian historians when Portuguese invaders began to arrive in the region from southern Oman early in the 16th century. An important question arises in this context: Why did Omani historians engage themselves in debating on secondary issues while the fleet of Albuquerque was pounding Omani coastal towns?


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The works of Omani historians, including Kashf Al Ghumma Al Jame’i Li Akhbar Al Umma (A Collected Chronology of Grief in the Nation’s Tales) by Omani historian Sarhan bin Said Bin Sarhan, and Tuhfat Al-A’yan Biseerat Ahl Oman (Works of Dignitaries in mention of the Omani People), by Sheikh Shaibah Bin Nour Al-Din Abdullah Bin Humaid As-Salimi, and Al Fath Al-Mubin al-Mubarhin Sirat al-Sada ΑΙ-Bu Saidiyyin by Hamid ibn Mohammed ibn Raziq, did not include any information about the Portuguese and the Ottomans in the Gulf during that period. However, they wrote epics on the Ibadi Imams of the Yaariba dynasty in the first quarter of the 17th century, providing valuable and rich information about Imam Nasser Bin Murshid Al-Yaarabi and the end of Portuguese presence in Oman between 1649 and 1650. Additionally, there are several Yemeni contemporary works that covered the history of Yemen. These were written by Hadrami historians and provide important details about early Portuguese military activities in the Red Sea to dominate the harbor of Aden.13

However, it may be possible to surmise the reasons that lay behind the Omani Historians’ negligence of the early arrival of the Portuguese into the region of Oman and the Gulf basin. They were subjects and Protégées of the Omani rulers of the interior, and thus had nothing to do with the coast where most of the cities were under the control of the Kingdom of Hormuz, and not the Ibadi Imamate. Moreover, as Al-Salimi has pointed out, the people of Oman then, did not evince an interest in recording the history of eras of weakness and decline through which their country was passing, concentrating instead on their Ibadi Imams and their religious achievements.14 They must have felt that the Portuguese invasion and the occupation of their country’s coasts, as Hormuz did before, was a humiliating and shameful chapter in their country’s history which they chose to refrain from recording. Muslims, including Omanis, have always been proud of their Islamic civilization which had taught the world many arts and sciences. Therefore, it was painful for them to accept the reality that they were defeated by a few Europeans, especially the Portuguese.

Interestingly, it should be noted in this very context that the Omani historians gave extensive coverage to the subsequent course of events when the Ibadis planned to oust the Portuguese from Oman in the second quarter of the 17th century.15

Therefore, in the absence of reliable indigenous sources on the Gulf region, it becomes necessary for researchers to increasingly resort to foreign sources, especially the Portuguese documents. However, it should be admitted that in spite of the difficulty of finding and translating these, they are practically the only sources that pave the way for a decisive understanding of the forces and factors that contributed to the political, administrative and economic dominance over the Gulf region by the Portuguese.


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Treasures of the Portuguese Archives in LisbonIn the Portuguese Archives in Lisbon, the majority of sources that can be described as accounts by ‘eye-witnesses’ and ‘contemporaries’, can be found. The older and more important collections of documents in particular, available in the Arquivo National da Torre do Tombo, (subsequently referred to in this paper as ANTT) are especially valuable in covering the era of geographical explorations. The ANTT is located in the heart of Lisbon, capital of Portugal, since 1378.16

Researchers using this archive can gain access to thousands of documents of which a considerable section pertains to the 16th century. Unfortunately, this archive does not have a directory relating to the Gulf region or the Arabian Sea to facilitate researchers in their search for relevant information, as for example, is available in the Portuguese colonies in Brazil, Angola, Timor, China and India.

The ANTT comprises three sections encompassing archival material amassed throughout years of Portuguese domination of the Orient. The first and larger section is the Corpo Cronológico (Chronological Corpus, i.e. documents arranged in chronological order). It includes 82,902 documents held in several folders known as Maços. The majority of archival material in this section date back to the 16th century. However, they do not relate to the Gulf particularly; they cover all areas of the Indian Ocean that came under Portuguese colonial domination. The problem with these documents is that they are not original. Neither are they printed; they are merely poorly written manuscripts and even more poorly photocopied. Therefore, it requires a laborious process to read and translate them.


Letter from the King of Portugal to Afonso de Albuquerque regarding the expedition to the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf, dated 2nd March 1514. Portuguese document from Corpo Cronológico, Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo.

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The second section contains what is known as As Gavetas (drawers). There are 23 drawers containing a huge number of documents that had been printed in several volumes and published by the Center for Overseas History in Lisbon. These documents are important in so far as they contain information on the Gulf, the Arabian Peninsula and the Red Sea in the 16th and 17th centuries. This section includes correspondences such as a message (in Volume I) from a person named Bernardim de Sousa to the Portuguese King João III regarding an imminent Turkish attack on Hormuz. This message is dated November 20, 1545 and was sent from Goa to Lisbon.17

A second example is part of a message in the form of a lengthy report (in Volume X) sent by Cristóvão de Mendonça who had held the position of Hormuz Fort Commander between 1528 and 1530. Sent to a King Joao III as well, this report deals with certain anti-Portuguese actions in India and provides information on Portuguese fortresses. The message is dated November 18, 1529 and was sent directly from Hormuz to Lisbon.18 Significantly, the most important part of this report (untitled) refers to the Portuguese campaign against Bahrain in 152919 which was led by a Portuguese commander named Simao da Cunha, brother of the Governor General of India, Nuno da Cunha.

A third example is the message contained in Volume IV. It was sent by Reyes (Chief ) Ruknuddin, Hormuz’s new Minister, to Reyes Sharaf Al Din Al-Fali, former Hormuz Minister who was then exiled to Lisbon. The message deals with relationships between Sheikh Mana’ Bin Rashid, Lord of Hassa, and Sheikh Mohamed, Ruler of Bahrain.20

ANTT also has in its collection, several original documents pertaining to the Gulf region. These unprinted documents are compiled in a booklet entitled: Messages of the Viceroys in India. One of the most important of such messages is that sent by the Hormuz Minister to the Ottomans requesting assistance for the protection of Hormuz.21


Part of the translation of a letter from Rais Rocanadim, Wazir of Hormuz, to Reix Xarafo, 1545. Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo.

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The third section of this comprehensive historical archive is known as Books of Monsoon and also as India Manuscripts. The section comprises 62 manuscripts. The same title can also be found in the main collection of the Goa Archives in India and contains 240 volumes.22


Statement made by Captain Major of the Strait of Hormuz and Red Sea regarding defense of Dibba and Khor Fakkan, dated 20th October 1648. Portuguese document from Monções, Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo.

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These documents cover the period from 1605 to 1650. They were edited, chronologically arranged and printed by Raimundo António de Bulhão Pato who died in 1912 leaving Volume V and some documents from Books 11 and 12 unfinished. However, in 1935 the Lisbon Academy of Science completed the work.23 António da Silva Rego was assigned the task of editing the remaining volumes of this collection (VI to X).

ANTT also has smaller and varied collection of documents that derive their importance from events in the Arabian Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula. One of these documents contains messages from Hormuz to João de Castro, the Portuguese Viceroy in India from 1545 to 1548.24 Recently, two Portuguese historians printed and published parts of these messages under two different titles.25 These publications contain some very important information on the Ottoman invasion of Basra, and the relationships between Hormuz and Basra during that period.

In addition to the ‘administrative’ documents mentioned above, there are records of a literary nature teeming with events. It contains many details of the history of the Gulf and Portuguese achievements in Asia and Africa in particular. All these records have been included in the history of the Golden Age of Portugal in the 16th century (Idade de Ouro).

The most important historical records of that Golden Age are attributed to the most outstanding writers, such as Barros, Couto, Castenheda, Correia and Bocarro. Each one of these historians had held the position of Portuguese Overseas Records Keeper. Some of these writers and historians belonged to the Royal family in Lisbon, or were closely attached to it, either during the era of Portuguese independence or during that of the Portuguese-Spanish Federation, when Portugal lost its autonomy in 1580, and together with all its colonies in the East and in the West, fell under the Spanish mandate.

João Barros, the first of these outstanding group of historians,26 covered historical events during the era of Portuguese explorations in the Orient and the Gulf since the voyage made by the famous navigator Vasco da Gama to India in 1497, up to the Ottoman siege of Diu in 1538.27 It is amazing that Barros, the most famous of all Portuguese historians of that era, had never visited India, though he authored a ten-volume work on that country. Barros had held the positions of treasurer of what was then known as Casa da Índia (India House) in Lisbon between 1525 and 1529, and Deputy Director of Casa da India between 1533 and 1567.28 From that key position, he gained access to all the records and reports pertaining to the Orient, including India. Thus he was able to write down the history of the early stages of Portuguese geographical explorations making full use of the sources that were available and accessible to him by virtue of his position. These sources included reports, royal instructions, messages to and by the viceroys in India, original judicial summons and verdicts. Moreover, Barros succeeded in collecting books, maps and manuscripts


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from all parts of Asia as they reached Lisbon during his tenure at Casa da India.29 As he himself had stated, he used two Arabic and three Persian geographical sources. He also employed clerks who were directly under the King of Portugal, and being native speakers, helped with the translation of documents from their respective languages into Old Portuguese.

Barros’ work was known as Ásia , and divided into “Década” (ten years= Decades), covering each decade as an independent unit.30

The second volume of the Décadas is the most important as it deals with events from 1505 to 1515, the founding years of the Portuguese Empire in the Orient.31 In this second Década, the second part is significant as it deals extensively with Hormuz Island which was then known as Girao or Giron and was occupied by Albuquerque in 1507-1508. In this part, Barros presents a valuable historical description of Hormuz, and certain islands in the Gulf.32 The tenth part of this Década is equally important as it deals with Albuquerque’s last attempt to regain full control over Hormuz in 1515 following its early revolt against the Portuguese, and the subsequent death of Albuquerque on December 16 of that year.

The fourth part of the sixth section of the Third Década, covers the period from 1516 to 1525 and Barros gives a simple, though very important description of the Gulf region, with special emphasis on the Bahrain islands, their pearls and Portuguese domination thereof in 1521.33 The seventh section of the Third Década, covers Portuguese activities in Hormuz and surrounding regions. It particularly deals with the first Gulf Revolt against the Portuguese in 1521 in Hormuz, Bahrain, Sohar, Qalhat, Muscat and Quriat. That revolt occurred when the Portuguese King Emanuel I ordered Hormuz customs to be placed directly under Portuguese officials.

In the third part of the Fourth Década which was printed in 1615, (after the death of Barros), we find valuable information on the seventh Governor General of Portuguese India, Nuno da Cunha, who ruled from 1529 to 1538. This part relates a number of important events that took place in Muscat, Hormuz, Basra and Bahrain in 1529.34

Diogo de Couto (1542-1616) is the Portuguese historian who completed the unfinished record undertaken by Barros35 following his appointment by the Spanish King Philip II as historian of the Royal Court. Couto traveled to India in 1559 and remained there for over fifty years. In the first ten years of his presence in India, he served as a soldier, and subsequently, as record keeper in the capital (Goa). He made extensive use of the records in his custody when he was asked to complete the Décadas of Asia. However, the work, which came out in the same style and same divisions, was attributed to him, and consequently, there is one title and two authors.36 Couto also inserted in his work information he had gained from Portuguese employees and soldiers stationed in India, as well as from some of the Ottomans who remained in the Islamic state of Gujarat in western India after the abortive campaign mounted by Sulaiman Pasha Al-Khadem to gain control of Diu in 1538.37


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Couto’s work consists of Décadas covering the period from 1526 to 1600. He furnished it with an introduction tracing events dating back to 1526 and covered the period until 1538 supported by information. The most important parts of Couto’s work are 1-4, 7 and 10 which contain rich information on the Gulf region.

Moreover, Couto also authored an important book interestingly titled: Dialogue of the Veteran Soldier. It contains sharp criticisms of the Portuguese administration, exposing its exploitation in the Orient, especially in India.38 Additionally, there are other Portuguese historians who referred to certain events in parts of the Islamic Orient overlooking the Indian Ocean. They are Fernão Lopes de Castanheda and Gaspar Correia. Castanheda spent ten years in India and authored his book História Do Descobrimento E Conquista Da India Pelos Portugueses (History of the Discovery and Conquest of India by the Portuguese).

This book39 was supposed to have covered the period from 1497 to 1548, but the author did not continue the narrative up to that year. In the introduction to his book, which includes ten parts, and which was printed in 1552, Castanheda stated that he would cover the period ending in the era of the Viceroy Goa de Castro, i.e. 1548. However, after a thorough search in the Portuguese Archives, I found only eight parts published in four volumes. In the last volume, which was printed in 1933, the eighth part was divided into two (8 & 9), which meant that a section of the ninth part and the whole of the tenth part are still missing.40

What singles out Castanheda’s work is his writings on people, towns, production, and trade. In parts 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8 he gave detailed information on the Gulf region.

Lendas da Índia (Legends of India) by Gaspar Correia, a Portuguese historian whose dates of birth and death are not known, has added a historical dimension of ten years to Castanheda’s work, together with information relating to the Orient between 1497 and 1518.41 Correia had presumably started writing his book during the era of Albuquerque when he was the Viceroy of India between 1509 and 1515. Correia served as Albuquerque’s clerk or private secretary at that time and had travelled to India specially for this task in 151242 to browse messages and documents written by Portuguese officials stationed in India. Therefore, his description of Portuguese forts and installations in the Orient is of special importance. In this description, he excluded the General Geographical Survey because other authors (such as Duarte Barbosa) had included it in their earlier works.

Correia had extensively examined the mechanisms of Portuguese trade and administration in India.43 His writings reveal a remarkable departure from the glorious descriptions of the Portuguese invasion of the Orient. In the beginning, they were generally portrayed as “the best cultural missionaries”, and also as “an unconquerable maritime nation.” Correia followed Couto’s course of criticizing the tyranny, greed, selfishness and corruption that characterized the Portuguese administration in the Orient in general.


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Couto’s book remained a manuscript until 1858 when it was printed for the first time. It is sometimes accused of lacking accuracy.44

The fifth official Portuguese historian, António Bocarro, had been appointed as a chronicler and record keeper in Goa from 1631 until his death in 1649. His book, Década 13 da História da Índia (The 13th Decade of the History of India), was not printed until 1867.45 This work covers the era of Viceroy Jerónimo de Azevedo, 1612-1617.46 This means that there is a gap of twelve years in the recording of events of Portuguese history by official chroniclers (1600-1612). In the opinion of some writers, this may have been due to the fact that Bocarro might have presumed that Couto’s last part of his book had covered up to the year 1612.47 Whatever the reason, what constitutes an important section in Bocarro’s Década, is his description of diplomatic relations in the Gulf, especially during the beginning of the 17th century which witnessed the arrival of the British and the accompanying activities by the Sherley brothers in Persia during the reign of Shah Abbas Al-Kabir.48

Couto also wrote another work to which he gave a lengthy title: O Livro Das Plantas de Todas as Fortalezas Cidades e Povoações do Estado da Índia Oriental (Book of Drawings of Fortresses, Cities and Villages Belonging to the State of the East Indies). However, this work covered the period after 1632, when King Philip III ordered the compiling and writing of a comprehensive work on Portuguese fortresses in the Indian Ocean following the dramatic fall of Hormuz in 1622 as a result of the Anglo-Persian alliance.49

When attempting to evaluate the works of these historians as a group, it is unfortunate that certain important parts of their works are found missing. For instance, Barros’ original work, which included some vital figures concerning trade and Oriental products, cannot be traced. Similarly, Couto’s work had suffered many thefts and losses during the series of disasters that had befallen the Portuguese Empire in the Orient. This had led Couto to re-write the work which in the process lost its original literary context. It may also be doubted whether Couto was able to recollect all the events he had recorded in his first book.50

Furthermore, the fact must be taken into consideration that none of these historians had mentioned whether or not they had used original primary sources in recording the early and most important Portuguese voyages to the Orient, especially that of Vasco da Gama. Correia’s account of da Gama’s first voyage also does not mention sources and can therefore only be treated as a historian’s travel account.51

Under these circumstances, one should exercise caution in consulting the accounts of these official historians as they had been written primarily to record and document the imperialist objectives of the Portuguese Empire. Even those who wrote from a distinctly personal standpoint betrayed a bias in favor of their Portuguese conquerors, glorifying their triumphs and portraying the Conquistadors as the ‘Christian heroes of Europe’. Most of these historians had concentrated on writing the biographies of


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military commanders, their expeditions, fleets, and forces. Scanty references to the Muslim inhabitants of the region are found only in the context of Portuguese dealings with them for their own imperial objectives and interests, or only to those Muslims who were loyal to the Portuguese for one reason or another. They might have also done this to give a one sided account through references to the resistance shown by the Muslims to Portuguese authority and their invasion of the eastern regions, and by also highlighting how the Portuguese army had confronted Muslim resistance. The deep-rooted religious convictions were also apparent in the writings of these historians who showed a particular keenness to stress the valor of the Portuguese and their religious sentiments. In short, they were ‘religious historians’ who sought to glorify the systematic killings and lootings carried out by the Portuguese in the Orient- acts that were described as ‘God-blessed.’

In light of the above, one should be cautious when consulting the writings of these historians, particularly with reference to the sections dealing with the Indians, Arabs of the Gulf, Turks and Persians. Names of places and personalities mentioned in their writings should be examined carefully as most of these historians had not mastered the languages of those places and peoples, or grasped the different aspects of their life, customs and traditions.

In addition to these original Portuguese documents and historical accounts, which so far have not been translated into other languages as an integrated collection, there are other printed Portuguese sources to which researchers in the era of Portuguese dominance in the Gulf and southern Arabia may resort. Some of these sources have been translated into English and other languages. The first of these is The Commentaries of the Great Afonso de Albuquerque, the well-known work comprising the memoirs of the Portuguese leader and his military campaigns in the Gulf between the years 1507-1515. Walter de Gray Birch has translated and edited those memoirs and supervised their printing in 1774.52 But it should be noted that these memoirs had not been written by Albuquerque himself, but by his illegitimate son, Afonso Bras, on the basis of what he had heard and gleaned from Albuquerque.53

The most important volume of Albuquerque’s memoirs is the first one which deals with the period from 1503 to 1508. Its importance lies in the fact that it covers mainly the first wave of Portuguese invasion and military operations along the Omani Coast and against the Kingdom of Hormuz itself. The second volume covers the events of the years from 1508 to 1510. The fourth covers the last two years of Albuquerque’s rule in India. The major pitfall of these memoirs is the exaggerated account of what the Portuguese historians claimed to be ‘Portuguese glories in the Orient’. Moreover, the memoirs, which describe wars, sieges and battles, refer to the Muslims as ‘infidel enemies’. It is well-known that Albuquerque had brutally dealt with the inhabitants of the Omani Coast. These prejudices notwithstanding, the memoirs include valuable and indispensable information on the Gulf as well as its people and coastal towns.


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The Three Voyages of Vasco da Gama and his Viceroyalty is part of Correia’s book on India, India Times, referred to earlier.54 However, among all printed records of explorations in the first part of the 16th century, The book of Duarte Barbosa is regarded as a unique work. Duarte Barbosa’s book completed in 1541 includes detailed information on towns of the Indian Ocean and the Gulf ’s Arabian and Persian coasts. Additionally, Barbosa had described part of the Portuguese invasion of the Gulf region.55

Barbosa’s narrative style is evident in his book describing the Orient on the basis of information derived from direct observation. The importance of his work lies in the comprehensive sketches of individual towns and villages of the Gulf in the early 16th century. However, the main difficulty in handling this work is to decipher the Portuguese names given to areas of the Gulf. Therefore, most of these names need to be checked phonetically by comparing them with their Arabic and Persian counterparts.

In addition to these biographies and memoirs, there are other important travel books that include valuable information as well. The most important of these is The Travels of Pedro Teixeira56 by an author descending from a Jewish Portuguese family from Lisbon. No information is available on his activities while in the Orient except that he traveled to India about 1586, i.e. a few years after the arrival of the Dutch traveler Jan Huygen van Linschoten.57 Teixeira remained in the Orient until 1605, the decisive period in the history of the Portuguese Empire in the Orient. He visited the Gulf region twice in 1587 and 1604, during which he went to Basra as well.58 The most important part of Teixera’s work for students and researchers interested in the history of the Portuguese in the Gulf is his account of the rise of the Kingdom of Hormuz which was based on the information derived by him from Toran Shah IV’s book on the (King of Hormuz who was known as Shahnameh). Unfortunately this important book remains missing until now.59

Commentaries of Ruy Freyre de Andrada is perhaps the most important of all the printed books in the collection of primary and original sources dealing with Portuguese presence in the Orient in the early 17th century. The renowned historian, Charles Boxer, translated and edited those memoirs from Portuguese into English.60 The importance of this work lies in the information presented by the author by virtue of the positions he held aboard Portuguese fleets in the Gulf since 1619, though he was personally blamed for the fall of Hormuz in 1622. However, Freyre attempted to mitigate the blame by establishing a new command post in Muscat after the fall of Hormuz. He regained from Shah Abbas the areas of Sohar, Dibba and Khor Fakkan on the Omani Coast, and also launched several painful strikes on the Arabian side of the Gulf.61 Freyre was known for his enthusiasm and religious fanaticism, as well as his skillful and intelligent command of Portuguese forces in the region. However, he gained notoriety for his brutal treatment and suppression of the Gulf inhabitants during that time.


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Fortaleza de Mascate.


Portuguese fortresses. Credit: António Bocarro, “O Livro das Plantas de todas as Fortalezas, Cidades e Povoa-ções do Estado da India Oriental”.

Fortaleza de Soar.

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Fortaleza de Corfacão.

Fortaleza de Dobá.

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Freyre’s military violence which continued from 1619 to 1632, was the hallmark of the era. The memoirs of this Portuguese commander outline in detail his military operations in the Gulf. The attitudes of the local Gulf forces against the Portuguese, especially of the Sheikhs of the coast in northern Oman, are particularly highlighted.

To the above should be added other travelers such as Manuel de Fariya e Sousa, author of The Portuguese Asia, and Pietro Della Valle, author of The Travels of Pietro Della Valle.62 The first includes valuable information on the impact of the Portuguese on the Gulf, the Indian Ocean, southern Arabia and the Red Sea. It should be noted here that Sousa’s writings clearly reflect the fanatical attitude of the Portuguese towards Muslims in the Orient. On the one hand, he contended that the accounts of Muslims were exaggerated as regards the number of their casualties in their conflict with the Portuguese. On the other, he described the brutal and terrorist Portuguese reaction as ‘valor and heroism’. Therefore, researchers would have to be very careful in handling Sousa’s writings as well.

As regards Pietro Della Valle’s travels, it should be noted that the author visited Persia between 1616-1617 when Shah Abbas was fighting the Ottomans. In 1621, he visited Shiraz, and in 1622, he travelled to the Persian coast close to the Island of Hormuz which, at that time, was suffering from the Anglo-Persian siege. He stayed in the Gulf until 1633. His prolonged stay and experience of the Gulf, lends value to his report By comparing this report with those written by the Portuguese at that time describing their accomplishments and ‘heroic acts’, it is possible to discern the exaggerations made by the Portuguese to glorify their victories.

Turkish SourcesThere are also historical records by Ottoman military commanders who were contemporaries of the era of Portuguese dominance in the Gulf region. The most important of such records is a book titled The Travels and Adventures of the Turkish Admiral Sidi Ali Reis by Sidi Ali Reis.63 It gives an account of the naval battles led by Admiral Sidi Ali Reis against the Portuguese in order to restore the Turkish naval fleet from Basra to Suez in 1553, and the adventures associated with this endeavor. The importance of this work lies in its inclusion of considerable Turkish sources, not only covering the Portuguese-Ottoman conflict in the Gulf in the mid 16th century, but also the Ottoman naval influence in the Eastern waters during that period.

Equally important is Tuhfat al-Kibar fi Asfar al-Bihar (Important News of Sea Voyages) by Mustafa Bin Abdulla Haji Khalifa. This work was translated from Turkish into English by James Mitchell and was published under the title of The History of the Maritime Wars of the Turks.64 It sheds light on Turkish naval activities in the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Gulf in the 16th century.

There are also some Turkish documents and records mentioned by the Turkish


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researcher, Salih Ozbaran in a valuable book entitled: The Ottoman response to European expansion: Studies on Ottoman-Portuguese relations in the Indian Ocean and Ottoman administration in the Arab lands during the sixteenth century (Analecta Isisiana).65 The same author had published a paper in, “Journal of Asian History” entitled The Ottoman Turks and the Portuguese in the Arabian Gulf.66

Arabic Sources The most important of all the Arabic sources on the era is Kitab al-Fawa’id fi Usul ‘Ilm al-Bahr wa ’l-Qawa’id (Book of Useful Information on the Principles and Rules of Navigation) by the renowned Arab navigator Ibn Majid.67. Important and valuable information about the Arab tribes of the Jubur branch, (who had established a smaller kingdom opposite to Hormuz on the Arabian side of the Gulf ), can be found in works such as Al Dou Allamei Lihal Alqarn Al-Tas’i (Bright Light of the 9th Century Crescent) by Shams Al Din Mohamed Bin Abdulrahman Bin Mohamed Al Sakhawi (1427-1497)68 who had visited Mecca and Medina, as well as Syria, where he collected valuable historical material on the Arabian Peninsula.69 This book is one of the most important and reputed personal writings that covered the events of that era.

As stated earlier, Omani sources refer to the Portuguese only incidentally, describing them as ‘unjust occupiers’.70 However, such sources have referred to interactions between certain Omani tribal chiefs (sheikhs) with Hormuz and the Portuguese against the Yaariba leaders advocating unification of Oman, and also to the occupation of Sohar a second time by the Portuguese in 1616.71 In any case, important information on the Portuguese in Oman began to flow in during the reign of Nasser Bin Murshid Al-Yaaribi (since 1624) and his cousin Sultan Bin Seif Al-Yaaribi (1646). This is the period that witnessed several grueling battles between the Ibadi Imamate and the Portuguese, ultimately leading to the liberation of all Omani territories and the final expulsion of the Portuguese from Muscat in 1649-1650.72 Said Bin Sarhan’s book Kashf Al Ghumma Al Jame’i Li Akhbar Al Umma deals specifically with this subject and from it most of subsequent Omani writings have been drawn.

ConclusionThe above study has attempted to focus on and review some of the main historical writings and archival sources on the era of Portuguese dominance in the Gulf and neighboring regions, what is historically termed the Portuguese Era, and whatever could be subsequently gleaned from tons of original documents at the Portuguese Archives. It is hoped that this overview will help researchers in their search for historical material and enable them to glean valuable information from the volumes of original documents housed in the Portuguese Archives. Without a proper examination and study of these records, especially when they are duly translated, it is not possible for any researcher to claim to have produced a truly academic work on the Portuguese Era.


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Endnotes1. By ‘the world then’ is meant the age of geographical explorations before which only three

continents were known: Asia, Europe and Africa.

2. M. A. P. Meilink-Roelofz, Asian Trade and European influence in the Indonesian Archi-pelago between 1500 and about 1630 (The Hague, 1962).

3. M. Pearson, The Indian Ocean (London, 2003), p. 118.

4. For the relationship between the city of European capitalism (Antwerp) and Por-tugal during that period, see the most important European studies on the subject: P. Musgrave, The Early Modern European Economy (London, 1999), chapter 7; R. Davis, The Rise of the Atlantic Economies (London, 1973); C. Verlinden, ‘From the Mediterra-nean to the Atlantic. Aspects of an economic shift’, Journal of European Economic History, 1 (1972), pp. 625-46; R. H. Tawney, Religion and the Rise of Capitalism (London, 1990); I. Wallerstein, The Modern World-System (London, 1971-80), 2 vols; K. Maxwell, ‘Portu-gal, Europe, and the origins of the Atlantic commercial system, 1415-1520’, Portuguese Studies, 8 (1992), pp. 3-16.

5. This Council was founded in 1981 and comprised six Gulf states: the United Arab Emir-ates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman.

6. See also Aubin’s study on Iranian Policy towards Hormuz from 1525-1540.

7. M. Cruz, ‘A < Questão de Baçorá > na menoridade de D. Sebastião (1557-1568)’, Revista da Faculdade de Letras, University of Lisbon, 6 (1986) pp.49-64.

8. J. Aubin, ‘Le Royaume d’Ormuz Au Début du XVI‛ Siécle,’ Mare Luso-Indicum vol. II, (Geneva, 1973), pp. 74-187. See also Aubin’s study on Iranian policy towards Hormuz from 1525 to 1540. ‘La Politique Iranienne d’Ormuz (1515-1540)’, Stvdia, no. 53, (Lisbon,1994), pp. 27-51.

9. See E. Van Veen, Decay or Defeat? (Leiden, 2000).

10. N. Steensgaard, Carracks, Caravans and Companies (Copenhagen, 1973); S. Subrahman-yam, The Portuguese Empire in Asia, 1500- 1700: A Political and Economic History (New York, 1993).

11. G. Birdwood, Report on the Old Records of the India Office (London, 1890), p. 198.

12. In fact, the Portuguese Archives had faced several challenges. It is weak in as far as index-ing is concerned and had been affected by the natural disaster that had hit Lisbon, such as the earthquake of 1755 which had resulted in the burning of its contents. Research in this particular archives is similar to a search for treasures in the Amazon.

13. For more details on such attempts, refer to Al-Salman, Mohamed Hameed, Portuguese Conquest of the South and the Arabian Gulf 1507-1525, Al-Ain, 2000, pp. 337a-338. In Arabic.

14. Al-Salimi, Abdulla Bin Humaid, Tuhfat Al-A’yan Biseerat Ahl Oman. Muscat, 1995, p. 353.


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15. For more details on this era, see Al Izkawi, Sirhan Bin Said, Kashf al-Ghumma al-jami li-akhbar al-umma (Muscat, 1980), Al-Salimi, Abdulla Bin Humaid, Tuhfat Al-A’yan Bi-seerat Ahl Oman.

16. Guia Geral dos Fundos da Torre do Tombo, ed. Instituto dos Arquivos Nacionais / Torre do Tombo (Lisbon, 1998), p. xxi.

17. ANTT, A. G., vol. I, Gav. ii, 10-17. Carta de Bernardim de Sousa a D. João III a respeito dos turcos e da guerra de Ormuz, Goa, 1545, Novembro, 20. pp. 915-18. See Appendix II, Doc. 3.

18. ANTT, A. G., vol. X, Gav. xx, 2-27, 2. Carta de Cristóvão de Mendonça a el-rei D. João III, na qual lhe conta os acontecimentos e inimizades da Índia e o Estado da fortaleza. Ormuz, 1529, Novembro, 18. pp. 254-58. See Appendix II, Doc. 1.

19. Moroccan researcher Ahmad Bousharb had set a title for this part of the message while attempting to translate it: The Portuguese Campaign Against Bahrain Through a Message to the Ruler of Hormuz in 1529. See Bousharb, Ahmad, Contribution by Portuguese Sources and Documents to Recording the History of Bahrain in the First Half of the 16th Century, Al-Wathiqa Magazine (Bahrain 1984) pp. 128-132.

20. ANTT, A. G., vol. IV, Gav. xv, 11-2. Carta de Rei Rocam Adim, alguazil de Or-muz, para Rei Xarafo, na qual lhe narrava o que se passava entre Maneng Bem Ra-sid, rei de Laçā, e Rei Mamed, governador de Barém. (1545), pp. 357-59. This message was written in Arabic. However, having fallen into the hands of the Portu-guese, and due to its importance, it was translated into Portuguese so that King João III could read it in Arabic.

21. ANTT, Cartas dos Vice-Reis da India, no. 82. This original message was also written in Arabic and translated into Portuguese.

22. A. S. Rego, ‘The Monsoon Codices at the National Archives of the Torre do Tombo’, Indo-Portuguese History: Sources and Problems, ed. John Correia-Afonso (London, 1981), p. 51.

23. Rego, ‘The Monsoon Codices at the National Archives of the Torre do Tombo’, p. 53.

24. Guia Geral dos Fundos da Torre do Tombo, p. 95.

25. This group of messages, which I have examined in the National Portuguese Archives in Lisbon, are kept in microfilm format and are available to researchers. AN/TT/0925 (Cota: Cartas Missivas no: 10. C. f. 36). L. Albuquerque, Cartas de D. João III (Lisbon, 1989); D. F. Castro, Crónica do Vice-rei D. João de Castro, (Lisbon, 1995).

26. C. R. Boxer, ‘Three Historians of Portuguese Asia – Barros, Couto and Bocarro’, Boletim do Instituto Portugueses de Honkong (Macau, 1948), vol. I, p. 6.

27. J. Barros Ásia, ed. Hernani Cidade, (Lisbon, 1945, 46, 74), p. viii.

28. A. B. Coelho, ‘João de Barros, feitor da Casa da Índia e Historiador da Ásia (1496-1507) ‘, Sumário da Lição-sintese para as Provas de Agregacão em História na Faculadae de Le-tras da Universidadae de Lisboa (Lisbon, 1990).


34

29. J. B. Harrison, ‘Five Portuguese Historians’, Historians of India, Pakistan and Ceylon, ed. C. H. Philip, (London, 1961), p. 158.

30. He observes: ‘…em os livros de nossa Geografia se vera tirada de Geografia dos proprios Arabios, e Parseos dos quaes nos temos cinco livros, dous em a lingua Arabia, e tres na Parsea’. Barros, Ásia, Déc, III, Liv. 2, p. 39.

31. Segunda Década, ed. António Baião, (Lisbon, 1974).

32. French researcher, Jean Aubin, had referred to this part of Barros’s Década in his study (mentioned earlier) on the history of Hormuz. Aubin, ‘Le Royaume d’Ormuz Au Début du XVI’ Siécle, vol. II, pp. 74-187.

33. Terceira Década, ed. H. Cidade, (Lisbon, 1946).

34. Quarta Década, ed. H. Cidade, (Lisbon, 1946), pp. ix-xix.

35. For further information on the life of Couto and his theological study in Lisbon, see D. Couto Décadas, ed. António Baião (Lisbon, 1947), vol. I, pp. ix-xiv.

36. Couto, Décadas, pp. xiv-xxii.

37. Harrison, ‘Five Portuguese Historians’, pp. 156, 159.

38. G. D. Winius, The Black Legend of Portuguese India (New Delhi, 1985).

39. C. Wessels, Lopes de Castanheda História do Descobrimento e conquista da Índia pelos Por-tugueses (1552-1561), (The Hague, 1929), p. ix.

40. F. L. Castanheda, História do Descobrimentos e Conquista da Índia pe-los Portugueses, ed. P. de Azevedo and P. M. Laranjo Coelho (Coimbra, 1924). Researcher Harrison in his book has referred to Parts IX and XD of Castanheda’s book on the basis of what Couto had stated. These two parts tell of the siege of Diu by the Ot-tomans in 1938 and its lifting upon orders from King João III.

41. G. Correia, Lendas da Índia, ed. M. Lopes de Almeida (Porto, 1975), p. viii. For details of Correia’s life and works, see introduction pp. viii-xii.

42. Correia, Lendas da Índia, pp. vi-vii, xiii.

43. Harrison, ‘Five Portuguese Historians’, p. 167.

44. G. Correia, The Three Voyages of Vasco Da Gama and his Viceroyalty, trans. H. E. J. Stanley (New York, 1869), p. v.

45. A. Bocarro, Década 13 da História da Índia (Lisbon, 1876).

46. Bocarro, Década 13 da História da Índia , vol. I, p. V.

47. Harrison, ‘Five Portuguese Historians’, p. 161.

48. Bocarro, Década 13, p. x..

49. António Bocarro, O Livro Das Plantas de Todas as Fortalezas, Cidades e Povoações do Estado da Índia Oriental, ed. P. B. Resende (Lisbon, 1992), p. 13.

50. António Baião, Documentos Inéditos sobre João de Barros (Coimbra, 1917), p. 14.


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51. M. Kriegel and S. Subrahmanyam, ‘The Unity of Opposites: Abraham Zacut, Vasco da Gama and the Chronicler Gaspar Correia’ in Vasco da Gama and the linking of Europe and Asia, ed. A. Disney and E. Booth (Oxford, 2000), pp. 50-1, 54.

52. The first edition of these memoirs was published in Portuguese in 1576. The second edi-tion was in Old English and published as stated earlier in 1774. It was directly translated from the Portuguese text. Care should be taken when using the Arabic version of these memoirs which was published in 2000 (translated from the English version) and refer-ence should be made to the original Portuguese text.

53. The Commentaries of the Great Afonso de Albuquerque, trans. and ed. W. de Gray Birch (London, 1875), vol. I, p. iii.

54. G. Correia, The Three Voyages of Vasco Da Gama and his Viceroyalty, pp. i- lxxvii.

55. The Book of Duarte Barbosa, trans. M. L. Dames, 2 vols. (London, 1967). In addition, there is another work of Barbosa entitled A description of the coasts of East Africa and Mal-abar in the beginning of the sixteenth century, translated from an early Spanish manuscript in the Barcelona Library, ed. H. E. J. Stanley (London, 1866).

56. The journey of the Dutch traveller Linschoten also contains some valuable information on the Portuguese in the Orient in the last quarter of the 16th century, and on the corrup-tion that had spread throughout their empire in that region at that time.

57. The Voyage of John Huyghen Van Linschoten to the East Indies, trans. A. C. Burnell, 2 vols. (London, 1885). The journey of the Dutch Linschoten also provided some valuable information on the Portuguese in the Orient during the last quarter of the 16th century, and on the corrup-tion that had prevailed throughout their empire in the region at that time.

58. The Travels of Pedro Teixeira, pp. vii, xx-xxi.

59. The Travels of Pedro Teixeira, pp. 153- 92.

60. Commentaries of Captain Ruy Freyre de Andrada, ed. C. R. Boxer (London, 1929).

61. Falsafī, N., Zendaģané Shah ̀Abbās Awāl, vol. 4 (Tehran, 1371 S.), pp. 26-1561; Kaimam-aqami, Jahankiz, Qesmat Az Majari Khalij Fares, Yadcar, Issue No. 4, Tehran 1947, pp. 27-28.

62. F. Sousa, The Portuguese Asia, trans. J. Stevens, 3 vols. (London, 1695); The Travels of Pietro Della Valle in India, ed. E. Grey, 2 vols. (London, 1892).

63. The Travels and Adventures of the Turkish Admiral Seydî Ali Reis, trans. A. Vambery (La-hore, 1975). For more details on the life of Sidi Ali Reyes, see Chapter 4, second part of the book.

64. M. Haji Khalifah, The History of the Maritime Wars of the Turks, trans. James Mitchell (London, 1831).

65. Özbaran, S., The Ottoman Response to European Expansion (Istanbul, 1994).

66. Özbaran, S., ‘The Ottoman Turks and the Portuguese in the Persian Gulf, 1534-1581’ Journal of Asian History, 6/1 (1972), pp. 45-87.


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67. Ibn Majid, Shihabuddin Ahmad, Alfawaed Fi Osoul Elm Albahr Walqawaed, edited by Ibrahim Khouri, Ras Al Khaimah, 1989.It should be reasserted here, and as I have indicated in my first book, Portuguese Conquest of the South Arabia and the Arabian Gulf on this subject, Ibn Majid is not the one who guided or directed Vasco da Gama’s first fleet to the India route in 1498. On this issue, M. Al-Salman, ‘Who guided Vasco da Gama to India?’, unpublished seminar paper, University of Hull, 2001. Also Al-Qasimi, Sultan Bin Mohamed, Bayan Lilmoarrikheen Alamagid fi Baraat Ahmad Bin Majid (Sharjah, 2000)Ibn Majid was known as the Muallim (teacher), i.e. teacher of navigation. For many years, he had sailed in the Indian Ocean in general, and in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea in particular. Most of his navigational calculations depended on astrology. His book Kitab al-Fawa’id fi Usul ‘Ilm al-Bahr wa ’l-Qawa’id (Book of Useful Information on the Principles and Rules of Navigation), is the principal key to the study of oceanography; it encompasses the entire science of navigation in the Indian Ocean. However, Ibn Majid’s works are hardly mentioned in the Portuguese documents although his knowledge of the science of navigation was of great importance to the Portuguese and was very useful to them when they arrived in the region. For more information, -G. R. Tibbetts, Arab Navi-gation in the Indian Ocean before the coming of the Portuguese (London, 1971), pp. 8-9.

68. Al-Sakhāwi, S. M., Al- Daw’ Al-lāmi’ Li-Ahl Al-qarn Al-tāsi, vols. I, VIII. (Cairo, 1355 H.), Part i. Also see Mohamed Hameed Al-Salman, The Kingdom of Jubur, and Relationships between the Portuguese and Arab Tribes in the Gulf , Beirut, 2011. In Arabic.

69. Alsakhawi, Shamsuddin Mohamed Bin Abdulrahman, Aldaw’ Allamei Liahly Alqarn, Part viii.

70. Al-Salimi, Abdulla Bin Humaid, Tuhfat Al-Ayaan Bisirat Ahl Oman, p. 345.

71. Al Izkawi, Sirhan Bin Said, Kashf al-Ghumma al-jami li-akhbar al-umma, p. 92.

72. Ibid., p. 111.


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IntroductionThe fort complex at al-Jahilī contains within one site many of the different individual elements of traditional mud brick architecture preserved singly in other parts of al-‘Ain, including a round watchtower, a square fort with defensive towers at its corners, two large walled enclosures and a mosque outside the walls (Fig. 1). Each of these elements provides strong material and visual links to historically important events from the early nineteenth century onwards that left their mark on both the physical landscape al-‘Ain and the political landscape of the region. Today, its prominent location at the center of the city and the landmark status of the site is such that al-Jahilī has come to symbolize the traditional architecture and cultural heritage of Abu Dhabi.1

As with other historic buildings of al-‘Ain, written sources directly relating to the fort are rare. Unlike many of the other buildings, however, we are fortunate that its use from 1955-71 as a base for the Trucial Oman Scouts (TOS, before 1956 the

‘In the Interests of the General Peace’: The Architectural Development of al-Jahilī Fort and its Part within the Policy of Shaikh Zāyid Bin Khalīfa in al-‘AinPeter Sheehan

Fig 1 Plan of al-Jahilī showing the various component parts of the complex, including the round watchtower, the old fort, the eastern and western enclosures and the mosque. Later additions are shown in grey. Historic Environment Department, TCA Abu Dhabi.

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Trucial Oman Levies, TOL) produced a large number of historic photographs of al-Jahilī, many of which are now held by Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi) or in the archives of the National Library and the National Center for Documentation and Research (NCDR) in Abu Dhabi. Careful examination of these archive photographs, in conjunction with a number of recent archaeological observations here and at other locations in al-‘Ain, allows us to reconstruct the architectural development of the fort and in turn throws new light on the historical context that produced each of its component parts.2

The foundation – falaj and watchtowerThe earliest extant photographs of al-Jahilī date from shortly before the TOS occupation and provide important views of one of the elements that seems to have formed part of the earliest phase of activity on the site, the single watchtower forming the central component of the current iconic and multi-tiered concentric round tower. Two photographs of the fort taken by the English traveller Wilfred Thesiger in 1948 (Figs. 2-3) show the appearance of the watchtower before the substantial changes carried out first by the Trucial Oman Levies and subsequently in the mid-1980s.

Fig 2 Photograph of al-Jahilī from the northwest, taken by Wilfred Thesiger in 1948, showing the old fort, the single round watchtower and the original arched gate to the eastern enclosure. The photograph shows that the rooms of the western enclosure were in place before the later use of the fort by the Trucial Oman Scouts from 1956. © Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford.

Peter Sheehan

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Thesiger makes no mention of the fort in Arabian Sands, his account of travels in the region between 1948-49, but an account of a visit in November 1948 by another Englishman, Edward Henderson, at that time working for the Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC) describes “Jahili… a mud brick fortress with two large quadrangles set in high walls with corner towers and near the centre a robust but battered round turret”. 3 The latter is of course the watchtower shown in Thesiger’s photographs, one of which (Fig. 2) shows the entrance set high in the wall of the tower. Additional details of the early form of the tower are provided by Peter Clayton’s photograph taken in March 1956 (Fig. 4), which shows the original crenellations of the tower still in place at that time and, as in Thesiger’s photographs, what appears to be a mud brick revetment of the elevated ned or mound on which the tower was first built. Clayton had visited al-‘Ain for the first time in August 1954 and noted the “long abandoned Jahili Fort and its dried out gardens... (he) entered on foot through the double wooden doors, already ajar, in the north wall. The courtyard had sand drifted against the round tower in the far corner, and my quick look around the inner ‘keep’ (the old fort) confirmed that it was used to store Locust Control Poison as I had been so informed”. 4

Clayton would later recall a conversation he had with Shaikh Zāyid Bin Sulṭān at al-Muwaij‘ī in October 1954, during which he (Clayton) expressed the hope “again to command a squadron of the TOL and to be stationed in the Oasis in the Jahili Fort, then derelict…It was a classic example of Arab military architecture…and should be used for a more honourable purpose.” 5

Fig 3 Thesiger’s photograph of al-Jahilī from the southeast in1948, showing the form of the round watchtower before the additions from the 1950s onwards. The mosque is also visible at the left of the picture, as are remains of other buildings probably belonging to the original settlement of al-Jahilī. © Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford.

The Architectural Development of al-Jahilī Fort

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The position of the ned or mound on which the tower is built and which is shown in these early photographs is related to the earliest element of the historical topography of al-Jahilī, a feature that does not appear in any of the archive photographs but that was revealed in 2008 during the restoration and development project carried out at the fort. Several substantial sections of a stone-lined subterranean water channel or falaj (pl. aflāj), plastered with waterproof sarūj and capped with large flat stones to reduce water loss through evaporation, were noted running broadly northeast to southwest under the courtyard of the old fort before passing to the south of the tower mound (Fig 5).

Recent archaeological work in al-‘Ain indicates that much of the present landscape of sunken date palm oases and fields watered by aflāj took shape during the relatively stable period of Omani Ya‘āribid rule (c.1624-1744).6 Excavation of the sunken palm gardens and the subterranean aflāj supplying them with water represented major capital projects based on intensive date production and a supply of slave labour, both features related to the wider Indian Ocean trade networks of the Ya‘āribids. Settlements grew up where the aflāj reached the surface and provided fresh water for human consumption before discharging into sunken agricultural basins or plantations, excavation of which created large upcast mounds like that at al-Jahilī.

Fig 4 Peter Clayton’s view of the watchtower taken in March 1956, showing the original entrance set high in the wall, as well as the steps leading to the top of the revetment around the tower. The photograph also shows drifts of sand against the inner face of the enclosure wall with a recessed wall walk. © Peter Clayton.

Peter Sheehan

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Fig 5 A detail of the falaj recently revealed at al-Jahilī during conservation and development works carried out in 2007-2008. Credit: Peter Sheehan.


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Fig 6 Extract from RAF aerial photograph of al-‘Ain taken in 1968, showing the final form of al-Jahilī fort towards the end of the TOS occupation. Note the evidence of a number of earlier field walls that were still visible at that time to the southwest of the fort. (North is at the bottom of the picture)

Peter Sheehan

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The limited archaeological work so far carried out at al-Jahilī has produced little evidence of settlement associated with the falaj, although one of Thesiger’s photographs (Fig. 3) shows the remains of earlier structures near the mosque, and even until the late 1960s the outline of numerous mud brick field walls in the area to the south-west of the fort can be seen in a number of photographs (Fig. 6).

Throughout the period of Ya’āribid rule the Na‘īm tribes resident in the three eastern oases of Buraimi, Sa‘ara and ṭamāsa appear to have exercised a degree of local control on behalf of the Sultan of Oman over the Dhawāhir tribes occupying the principal western oases of al-‘Ain (Hīlī, Qaṭṭārah, Jīmī, Mu‘tariṭ and al-‘Ain). 7 Between 1800 and 1869, however, this earlier status quo in the oases of al-‘Ain and Buraimi was profoundly disrupted by intermittent raids and occupation by the Wahhābīs of Najd, who built the imposing Qaṭr al-Khandaq in the Na‘īm village of Buraimi during one of these early incursions.8

During the same period, the Āl Bū Falah tribe and the ruling Āl Nahayyān family, established in Abu Dhabi from the second half of the eighteenth century partly as a result of eastward pressure on the tribes of the ṭafrah following the creation of the First Sa‘ūdī state in 1744,9 became increasingly involved in the oases of al-‘Ain. This growing influence was reflected in the acquisition of land and the formation of alliances with the Dhawāhir and the Sultan of Muscat against the Wahhābīs and their Na‘īm allies in Buraimi. The troubled politics of the period saw the construction of a number of watchtowers during the first half of nineteenth century, symbols of an unstable situation laconically described by Colonel Miles in 1875:“The Na’im are at feud with the Beni Yas who occupy part of [al-Ain] and their hostility is interrupted only by occasional truces; collisions frequently occurring between them.”10

Determining a precise date for the foundation of al-Jahilī within the broader historical framework of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries presents some challenges, especially since archaeological dating of the individual aflāj of al-‘Ain is a difficult task that requires careful stratigraphic analysis. However given the unstable conditions of the first half of the nineteenth century it is unlikely that the falaj was dug then, so two alternative dates either before or after this period present themselves from a review of the available archaeological and historical evidence.

In the first of these scenarios the tower al-Jahilī and its falaj form part of the eighteenth century networks and plantations of the Ya‘āribids, subsequently abandoned during the travails of the Wahhābī occupation, that were purchased and then renewed by Shaikh Zāyid Bin Khalīfa (1855-1909), a process that began perhaps from as early as the 1870s onwards.11 Lorimer, writing in 1907, mentions the ‘hereditary connection’ of the Āl Bū Falah with ‘Baraimi’ through their fort at Muraijib and notes specifically that ‘the Sheikh of Abu Dhabi’ “has recently acquired (and is now engaged in developing) an estate at Jahali”.12


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Miles describes Shaikh Zāyid as “a man of strong character, and perhaps the sole individual possessing any real personal power and authority”,13 while by 1905 Cox could state that “the real power in the neighbourhood is the Shaikh of Abu Dhabi, whose material possessions and consequent influence in the oasis are yearly increasing”.14 Archaeological evidence from al-Jahilī, supported by some historical sources, raises the real possibility that Shaikh Zāyid put this power and influence not simply to acquiring land from the Dhawāhir in the older oases and abandoned plantations but also to the creation of entirely new estates at al-Jahilī and al-Muwaij‘ī, watered by new aflāj dug specifically for this purpose. These estates were later supplemented by an entirely new plantation and settlement founded by his eldest son Khalīfa at al-Mas‘ūdī to the north-west of the oases in the late 1890s. The physical relationship between the Jahilī and Muwaij‘ī aflāj is consistent with them being dug at the same time, and a date for these works taking place in the second half of the nineteenth century is also supported by the limited archaeological evidence from the environs of the fort at al-Jahilī. If this is the case, and al-Jahilī is a foundation of Shaikh Zāyid, then the physical relationship between the watchtower and falaj shows they are clearly related and probably together formed part of the first phase of activity on the site, while the stratigraphic relationship between the line of the falaj and the enclosure wall built above it suggests that the construction of the fort in the same strategic location may belong to a second phase of works by Shaikh Zāyid intended to reinforce and augment his earlier watchtower.

This second scenario is supported by some of the details contained in Percy Cox’s account of his second journey to ‘Baraimi’ in 1905; “due east via Muthariz and the Shaikh of Abu Dhabi’s new settlement at Jahali,… Jahali had only been in existence for about six years; it possessed a nice new fort and a walled date and fruit orchard, at that time in its infancy, but very promising. It extends to the foot-hills of Jabal Hafit”.15

The exclusive ownership of land at al-Muwaij‘ī and al-Jahilī by the Āl Bū Falah appears significant in this respect, as does the special concern with the aflāj that served them that is mentioned in a letter dated 1925, now held at the National Centre for Documentation and Research, from Shaikh Zāyid’s son Sulṭān (Ruler of Abu Dhabi from 1922-26) to his wālī in the Oasis enquiring as to the number of workmen serving in the aflāj of al-Jāhilī and al-Muwaijṭī.16

Qalʿāt al-Jahilī - ‘a nice new fort’ for the Shaikh of Abu DhabiA dated inscription (Fig. 7) from AH 1316 (1897/8 AD) over the south gate of the old fort at al-Jāhilī provides a clear link to the 1896 fariza agreement by which the Omani Sultan Sayyid Faiṭāl b. Turkī (r. 1888-1913) undertook to pay 3000 Maria Theresa dollars per annum to Shaikh Zāyid bin Khalīfa to defend and keep the peace in the Buraimi/al-‘Ain oases.

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Finds of coins of Faiṭāl b. Turkī of the same date recently made at a number of historic buildings throughout the al-‘Ain oases provide eloquent evidence of this financial incentive, while Shaikh Zāyid’s ability to fulfil this role is further illustrated by Cox’s earlier comment in 1902 that;“(his) influence was much stronger than that of the Sultan of Muscat throughout the Dhahireh district of Oman; and was as far as one could judge almost invariably exercised in the interests of the general peace”.

The ‘nice new fort’ mentioned by Cox comprised a roughly 35m square inner ‘keep’ with crenellated walkways and tall round towers at the diagonally opposite northwest and southeast corners. The southwest corner was originally provided with a square tower, whilst the northeast corner appears from the outset to have contained the residential buildings still visible in Thesiger’s 1948 view. (Fig 2)

In size and the layout of its defensive and internal features, it is therefore worth noting that the fort at al-Jāhilī is more or less identical to both the earlier inner fort at Qaṭr al-Hosn in Abu Dhabi and the later Sulṭān Fort in the oasis of al-‘Ain, providing clear evidence of a continuity in the approach to fort building by the Āl Bū Falah from the end of the eighteenth century right through to the early years of the twentieth century. The inner fort at Qaṭr al-Hosn may date to the foundation of Abu Dhabi in 1761, and in any case it was certainly in place by the early years of the nineteenth


Fig 7 The inscription dated 1316 AH (1897/80 AD) over the south gate of the old fort at al-Jahilī. Credit: Peter Sheehan.

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century.17 The size and appearance of the round towers at al-Jāhilī, with the distinctive ‘beaked’ machicolations for raining down missiles on attackers, are similar to those used in the northeast corner tower of the inner fort at Qaṭr al-Hosn, the only part of the original structure to survive, above ground at least. Like al-Jāhilī, the fort built by Shaikh Sulṭān Bin Zāyid in 1910 in the heart of the Dhawāhir settlement of al-‘Ain appears to have been originally set within one corner of a larger protective enclosure or sūr.18

Ronald Codrai’s photograph, probably taken in the early 1950s, (Fig 8) confirms there was originally a square tower at the southwest corner of al-Jāhilī that was later gradually dismantled and finally replaced by a third round tower during the restoration works of the 1980s. A single gate with a stout wooden door surmounted by the inscription was set centrally in the south wall. Within the fort no archaeological investigations have yet determined which of the ground floor rooms built against the curtain wall date from the original foundation, but it is likely that the well in the southwest corner, again a feature common to the forts of Abu Dhabi, belongs to this first phase.

A rectangular courtyard some 90m x 60m between the inner fort and the earlier watchtower was created by joining them within a single enclosure wall. Archaeological observations have shown that the enclosure is contemporary with the fort, and it seems likely that the mud brick revetment of the watchtower mound took place during this phase of Shaikh Zāyid’s works. This arrangement appears to derive from

Fig 8 Ronald Codrai’s photograph of the main southern façade of the old fort at al-Jahilī showing the south gate and the square tower that originally stood at the southwest corner. Ronald Codrai, © TCA Abu Dhabi.

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the traditional sur plan found in the earlier sixteenth and seventeenth century tower houses of al-‘Ain such as Bin Hādī in Hīlī Oasis, which comprise a three storey stronghold at one corner of a walled compound. As with these earlier sūrs, the enclosure at al-Jāhilī could function as a place to safely gather people and livestock during raids.19 Entrance to the enclosure was through an arched gate in the northern wall similar to that still preserved in the inner fort. This original gate to the enclosure, facing the main roads north to the coast and northeast for a distance of about 3.5km to Buraimi, was still standing in 1948 when it appears in Thesiger’s photograph of the fort taken from the northwest (Fig 2).

The location of the mosque (Fig 10) in relation to the course of the falaj, as well as its strong similarities in size and form with the early mosque shown in Thesiger’s photographs of al-Muwaijṭī from 1948, suggest that it may well date from the period of the foundation of the fort at al-Jāhilī by Shaikh Zāyid.

The size of the enclosure and the location in its northeast corner of the inner fort with its prominent towers and crenellations, makes it clear that the prime intention of the fort at al-Jāhilī was to provide, in this highly visible and strategic location, a suitably large scale symbol of the new predominance of the Āl Bū Falah in al-‘Ain. The fort thus represented a visual and political counterpoint to the Qaṭr al-Khandaq of the Na‘īm, resurgent after the final departure of the Wahhābīs in 1869, as described by Miles in

Fig 9 Peter Clayton’s view in May 1957 showing the rebuilt entrance to the eastern enclosure which had been earlier knocked down by a truck. As with Thesiger’s earlier photograph (Fig 2), the condition of the rooms of the western courtyard later used for barracks by the TOL, clearly shows they were actually built at some point between 1897 and 1948. © Peter Clayton.


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1875: “They occupy el-Bereymi proper and Su‘ areh [Sa‘ara]...their possession of the fort enables them to overawe the whole of the settlement”.20 The potency of the Qaṭr al-Khandaq continued into the early twentieth century, with Lorimer commenting in 1906 that: “The Na’im are the original owners of the oasis, and possession of the fort in Baraimi village still gives them prestige and a local superiority over the Dhawahir. Tellingly however, he also notes that: “At the present time the Sheikh (Zāyid Bin Khalīfa) could probably seize Baraimi if he wished to do so, but his policy seems to be one of pacific penetration.”

It is these twin policies of ‘pacific penetration’ in ‘the interests of the general peace’

that characterize the approach of Shaikh Zāyid to al-‘Ain and provide the context for the principal importance of al-Jāhilī as a demonstration of his power to the Na‘īm, just as earlier his gradual dominance over the Dhawāhir had culminated in the capture of their principal village in al-‘Ain in 1891 and the construction of the ṭiṭn al-Nayyādāt there in the same year.21

In the context of his policy toward the Na‘īm (and their allies of the Third Sa‘ūdī state from 1902 onwards) it is also worth noting that the physical area covered by the enclosure at al-Jāhilī is very similar to that not only of the Qaṭr al-Khandaq but also the existing fort at Mezyad, which appears likely to have been constructed with the similar purpose of overawing the nearby Na‘im settlement located on the eastern flank of Jabal Hāfīt, at the beginning of the route that leads along the western

Fig 10 Al-Jahilī mosque in a view taken by Colonel Edward ‘Tug’ Wilson from the roof of the tower in the 1960s, showing the outline of a number of earlier fields, and in the background Jabal Hāfīt. Col. Edward Wilson © TCA Abu Dhabi.

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foothills of the Hajar mountains to Dhank, Ibri and Nizwa. In the absence so far of much archaeological or historical evidence from Mezyad, this appears to link the fort there firmly to the period of Shaikh Zāyid.

The subsequent history of al-Jāhilī between its description by Lorimer in 1906 and the abandonment described in the late 1940s is unclear. The foundation of other forts by the Āl Bū Falah at al-Muwaijṭī around 1909 and al-‘Ain in 1910 (the Sulṭān Fort) may reflect changing tribal and political circumstances and new priorities, particularly a resurgent Sa‘ūdī threat in the years following the First World War. However, the major reason for the abandonment appears to have been a more practical one related to the ultimate failure of works on the falaj mentioned in the letter of 1925, leading Henderson to conclude;“the underground channel, called a falaj, which served it with water from a spring some three miles away, had ‘died’, in the local phrase, and the gardens had died with it, so that the fort had been abandoned and was partly in ruins”.

It is however important to note that the photographs of Thesiger (Fig 2) and Clayton (Fig 9) show that the rooms of the western enclosure subsequently utilised by the TOS as barracks and stores actually date from the earlier period of occupation though it is still not clear at what points between 1897/8 and 1948 these were first built and then later abandoned. It was probably these rooms that Henderson describes in 1948:“We reached Fort Jahili and found it empty and forlorn. The rooms were bare, their floors of sand, and the windows unshuttered and without glass. This was to be our home...”

The TOS years, 1955-71Contemporary descriptions (Henderson, Clayton) and photographs (Thesiger, Clayton and Codrai, Figs 2-4; 8-9) show that the fort and earlier buildings around it had fallen into disrepair by early 1956, when Sheikh Shakhbut offered al-Jāhilī to the Trucial Oman Levies (TOL) following the resolution of the Buraimi Dispute on 25th October 1955.22 In his entertaining account of the force and the events of these years, Clayton links the funding for the renovation of the fort with sums of cash found in Buraimi after the expulsion of the Saudi force there.23

The first stages of the military occupation involved the creation of a new ‘Administrative Compound’ in the western enclosure, with accommodation for the troops and stores arranged in what appear to have been two existing symmetrical blocks north and south of a central courtyard. Access between the western and eastern enclosures was created via openings made in the wall of the latter, and an additional gate to the western compound was provided in the position of the present monumental entrance to the fort. The northern block contained the armoury and the wireless post and surviving details of both these elements were revealed during works to install the present permanent exhibition of Wilfred Thesiger photographs in this part of the building during the 2007-2008 project. (Fig 11)


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Clayton’s account indicates that the original arched entrance in the north wall of the eastern enclosure was either widened deliberately or knocked down for access by three ton military trucks.24 (Fig 12) During a later phase of works in the 1960s the gate was whitewashed along with the rest of the fort and furnished with twin covered sentry boxes. Archaeological work during the recent redevelopment project revealed evidence of both phases of the gate, including the painted cement floor of the sentry boxes and the reinforced concrete laid at the entrance for vehicles. (Fig 13)

Fig 12 Photograph of the entrance to ‘Fort Jahili’ when B squadron were in residence, probably around 1958, (before the sentry boxes were added to the gate of the eastern enclosure). Note in the background the recently completed officers quarters and mess around the base of the watchtower.

Peter Sheehan

Fig 11 The location of the la silki (literally “wire less”) post in the buildings of the ‘Administrative Compound’ noted during work on the fort in 2007-8 and now incorporated into the permanent exhibition wing. Credit: Peter Sheehan.

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A cookhouse for the troops was built in the angle between the inner fort and the eastern wall of the enclosure, and a large barracks with a tin or ‘chinco’ roof was constructed for other ranks inside the courtyard of the old fort, with further buildings erected against the exterior of its western wall. The lone fuel drum shown in Clayton’s photograph of the tower (Fig 4) became the nucleus of an extensive vehicle yard enclosed by a stone wall that now forms part of the exterior wall of the temporary exhibition gallery and reception area in the refurbished fort. Archaeological evidence for changes and refurbishment carried out to the mosque in this period are supplemented by a number of photographs showing a thriving garden around the mosque, and it may be that the falaj still provided enough water to support this small scale use.

The round watchtower was initially used as a sentry post but was converted to officers’ quarters in 1957 by the addition of the existing intermediate storey (Fig 12). Subsequently many of these mud rooms were rebuilt in more durable materials after a devastating rainstorm caused much of the north side to collapse. A postern gate let into the south wall of the old enclosure immediately adjacent to the tower led via a flight of steps to the ‘overflow’ accommodation for visitors in palm frond arish or ‘barasti’ huts. The quest for refinements to the officers’ quarters seems to have been a compelling feature of life in the desert fort, with the addition of a small but enviable swimming pool on the west side of the tower and the planting of the shrubs on the

Fig 13 Louis Wilkes’ aerial view of al-Jahilī fort from the north in the1960s, when the eastern enclosure of the fort was used for helicopter landings. The photograph shows the buildings of the ‘Administrative Courtyard’ and the vehicle yard behind this, with the western (Sanaiya) ridge of Jabal Hāfīt in the distance. ©Louis Wilkes.


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lowest tier of the tower that are now immortalized on the back of the 50 dirham note, one of many by now familiar images of the then exotic tower taken at this time. The upper room in the original watchtower itself, at the highest point of the fort and

Fig 14 This startling view of the round watchtower with the officers’ quarters and mess was taken just after a devastating rainstorm had caused the collapse of some of these additional mud rooms. Postern gates let in to the enclosure wall to provide access to the exterior of the fort can be seen at the right and left of the picture. Col. Edward Wilson © TCA Abu Dhabi.

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therefore in receipt of the coolest breeze, was reserved for the commanding officer.25 (Fig 14)

Further changes made around 1962 saw the fort take its final form and appearance under the TOS. These included the application of several layers of military whitewash and the construction of a series of stone buttresses around the exterior of the inner fort along with another one located at the southwest corner of the southern block of the administrative courtyard that is still visible in the external facade of the fort. (Fig 15)

From 1986-89 the former Department of Antiquities and Tourism, incorporated in 2005 into the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH, now TCA Abu Dhabi), undertook a comprehensive restoration of the fort. These works included the demolition of the southern block of the western administrative compound to create a single large courtyard now used for public events such as the Al Ain Classics and WOMAD. The present monumental entrance flanked by large round towers was added at this time, along with the arcaded gallery forming the western edge of this new courtyard. Further works included the blocking of the original gateway to the earlier eastern enclosure and the creation of a new gate in the western wall of the inner fort. All the new parts of the building added at this time were built using the same traditional combination of mud bricks with palm log roofs. The development project carried out by ADACH from 2007-2008 aimed to showcase the traditional mud brick architecture of al-‘Ain, particularly its thermal qualities, by combining these with an innovative system of chilled water pipes to provide cooling for the exhibition and information spaces within this new visitor facility for the city. 26

Fig 15 General view of the fort today, with the old fort and the round tower in the background. The present monumental entrance to the fort was added during restoration works in the 1980s. Credit: Peter Sheehan.


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ConclusionAs with many historic buildings of the region from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it is clear that even a brief review like this of the evidence contained in historic photographs provides a great deal of information on the history and architectural development of the fort at al-Jāhilī.27

Proximity in time, anecdotal interest from former soldiers (the last reunion of the TOS paid a special visit to the fort in March 2012) and the sheer numbers of historic photographs (at least relative to the paucity of archaeological and historical evidence) from the TOS period has in recent times focused attention on this later use of the fort and rather overshadowed the central importance of al-Jāhilī to the earlier story of Shaikh Zāyid and his ultimately successful ‘policy of pacific penetration’ into the oases of al-‘Ain.

Paradoxically, what these same photographs make clear is that the changes to the fort carried out during the TOS years and subsequently have combined to obscure the extremely close similarities between al-Jāhilī and a number of other important forts, particularly Qaṭr al-Hosn, as well as its place within a long tradition of ‘Arab military architecture’, probably deriving its origins from the tower houses of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and continuing into the early years of the twentieth. Also obscured, this time by the growth of the modern city of al-‘Ain, is the visual and physical challenge the construction of the fort at al-Jāhilī was intended to represent not only to the Na‘īm stronghold of Qaṭr al-Khandaq but more generally to a political landscape that had existed in the oases for nearly a hundred years.

Ironically, the only part of the history of al-Jāhilī that is not illuminated by historic photographs is that of its earliest component, the falaj, but here a little archaeology and history combined raise the possibility that the increase in the ‘material possessions and consequent influence’ of Shaikh Zāyid from the 1870s onwards did not simply consist of the acquisition of old abandoned land but the creation of entirely new estates and the excavation of the aflāj to supply them. Taken together, the various elements of the fort and its setting thus provide a remarkable testimony to the power of Shaikh Zayid b. Khalīfa to effect fundamental changes to both the physical landscape and the political status quo of al-‘Ain, an achievement ‘in the interests of the general peace’ which clearly influenced the policies of successive rulers.

Endnotes1. The multi-tiered round tower is the symbol of the Al Ain Club as well as numerous busi-

nesses in al-‘Ain, whilst on the international stage there is even a gold-plated model of the fort at the UN in New York! http://www.unmultimedia.org/photo/gallery.jsp?query=jahli

2. Acknowledgements are due to my colleagues in the Historic Environment, Strategic Planning & Conservation Departments of ADACH (now TCA Abu Dhabi), who were involved in the Jahili Fort rehabilitation project between 2007-2008, as well as to all at

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Roswag & Jankowski Architekten of Berlin (Architectural and Exhibition Design) and Barker Langham of London, (Exhibition Curators). My particular thanks also go to Mr Mohammed Amer al- Neyadi, Director of the Historic Environment Department, and to Dr Tim Power of UCL-Qatar and Mohammed Khalifa for many shared insights into the historic landscape and archaeology of al-‘Ain since 2009. Thanks are due to the Pitt Rivers Museum and to Justin Codrai for assistance with the archive images used in the article. I would also like to record my thanks to many former members of the Trucial Oman Scouts for sharing images and memories of their time at the fort and to take the opportunity to dedicate this article to the memory of (Capt.) Peter Clayton whose pho-tographs and accounts of the fort displayed a special affinity with al-Jahilī and who sadly passed away in July 2011.

3. Henderson, 1999: 31.4. Clayton 2007.5. Clayton 1994: 59.6. Power & Sheehan, 2012.7. Kelly, 1964: 45.8. Kelly, 1964: 51.9. Al-Rasheed, 2002: 38.10. Miles 1877. 11. Kelly, 1964: 96; Heard-Bey, 1982: 225. Maitra & al-Hajji, 2001:182-183.12. Lorimer, 1906: 260-264.13. Miles, 1877:14. Cox, 1925:207.15. Cox, 1925: 208.16. Letter in NCDR collections from Shaikh Zāyid b. Sulṭān to Ahmed bin Muṭammad b.

Hilāl al-ṭāhirī, 24th Dhū’l-Qaṭda 1343 / 16th June 1925. 17. Maitra & al-Hajji, 2001:55.18. The outline of this enclosure wall can be traced in a 1968 RAF air photograph, part of

the same series as Fig 6.19. Power and Sheehan, 2012. Malekabbasi and Sheehan, 2012.20. Miles, 1877. 21. Kelly, 1964: 96.22. Kelly, 1956. Clayton, 1994:71-75.23. Clayton, 1994: 82.24. Clayton 2007.25. Personal communication, David Neild, former TOS officer stationed at al-Jāhilī.26. El-Masri & Sheehan, 2009.27. See also, for example, Power & Sheehan, 2011.


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BibliographyClayton, P. 1994. Two Alpha Lima. The First Ten Years of the Trucial Oman Levies and Tru-cial Oman Scouts (1950 to 1960). London.

Clayton P. 2007. Unpublished notes on Jahili Fort accompanying submission of archive pho-tographs to ADACH

Cox, P. 1925. Some Excursions in Oman. The Geographical Journal 66.3: 193-221.

El-Masri, S & P. D. Sheehan. 2009. ‘Combining Traditional and innovative technologies in the conservation and development of Al Jahili Fort, a historic mud brick building in the oasis city of Al Ain, Abu Dhabi UAE’ in Maddalena Achenza, Mariana Correia, Hubert Guillaud (eds.) Mediterra 2009, 1st Mediterranean Conference on Earth Architecture, Edicom Ed-izioni, Manzano,361-368.

Heard-Bey, F. 1982. From Trucial States to United Arab Emirates: A Society in Transition. London.

Henderson, E. 1999. Arabian Destiny. Dubai: Motivate Publishing.

Kelly, J.B. 1956. The Buraimi Oasis Dispute. International Affairs (Royal Institute of Interna-tional Affairs 1944-) 32.3: 318-26.

Kelly, J.B. 1964. Eastern Arabian Frontiers. London.

Langham, E., Goaman-Dodson, T. & Rogers, L. 2008. Mubarak bin London: Wilfred The-siger and the Freedom of the Desert. Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage, Abu Dhabi.

Lorimer, J. G. 1908. Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia, Calcutta.

Malekabbasi, A. & P. D. Sheehan, ‘The Bin Hadi Al Darmaki House and the Cultural Land-scape of Hili Oasis, Al Ain, UAE’, in Terra 2012, Proceedings of the XIth International Con-ference on the Study and Conservation of Earthen Architecture Heritage, IN PRESS.

Maitra, J. & A. al-Hajji. 2001. Qasr Al Hosn: The History of the Rulers of Abu Dhabi: 1793-1966. Abu Dhabi: Centre for Documentation and Research.

Miles, S.B. 1877. On the Route between Sohar and al-Bureymi. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal 46: 41-60.

Miles, S.B. 1966. Countries and Tribes of the Persian Gulf. 2nd Edn. London.

el-Mutwalli, R.T. 2007. Qasr al-Husn. Abu Dhabi.

Power, T.C. & P.D. Sheehan. 2011. ‘The Qaṭr al-Muwaijṭī: Diwān of the Āl Nahayyān in the al-ṭAin / Buraimi Oasis’, Liwa: Journal of the National Center for Documentation & Research (Abu Dhabi) 3.5 (2011): 26-41

Power, T.C. & P.D. Sheehan. 2012. ‘The Origin and Development of the Oasis Landscape of al-‘Ain (UAE)’, Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 42, 2012. IN PRESS

al-Rasheed, M. 2010. A History of Saudi Arabia. Second Edition. Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press.

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Rentz, G. & W.E. Mulligan. 1960. al-Buraymī. Encyclopaedia Islam. 2nd Edn. Leiden. p. 1313-14.

Sheehan, P. D. 2009. ‘Jahili Fort and the defence of Al Ain’. In Proceedings of the Internae-tional History Conference on New Perspectives on Recording UAE History. Abu Dhabi, National Center for Documentation and Research, 2009: 325-331.

Shepherd, A. 1961. Arabian Adventure. London.

Thesiger, W. 1994. Arabian Sands. London.

Van Donzel, E. 2002. Yās, Banū. Encyclopaedia Islam. 2nd Edn. Leiden. pp. 292-93.

Zwemer, S.M. 1902. Three Journeys in Northern Oman. The Geographical Journal 19.1: 54-64.


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Moliere, one of the greatest French writers, wrote: ‘Every good act is charity. A man’s true wealth, hereafter, is the good that he does in this world to his fellows.’ While the world at large witnessed the phenomenon of billions of petro-dollars flooding into Abu Dhabi’s coffers, those who in their personal or professional capacities knew late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan (1918-2004), Ruler of Abu Dhabi and the first President of the UAE, attest that his true wealth came from what he did for the uplift of humanity on a global scale.

Sheikh Zayed was too young to recall the decline of the pearling industry, but he grew up among the effects of its resultant economic meltdown. Poverty, starvation and futility dragged down the Trucial Coast through the second quarter of the last century.

During the 1950s, the situation had somewhat stabilised, but was still dire. Sheikh Zayed, a member of the ruling elite, was charged by his brother with running the strategically and economically important oasis town of Al Ain and its surrounds when life continued to be a constant struggle. In Abu Dhabi, there was no electricity, no running water, no schools and no health care, although Al Ain had a small corrugated-iron hospital with a handful of beds. People lived from hand to mouth.

When Sheikh Zayed became Ruler of Abu Dhabi, he was full of resolve that the Emirate could - and would - do better. “Sheikh Zayed spoke of the past, of the things he had seen, the deprivations,” recorded Musallam Salem bin Ham, a friend and an aide-de-camp since Sheikh Zayed’s days in Al Ain. “Those experiences, of having men come to him in his Majlis in Al Ain to receive help for their families, never left him. Abu Dhabi was poor. Sheikh Zayed could only do so much. It was a grim time.” 1

Once oil was discovered off its coast in the late 1950s, Abu Dhabi began its inexorable

Zayed’s Philanthropy in Global Perspective* Graeme Wilson

* This article is an extract from the NCDR’s forthcoming book titled “Zayed – Man Who Built a Nation” by Graeme Wilson. The narrative is unique in the sense that it is based pri-marily on interviews of distinguished Emirati personalities and renowned regional and world leaders.

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Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan – the man behind launching hundreds of aid projects around the world particularly in the Developing and Third World countries.


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rise towards becoming a global force within the oil industry. The oil wealth brought relief from an economic burden, but it also meant a wider responsibility. By 1962, oil production in Abu Dhabi had reached six million barrels, generating export revenues of $44.7 million.2 By 1970, Abu Dhabi government revenues had grown to around $2.88 billion, with crude production reaching 284 million barrels, while 31 million barrels were produced in Dubai (oil production and exports in Dubai had begun in September 1969). By 1972, the billionth barrel of oil was produced and Abu Dhabi government revenues were $5.75 billion. By the time of the UAE’s creation, it was clear that the sheer scale of Abu Dhabi’s reserves would make it an oil power. Around one tenth of the world’s crude was believed to lie within its land and sea borders.

With funds flowing in freely, Sheikh Zayed’s hands were at last untied from the shackles that had bound him in the past. Behind the scenes, he embarked on perhaps the most unpublicised aspects of his life. “He always had great plans, and spoke often of what could be done when income allowed,” said Musallam Salem bin Ham. “The government was already investing heavily around the UAE, yet he knew there was much more that could be done. Sheikh Zayed also saw the possibilities abroad. On his travels he had seen for himself the difference that could be made to a community through the provision of a school or hospital.”

The first full-year federal government budget in 1972 showed revenues at Dhs 200.9 million and expenditures at Dhs 163.7 million, while the Abu Dhabi government recorded revenues of Dhs 220 million and expenditures at Dhs 180 million. In spending, the Abu Dhabi government invested Dhs 63 million for general development programmes, both in the UAE capital and throughout the Emirates, and a further Dhs 77 million for other government spending, while Dhs 40 million was paid directly into the federal budget.3

Just as Sheikh Zayed believed that the wealth Abu Dhabi enjoyed made it incumbent upon him to act where he could at home and abroad, it also heightened the UAE’s philanthropic reputation in the international community. In the early 1970s, the world was still a generation away from philanthropy becoming a common topic and understood by the man on the street, but he was already operating philanthropically, and he would continue to do so for 35 years. Through personal spending and the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development, formed in July 1971, he began to fulfill what he believed was that responsibility.4

“Sheikh Zayed was an unbelievably generous man, spontaneous in his giving,” says Salem Obaid Al-Dhahiri, later head of The Zayed Charitable Foundation. “He had seen his people suffer the deprivations of chronic poverty and he had suffered with them. The pain of seeing hungry children, of people dying from preventable ailments and diseases and their general poverty never left him. The horrors of the human suffering around the Trucial Coast remained his constant companions.” 5

“He was generous without expecting anything in return,” says Mahdi Al Tajir, former

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UAE Ambassador to the United Kingdom. “He loved the Arabs. He loved Muslims. He loved people, all human beings… truly, honestly, he took decisions throughout his life to help people without regard to the financial cost. He just wished to help people.” 6

The Abu Dhabi Fund for Arab Economic Development, established to finance development of needy Arab states, was the principal public face of the UAE capital’s giving. Not long after its inception, however, the initial parameters of the organisation were abandoned to allow the Fund to extend economic assistance to developing Third World countries, regardless of their Arab heritage. In 1975, the Abu Dhabi Fund undertook its first project in Africa, and in 1977 its first in Asia. As the Fund’s scope was widened, Sheikh Zayed increased its capital. In June 1974, he ordered the initial $120 million capital be increased to $500 million. With that support, the Fund was able to steeply increase its activities and budget. In 1975 this was $50 million, the equivalent of $400 million today, but jumped to $176 million in 1976, the equivalent of $1.3 billion today.7

Between 1974 and 1978, it committed to soft loans and grants totalling $587 million, spread over 50 different projects: 31 in the Arab world, 10 in Africa, and nine in Asia. The loans were typically made with an interest rate from three to six per cent, repayable over 10 to 20 years, with a three-to-five-year grace period before repayment began.8 Even more typically, Sheikh Zayed would, at some point, intervene to cancel the debt.9

“Very often we would be quietly instructed to write-off debt on a certain project,” remarked Dr. Ezzeddin Ibrahim, one of the closest associates of Sheikh Zayed. “Sheikh Zayed was careful to ensure that the Fund was administered properly and that recipients were fulfilling their obligations in terms of transparency and good governance. Then he would intercede and ensure that a recipient had the loan cancelled. That happened many times when I was there.” The only condition when this occurred was that it was not publicised.

The construction of roads and railways, dams and airports, power plants and factories, and innumerable other projects that would create, or strengthen, the economic sinews of different countries, were funded through the programme. The emphasis was on infrastructure, the basic elements on which the economy of every country is founded.

“In every aspect of his rule, Sheikh Zayed had his eye on the long-term. He understood that for a nation to prosper, it needed investors to create businesses and therefore jobs and wealth. But these investors required ports, railways, roads, water, gas, electricity and telecommunications to fulfill their own responsibilities,” said Dr. Ezzeddin. “This was where the Abu Dhabi Fund would step in.”

In addition to civil infrastructure, the Abu Dhabi Fund became involved in supporting major industrial and economic projects in many countries. These included a major


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canning factory in Tunisia and a clinker-grinding plant in Guinea. The Fund’s loans purchased equipment for the modernisation of the Maldives islands and financed Sri Lanka’s fishing fleets. Textile plant construction and expansion in Mauritania and Tanzania were being aided by a joint Abu Dhabi and Kuwait Fund effort, while Tunisia has been able to develop a modern Mediterranean tourist complex to boost foreign currency earnings. The Fund also paid for construction of a three-tower, 20-storey marketing centre in Casablanca, Morocco, and, closer to home, Oman was able to realise its potential as a natural gas-producer with co-financing of a 200-mile pipeline to transport gas from Yibal to Muscat. Social infrastructure projects also come under the Fund’s remit, and thus hospitals, schools, orphanages and homes, in Egypt, Niger, Mali, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen have been financially supported. All these projects have touched millions of lives, while the commercial spin-off has created jobs.

The Fund increased its boundaries by offering budgetary support for other governments and through contributing to such international and regional aid bodies as the World Bank and OPEC Special Fund. UNICEF was a particular favourite of Sheikh Zayed as it relates to child welfare. By the mid-to-late-1970s, the combined efforts of the likes of the Abu Dhabi Fund, the Saudi Fund and the Kuwait Fund, and similar programmes in the region, were estimated to have a combined authorised capital of about $12 billion and had committed to more than $7.5 billion in soft loans to developing nations.10

The Abu Dhabi Fund was also founded upon a principle of direct help. After his accession, the UAE President was known for his largesse but, like many donors, he had felt the sting of loss when funds were squandered or simply disappeared. In the 1970s, the mistake of many agencies and governments, particularly in the West, was to donate funds from government-to-government. Sheikh Zayed had noted this procedure but was not convinced that the monies reached the rightful recipients. And so, when the Abu Dhabi Fund was created, Sheikh Zayed insisted on efficient distribution. In general, the adopted programmes were paid directly, sometimes even in installments, straight to contractors and suppliers as work progressed. He requested that Fund monitors, or reliable proxies, be stationed ‘on the ground’ to oversee implementation. The Fund took direct responsibility for planning, management, tendering and quality control and, in some cases, managed the complete project.11

“It was quickly recognised that the Abu Dhabi Fund’s support of a project was in effect a seal of approval,” says Dr. Ezzeddin. “More funds tended to follow from other sources.”

Yet, publicising the Fund’s work was strictly off the agenda. It was well known that the Fund operated from offices near Abu Dhabi Corniche, but what went on behind its closed doors was another matter. Only a handful of the contracts which were signed were permitted to be reported in the local media.

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Sheikh Zayed’s global portfolio of philanthropy includes (clockwise from top left) housing in Egypt, a mosque in Sweden, an orphanage in Bangladesh and a power station in Eritrea.


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After a State Visit to Sudan in February 1972, Sheikh Zayed appeared to develop an affinity for the nation, and it was not long before the Abu Dhabi Fund was looking at ways to support it. Sudan was economically challenged following years of drought and war. A consortium of Arab charitable causes had pledged $6.2 billion for development, with a heavy emphasis on agriculture. To make this possible, the first priority was infrastructure. Port expansion, investment in an antiquated rail system, roads, airports, power and water projects were all on the agenda. Primary among these was a 750-mile highway that cut through the Red Sea Hills and linked Khartoum with Port Sudan. The highway would be able to carry vital imports from Port Sudan to Khartoum and beyond, while agricultural exports could travel in the opposite direction. The consortium financing this vital project included Saudi Arabia, the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development and the OPEC Special Fund.

By 1978, the first phase, a 126-mile stretch of road between Port Sudan and the railway town of Haiya, was open. Taking four years to complete, this stretch encompassed 37 bridges and had taken some 120 tonnes of explosives to blast a path through the Red Sea Hills. The effect was immediate and very tangible, boosting agriculture across the region, bringing dozens of communities closer to larger markets at home and abroad, and boosting the Sudanese economy.

Abu Dhabi also funded Sudan’s Rahad irrigation project, an immense 3,590-mile

The 126-mile road between Port Sudan and Haiya was a vital infrastructure project for the African state financed by the Abu Dhabi Fund.

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network of irrigation and drainage canals to water some 300,000 acres of farmland. It was a project that harked back to Sheikh Zayed’s old falaj building project in Al Ain. Just as it had in the Abu Dhabi desert during the 1950s, irrigation would transform the fortunes of a region and its people in Sudan.

The Rahad project, which cost around $2.4 billion, created 12,800 farms of 22 acres each for cotton and groundnuts and 4,000 five-acre plots for fruits and vegetables.

For Sheikh Zayed, it was not important which country or nation required help; it was simply his pre-ordained duty to assist. Sri Lanka was another country which was desperate for financial assistance. The Fund was approached by the Sri Lankan government. Its fishermen and coastal economies were hampered by a lack of modernisation. Catches were artificially low and there was little possibility of change, given the grim fiscal state of the fleet which was largely non-mechanised.

That call for help resonated. Abu Dhabi has a long association with the sea, fishing being one of the most important industries that had supported the Emirate for hundreds of years, particularly in the gloomy time after the decline of pearling and before oil. In the mid-1970s, fishing provided livelihoods for some 72,000 people in Sri Lanka and supplied around 70 per cent of the island’s animal protein food. The country had 90,000 square miles of ocean within its territorial waters - rich waters that held out the prospect of more food for domestic consumption and far more for export. The Fund looked into the Sri Lankan fishing industry and reported back that of the island’s 22,000 vessels, some two thirds were small and non-mechanised.

Within months of the initial request, Abu Dhabi responded with a $5.2 million (the equivalent of $37.5 million today) aid plan to cover the design, construction and equipping of 150 34-foot craft for trawling, gill netting and combined fishing, plus two 50-footers which would transform the island’s offshore fleet. Over the ensuing years, the Sri Lankan fishing industry prospered, thanks to the increased efficiency of its new vessels and the greater distances they could travel, in search of better catches.

“Sheikh Zayed was a firm friend to our people,” says Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa. “On numerous occasions, he helped ordinary folk, changing their lives through his sense of humanity. The Abu Dhabi Fund has been invaluable to many countries, and here in Sri Lanka the fishing boat project had an enormous impact.

“Hundreds of fishermen and their families had their fortunes transformed, and this resulted in turning around whole communities,” says President Rajapaksa. “It is amazing to think that just 152 boats could play such an important role in changing the lives of tens of thousands of people. Their economic prospects were enhanced and studies have illustrated the wider impact of the newfound economic stability. For example, poor people, reliant on their children going to work to bring home a handful of rupees, were instead able to send them to school so they could have an


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The Abu Dhabi Fund’s donation of fishing vessels, and mechanisation programme, boosted Sri Lanka’s economy at a difficult time for the country.

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education.

“It proved that if projects such as Sri Lanka’s fishing fleet are properly focused, there is a ripple effect and many people can benefit,” the President said, confiding that the late UAE President, quietly, and certainly without any fanfare, also paid for the construction of a number of schools and clinics in Sri Lanka, and funded their upkeep and running costs. He adds: “Sheikh Zayed was our friend.” 12

Sheikh Zayed’s position as a regional leader meant that he would also turn his philanthropic instincts to Palestine. As an oil-rich state, the UAE remained a constant source of financial and material support to Palestine. For a generation the federal government, the Abu Dhabi government, and Sheikh Zayed personally, were collectively one of the largest donors of relief and money aimed at preserving what little civil infrastructure remained in the West Bank, Gaza and the Occupied Territories. The Abu Dhabi Fund was very active. Quietly, and without fanfare, Sheikh Zayed also channelled funds into deprived areas.

“Sheikh Zayed was a constant and consistent friend to the Palestinian people,” says Palestinian legislator, Hanan Ashrawi. “Throughout the Occupied Territories today, there are schools and hospitals that bear his name, and many more that do not, [but which] can still trace their roots back to him. He quietly helped tens of thousands of people with his noble philanthropy. Thousands of children were educated, despite attempts by our occupiers to interrupt every aspect of daily life.” 13

By the mid-1970s, Sheikh Zayed was placing billions of dollars at the disposal of pan-national aid bodies. The UAE had already become a leading contributor in the international aid arena. It was a lead member of the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, which had been set up the previous year with $1.5 billion in pledged capital, and credited by The Economist as ‘to some extent steering Arab economic development’.14 The UAE was also one of the main movers behind the $1 billion Islamic Development Bank, while in 1975 Sheikh Zayed committed UAE funding to the Arab Bank for Africa, with an authorised capital of $900 million.15

Al Makasid Hospital in Palestine, one of Sheikh Zayed’s many projects and causes in Gaza and the West Bank


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A year later, the UAE took a lead role in the OPEC Special Fund, which made 111 loans totaling $440 million to 64 countries in its first 24 months of operation.16 The OPEC Special Fund was strategically important to many countries in the Developing and Third Worlds, as it was targeted as a gap financier, stepping in to make up a shortfall between government-allocated funds, aid money and finance from lending institutions.

International bodies like the United Nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were also recipients of UAE donor-money during this period. There was also indirect aid through international institutions. Sheikh Zayed was well known for cancelling the debts of those who had received loans through the Abu Dhabi Fund. Elsewhere, Abu Dhabi was supporting countries crippled by interest and debt repayments from facilities extended by developed nations — according to some statistics, by 2007 the developing world was spending $13 on debt repayment for every $1 it received in grants. The UAE subscribed to a $200 million IMF Interest Subsidy Account, established to reduce the burden on heavily indebted countries. The UAE also participated within the IMF’s $10 billion Special Facility and the nearly $9 billion IMF Oil Facility.17

The UN in particular continued to be a favourite of the UAE President. He keenly supported both its Development Programme and UNICEF.

“Throughout his time as UAE President, Sheikh Zayed was a strong supporter of the goals and values of the United Nations,” says Ban Ki-Moon, eighth Secretary General of the United Nations. “A great many of our programmes benefited from the support of Sheikh Zayed and the UAE. This had a huge impact upon the lives of millions of people.” 18

“It was all part of an ever-widening net of aid,” says Dr. Abdelhadi Tazi, Morocco’s first Ambassador to the UAE. “Sheikh Zayed knew of course that he could not help everyone, but he believed that it was his — and the UAE’s — duty to reach out to the international community. He believed that when well-targeted, money could have a profound effect on communities and therefore whole nations.” 19

Sheikh Zayed’s belief in the mushrooming effect of aid meant that even something as small as a school in an area where children were being deprived of an education, would impact a far wider constituency. He believed that education would empower children, allowing them to strive for better jobs and improve the lifestyle of those around them both economically and socially.20 Ideal community-living, according to Sheikh Zayed, comprises schools to transform the prospects of children, mosques to enrich the soul, medical facilities, clean water supply and an infrastructure that could benefit millions.

Perhaps it was a utopian view, but in Sheikh Zayed’s case, it proved to work simply because his administration oversaw each step of his aid programmes. This was an

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essential aspect which contributed to the success of his funding compared to that of others.

“Altruism was at the heart of Sheikh Zayed’s aid programmes,” says Abdul Wahab Binmansour, an advisor to King Hassan of Morocco. “He never laid down conditions, nor attached demands, other than proper management structures.” 21

The Abu Dhabi Fund — and, later, the Sheikh Zayed Foundation — were altruistic in nature, and for the most part avoided the problems identified with Western aid, through careful management. “Sheikh Zayed insisted that projects were managed internally,” says Ahmed Juma Al Zaabi of the Abu Dhabi Fund. “We produced our own project studies, took care of tendering and the appointment of contractors. Nations with whom the UAE had diplomatic relations, their embassy staff would also be involved providing ‘on the ground’ reports, otherwise we had our own people in the field managing projects hands-on.” 22

On the delivery of, for instance, a hospital or a clinic, the Fund would hand over the project to a government or local authority. But the Fund’s work was not complete: Sheikh Zayed committed running costs indefinitely and, again, this would be carefully managed to ensure transparency.

“Transparency was very important to Sheikh Zayed. He demanded that everything was done clearly above board and all the money donated went directly to the project,”

Sheikh Zayed and King Hassan II of Morocco visiting a development project in the kingdom.


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says Salem Obaid Al-Dhahiri, Director General of the Sheikh Zayed Foundation. “The way he had set up our structures allowed no room for money to be diverted.”

So it was within that framework, coupled with his empathy for Morocco and his firm friendship with King Hassan, that the Western Kingdom provides an excellent case study of Sheikh Zayed’s philanthropy during the 1970s. Even now, nearly a decade since his death, Sheikh Zayed’s aid to Morocco remains obscured due to his reluctance to publicise or promote his activities.

“Sheikh Zayed and the UAE did a great deal for Morocco. His contribution touched hundreds of thousands of our citizens, whether it was through the education they had, their treatment in one of the hospitals he supported, or the employment they enjoyed through the many commercial enterprises he helped seed,” says Morocco’s influential former Prime Minister Ahmed Osman. “The impact of his humanitarian acts cannot be underestimated.” 23

The Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, Islamic Development Bank and Arab Bank for Africa, backed by billions of Abu Dhabi support, were all active in Morocco. On the ground were the OPEC Special Fund, the IMF, UNDP and UNICEF, their activities backed by UAE funds.

But multilateral aid was only a small part of the equation. Sheikh Zayed had a socio-economic objective that these large global organisations and international banks and funds could not satisfy. The Abu Dhabi Fund, backed up by the UAE Embassy in Rabat and later even an office of the Private Department of Sheikh Zayed, would form a collective that would have a profound effect upon Morocco.

He began in a small way — a clinic in Casablanca and a school in Fez were built at his personal expense in the early years of the decade. Soon, thousands of dollars had grown into millions.

“Sheikh Zayed could never stand to see poverty and suffering. He knew he could not cure all, but I know from personal experience that he certainly tried to alleviate human suffering,” said Sheikh Abdul Aziz Bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, a close advisor and friend of Sheikh Zayed. “I was with him in Casablanca, and one morning when reading the morning newspaper he spotted a story about the difficulties encountered by the people of El Jadida, a port along Morocco’s Atlantic coast.” 24

El Jadida was famed for its Portuguese fortified city, its cistern and the Manueline Church of the Assumption. Its people relied on trade for its economy, but its roads were in a dire state of repair, ruining its livelihood. Within hours after reading the newspaper report, Sheikh Zayed dispatched one of his entourage to the city to meet with the authorities and find out more. In a matter of days, he had quietly begun funding a programme of work on the town’s roads. “To my knowledge, no one has ever really known the source of that funding,” said Sheikh Abdul Aziz.

As time went on, Sheikh Zayed’s efforts in Morocco became ever more ambitious.

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Among literally hundreds of development and economic projects, just in Morocco, Sheikh Zayed supported a cotton spinning factory in Casablanca, (bottom right) schools in Fez and (bottom left) a road system in El Jadida.


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The country’s Zam Valley, running from the east of Marrakesh to the Casablanca railway, was fed by the Oum er-Rbia’ River and recognised as one of the most fertile regions in the country. It was at the heart of the nation’s cotton-growing industry. But fluctuations on the world market had led to investment in the Zam Valley’s cotton industry being curtailed. Productivity was dropping and jobs were being lost.

The Abu Dhabi Fund stepped in to invest $29 million, ($210 million in today’s money), in a modernization programme. Then, in 1976, when Casablanca faced a housing crisis, Sheikh Zayed instructed that high-rise tower blocks be built. On completion, they were handed over to the local municipality, with a provision that they remain under a rent control arrangement to allow middle- and low-income families to live in them.

To the west of the same rail link and the Middle Atlas Mountains lies the Plateau des Phosphates. Largely infertile, the Plateau nonetheless provides an estimated 75 per cent of the world’s phosphate. Morocco is the largest global producer and second-largest exporter of this salty rock but, through poor infrastructure, the nation was unable to increase its earnings and move its industry forward.

The answer was the Yellow Cape project, a massive seaport at Jorf Lasfar near Safi, Morocco’s main fishing port. Jorf Lasfar would become Morocco’s central artery for the export of phosphates, textiles and ceramics and, at its centre, a $260 million mineral shipping port.

When completed, Yellow Cape boasted docks that could accommodate 100,000 tonne vessels, eight phosphate docks, two oil tanker terminals and a dock for general exports and imports. The massive project, costing around $1.88 billion in today’s money, was beyond anything a single state or organisation could have hoped to finance.

“Sheikh Zayed was active in his support and was one of the first to be convinced of the need for a new port,” states Mostafa Terrab, Director General of the Jorf Lasfar Port Authority. “He led the effort to secure international finance which came through the UAE, international bodies, and other donor governments. Without Sheikh Zayed’s huge influence I doubt there would have been a Jorf Lasfar Port.” 25

The massive Jorf Lasfar project finally opened in 1985 and was one of two port projects in Morocco to which Sheikh Zayed was committed. In 2001 he ordered a soft-loan, at very favourable rates, for the ambitious $1 billion Tanger Med complex, situated on the Straits of Gibraltar. The Abu Dhabi Fund committed nearly a third of the total project finance, some $300 million, to the development that was estimated to create 12,000 direct and 43,000 indirect jobs.

Morocco is simply highlighted here as an example, based on statistics from the Abu Dhabi Fund, from Sheikh Zayed’s own personal philanthropic expenditure, and from the Sheikh Zayed Foundation, which was launched later and which bear out the multi-national nature of his activities in this arena.

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Jorf Lasfar under construction. Sheikh Zayed was a prime mover behind the massive Jorf Lasfar project, a port that would help inject billions into Morocco’s economy and create hundreds of thousands of jobs.


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In the three-and-a-half decades following its formation, the Abu Dhabi Fund provided Dhs 14 billion to 197 developmental projects. Additionally, the Fund was responsible for managing loans and grants made directly by the Abu Dhabi government. During this same period, the government financed 61 projects with a value of Dhs 10 billion. Together, the two gave soft-loans and outright grants worth some Dhs 24 billion, covering 258 developmental projects in 52 Developing and Third World countries.

By 1977, the UAE and Abu Dhabi governments had a combined foreign aid budget, encompassing the Abu Dhabi Fund, which had risen to $1 billion. This was the equivalent of 10 per cent of the national budget. It was 12 times the aid budget of the two most generous Western nations, Sweden and Holland, and 40 times that of the United States. This does not allow for the so-called ‘depletion factor’ suggested by World Bank President Robert McNamara, who noted that while developed nations were drawing on renewable revenues, the oil-exporting nations were spending money from their natural resources. When assessing foreign aid spending, McNamara factored in 30 per cent against spending from petro-dollars. If this were applied, UAE spending on aid would have risen to 13 per cent.

“Sheikh Zayed lived a life dominated by hope,” says HH Sheikh Hamad bin Mohammed Al Sharqi, Ruler of Fujairah. “He believed in the inherent good of humanity. If he saw a way that could help his people, or humankind in general, he would not flinch from this.” 26

The Guinea Worm or Dracunculiasis medinensis is an insidious parasite. In 1986, 3.5 million people across the Developing and Third Worlds suffered from this disease. By the mid-1990s, nations like Pakistan, India and Yemen had endemic levels of the Guinea Worm, while swathes of Africa, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, also suffered acutely.

Sheikh Zayed first became aware of this condition in the early 1980’s.27 It seems most likely that he was introduced to the parasite during a briefing from officials of the Abu Dhabi Fund on one of its projects in a country where it was endemic. “It incensed him to hear of people suffering from diseases and conditions that were essentially within the scope of humanity to eradicate,” says the former Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Obeid bin Saif Al Nassiri. The role of Sheikh Zayed in his fight against the scourge of Guinea Worm is typical of one of the least known aspects of his remarkable life.28

“Sheikh Zayed resolved to do what he could,” said Dr. Ezzeddin Ibrahim. Fresh water was the key to any effort as the worm can only be transmitted via drinking contaminated water. Thus, “Over the years, Sheikh Zayed was responsible for the boring of tens of thousands of wells, all across the Third World,” said Dr. Ezzeddin. “Today, tens of millions of people take their water from sources established by him.”

In addition to his many well projects, often financing the digging of hundreds at a

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time in different states, Sheikh Zayed donated to several national efforts in Africa to attack Dracunculiasis. “The simplicity of wiping it out attracted him,” says Al Nowais, son of a pearling boat captain. “There is no vaccine or medicine to treat or prevent Guinea Worm, but when clean water sources were provided and a larvicide wiped them out in existing water sources, it was clear that this could be the first parasitic disease to be eradicated — and the first disease to be eradicated without vaccines or medicines.”

What was required was a global force to organise such a major undertaking. One of the projects undertaken by former US President Jimmy Carter through the Carter Center, was the eradication of Guinea Worm. Today, President Carter credits Sheikh Zayed with tremendous influence in the fight, and while he may be the public face of the campaign, he has made numerous references to [his counterpart’s] Sheikh Zayed’s contributions. On November 25, 1988, President Carter wrote of a meeting between them thus: “…Sheikh Zayed is one of my favourite people, … Having already contributed about $6 million to our Guinea Worm eradication effort, he promised additional support and asked that we submit a specific request to him.” The Carter Center built upon Sheikh Zayed’s work, infused fresh impetus and direction to the battle against the worm.

Former US President Jimmy Carter introduced Sheikh Zayed to the Guinea Worm, a scourge of the Developing and Third Worlds.


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For nearly a quarter of a century, Sheikh Zayed played a central role in the eradication of the worm both on his own initiative, and later, as one of the world’s key supporters of the Carter Center and various world bodies engaged in the fight. He was in the last years of his life when those years of work began to see a decline in Guinea Worm cases. By 2004, the year of Sheikh Zayed’s passing, there were close to 16,000 cases reported, representing a near 90 per cent drop over 1986. Asia was free of Dracunculiasis!

“The late UAE President did a great deal for my country, but perhaps nothing he did could measurably have had such an impact to reduce the suffering of people in Burkina Faso as his initiatives in ridding us of the Guinea Worm,” says President Blaise Compaoré.29 Yoweri Museveni, President of the East African state of Uganda, adds: “Sheikh Zayed removed untold suffering of ordinary people through his support for my country in the fight against Dracunculiasis. His indomitable campaign saved many lives, massive suffering, and allowed generations of people to avoid the ruin caused by this menace.”30

The World Health Organisation is today monitoring Guinea Worm levels with an eye to, in the next few years, proscribing the planet free of this scourge. President Carter, who has led this remarkable effort, says: “Sheikh Zayed was one of the key parts of a global alliance that is only today on the verge of this remarkable achievement.” Carter adds: “I got to know Sheikh Zayed and learned of his work across the Developing and Third Worlds. He was an extraordinary humanitarian.” 31

As the former US President alludes, the demise of Guinea Worm is just one strand of a philanthropic legacy remarkable both for its scope, and for the quiet, understated way that Sheikh Zayed approached this aspect of his life.

If Guinea Worm is highlighted here as a remarkable example of Sheikh Zayed’s humanitarianism, and Sudan, Sri Lanka, Palestine and Morocco are included as

The UAE President funded much of the global campaign to eradicate the worm. (clockwise from top left) The Guinea Worm as it is ingested in water; a worm hangs from a child’s foot; a pump providing clean water is a solution; as is filtration.

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case studies on the impact Sheikh Zayed had on a variety of nations, then it is also worth noting the scope of Sheikh Zayed’s philanthropic legacy. Across more than 100 nations, researchers are reporting at least 25,000 water wells, dozens of orphanages, more than 100 schools, universities and places of learning, hospitals and health centres serving hundreds of thousands of people each year, and recording critical infrastructure in dozens of nations.

Only now, almost a decade on from the passing of Sheikh Zayed, are we beginning to piece together a picture of the sheer size and scope of Sheikh Zayed’s work in this field. In the UAE, we know Sheikh Zayed as the ‘Father of the Nation’. Around the world, he is considered as a leader-statesman. Now evidence is beginning to emerge that he is arguably the greatest philanthropist in history.


Women draw water from a well in Mali, West Africa.

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The UAE’s foreign aid policy and budgets were set up by Sheikh Zayed to fight the scourges of (clockwise from top left) war children, child labour, preventable childhood diseases and hunger.

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Endnotes:1. Interview with late Musallam Salem Bin Ham (2009).

Friend and aide-de-camp of Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan.2. Abu Dhabi Petroleum Company 2/4/64.

Annual Report for the Year 1963.3. Ministry of Finance 25/5/72.

Media Statement. 4. Interview with Nasser Al Nowais (2009).

Then General Manager of Abu Dhabi Fund. Now Chairman of Rotana Hotel Management Corp. Ltd.

5. Interview with HE Salem Obaid Al-Dhahiri (2009). Director General of the Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Charitable and Humanitarian Foundation.

6. Interview with HE Mahdi Al Tajir (2009). Former UAE Ambassador to the United Kingdom. Prominent Emirati Businessman based in UK.

7. Saudi Aramco World, vol. 30, no 6. Bimonthly magazine

8. Ibid.9. Interview with Nasser Al Nowais, op. cit.10. Saudi Aramco World, vol. 30, no 6, op. cit.11. Interview with late Dr. Ezzeddin Ibrahim (2009).

Culture advisor to Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan. Former Vice-Chancellor of UAE University.

12. Interview with Mahinda Rajapaksa (2009). President of Sri Lanka.

13. Interview with Hanan Ashrawi (2010). Palestinian legislator.

14. The Economist, March 1977.15. Saudi Aramco World, vol. 30, no. 6, op. cit..16. Interview with HE Dr. Mana Saeed Al Otaiba (2009).

Former UAE Minister of Petroleum & Mineral Resources. Now Personal Advisor to HH Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

17. International Monetary Fund. Review of Fund Facilities, March 2, 2000.

18. Interview with Ban Ki-Moon (2010). Eighth Secretary General of the United Nations.

19. Interview with Dr. Abdelhadi Tazi (2008). Morocco’s first Ambassador to the UAE.

20. Interview with Ibrahim Al Mahmoud. Prominent Emirati Businessman


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21. Interview with Abdul Wahab Binmansour (2008). Historian and former Advisor to the late King Hassan of Morocco.

22. Interview with HE Ahmed Juma Al Zaabi (2009). Vice Minister of Presidential Affairs. Member of the Board of the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development.

23. Interview with Ahmed Osman (2008). Former Prime Minister of Morocco.

24. Interview with late Sheikh Abdul Aziz Bin Mohammed Al Qasimi (2003). Advisor to Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan.

25. Interview with Mostafa Terrab (2008). Director General of the Jorf Lasfar Port Authority. Director General and Chairman of the Board of Trustees, OCP (Office Chérifien des Phosphates).

26. Interview with HH Sheikh Hamad Bin Mohammed Al Sharqi (2010). Ruler of Fujairah and Member of the Supreme Council of the Federation.

27. Interview with Nasser Al Nowais, op. cit.28. Interview with HE Obeid bin Saif Al Nassiri (2008).

Former Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, UAE.29. Interview with President Blaise Compaoré (2009).

President of Burkina Faso.30. Interview with Yoweri Museveni (2009).

President of Uganda.31. Interview with Jimmy Carter (2011).

Former US President. Founder of The Carter Center.

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‘In the Land of the emirates’ provides an up-to-date account of the archaeology and history of the UAE. It is written by Daniel T. Potts, Edwin Cuthbert Hall Professor of Middle Eastern Archaeology at the University of Sydney. Comparatively few archaeologists have the gift of being able to write readable text for appreciation by a wide audience. Professor Potts was involved for many years in archaeological excavations in the United Arab Emirates, most notably at the site of Tell Abraq. His prolific publication record includes a multitude of books, edited books and articles, and includes two other books aimed at a general readership, ‘Ancient Magan: The Secrets of Tell Abraq’ (2000) and ‘Feast of Dates’ (2002). These go some way towards explaining the archaeology and history of the UAE through the results of his excavations at Tell Abraq, and the importance of the date palm to the people and culture of south-east Arabia. This book naturally follows on from these two earlier appetizers. Like its predecessors, it is well laid out and designed, with excellent use of photographs and illustrations.

Book Review

In the Land of the emirates The Archaeology and History of the UAE. 2012. D.T. Potts.

Trident Press Ltd, London & Sultan Bin Zayed’s Culture and Media Centre, Abu Dhabi.219 pages. ISBN 978-1-905486-57-1.

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Literature concerning both the archaeology and history of the UAE has expanded dramatically over the course of the past decade, and much of this can be difficult for non-specialists to access. Previous syntheses of this subject are now somewhat out of date and incomplete (Kay 1988; Hellyer 1998).This new book therefore fulfills a valuable function. It is written in Dan Potts’ clear and inimitable easy to read style, which should make it accessible to a wide audience. The book is divided into ten chapters:

Chapter 1, ‘Witnesses of the past’, discusses the variable landscapes of the UAE and the physical settings of the archaeological sites in the book. Potts points out the need to be sensitive to the fact that environmental change has taken place, and that what can be seen in the landscape today is not necessarily the way it was in a given period in the past.

In chapter 2, ‘The first inhabitants’, brings the archaeological history of the UAE up-to-date by mentioning the recent discoveries of Middle Palaeolithic material at both Jebel Barakah in Abu Dhabi’s western region (Wahida et al. 2009), as well as at Jebel Fiyah in Sharjah (Armitage et al 2011). Potts neglects, however, to enter into the discussion about the now recorded presence of a regionally-specific African lithic industry in Arabia. The Late Nubian complex is known previously only from the northeast and Horn of Africa during Marine Isotope Stage 5, 128,000 to 74,000 years ago. Recently a team of archaeologists working in Dhofar in southern Oman have identified strong evidence for the existence of an Arabian Nubian Complex, and they have managed to date one particular site, Aybut Al Auwal, by two optically stimulated luminescence dates to around 106,000 years ago (Rose et al. 2011). Whilst the site of Jebel Barakah is a surface site which is difficult to precisely date, the site of Jebel Fiyah is a stratified rock shelter which has yielded a series of horizons bearing stone tools, the oldest of which dates to between 125,000 and 90,000 years ago (Armitage et al. 2011). This is the first popular archaeology book to be published in the UAE to mention this new evidence for a Palaeolithic presence in the UAE. This latest archaeological work demonstrates that a migration took place directly ‘out of Africa’, when lower sea-levels meant that the Red Sea could more easily be crossed by early humans, ‘Homo sapiens’, who then proceeded eastwards across Yemen and Oman before reaching the Emirates.

In discussing the Late Stone Age/Neolithic period there are a few errors in the text. Potts persists with use of the phrase ‘Arabian Bifacial Tradition’ (p.19), even though most archaeologists working on the Neolithic period in Arabia nowadays would no longer prefer to use this terminology, since assemblages found on sites of this period do not only contain bi-facially retouched tools. He points to the problem himself when, towards the end of the chapter, he refers to the complicating factor that some stone tools found in the UAE like retouched foliates and trihedral rods do not fit the standard toolkit, and in actual fact are types known in South Arabia. The Neolithic of Arabia is somewhat more complex than he describes and there are certainly regional

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variations, the key point being that the people in the UAE were influenced culturally not only from the Levant but also from the south.

At the site of KHM0035 at Umm az-Zamul, genuine flint debitage scatters and artefacts were discovered belonging to this period, but the three circular depressions surrounded by unworked pieces of limestone and interpreted by him as a campsite, are in actual fact the result of explosions from a seismic survey probably carried out in the early to mid 1960’s! (Cuttler et al. 2007: 69). The stone building on Marawah Island did contain a single male skeleton, but also the partial remains of at least 4 other individuals (McSweeney and Beech, in prep.), suggesting that the structure may have changed its function from a ‘house for the living’ to a ‘house for the dead’ during its use.

Potts states that the “local population of this period did not know how to make pottery, and probably did not require it in their daily lives” (p.26), and that “it would still be several thousand years before a local tradition of pottery production was developed in the UAE” (p.27). He neglects, however, to mention that:

(1) pottery present at Neolithic coastal sites in the Gulf does not only consist of greenish-buff well-fired Ubaid ware painted with geometric motifs, but also a pinkish-reddish ‘Coarseware’, which is believed to be a pottery tradition possibly originating from the Central Gulf region, although we cannot be certain. This has been found at several sites along the coast of the UAE, demonstrating that there was a regional pottery tradition within the Gulf.

(2) the inhabitants of both Delma and Marawah Islands manufactured plaster vessels with decoration on their exteriors imitating the imported Ubaid and ‘Coarseware’ pottery discovered at these sites. This shows that the Neolithic peoples of the southern Gulf cared enough to manufacture their own versions of these important items, and that they formed a cohesive social group. No such plaster vessels have been found to date on any other coastal Neolithic sites in the Gulf (Beech et al 2005: 47).

Unfortunately, when discussing the key Palaeolithic to Late Stone Age/Neolithic sites no map is provided in this chapter to show the location of any of these sites. This is despite the fact that maps do occur in other chapters in the book, including a fairly comprehensive map of archaeological sites located in the northern Emirates (p.66).

In chapter 3, ‘The appearance of monumental tombs’, the construction of Hafit-type tombs and the importance of the copper trade with Mesopotamia is discussed. In chapter 4, ‘Magan’, the important excavations carried out in February 1959 at Umm an-Nar Island by a group of Danish archaeologists put the UAE on the international map for its discovery of an important culture of the Early Bronze Age in the ancient Near East. Similar shaped and decorated pottery to that found at Umm an-Nar is known from southeastern Iran, eastern Kerman and western Baluchistan, showing important cultural contacts between these regions during this period. Documents in

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the form of inscriptions and cylinder seals refer to the trade between Mesopotamia and Magan at this time, and the continuing importance of copper being sent there via Bahrain (Dilmun). In chapter 5, ‘Restructuring in the Middle and Late Bronze Age’, Potts discusses the terminological difficulties in describing these periods, variously referred to by some archaeologists as the ‘Wadi Suq’ period or ‘Middle and Late’ Bronze Age. In chapter 6, ‘The Iron Age’, the increase in the number of sites and the spread of settlements across the region is discussed. The importance of the invention of the ‘falaj’, as well as the domestication of the camel is strongly emphasized. In chapter 7, ‘Abi’el and the polities of the pre-Islamic era’, the important archaeological sites of Mleiha and Ed-Dur are discussed, and the rich material excavated from these sites reveals maritime trade expanded greatly throughout the Western Indian Ocean during the last century BC and the first few centuries AD. In chapter 8, ‘The centuries leading up to the arrival of Islam’, several important sites are mentioned. These include the Mleiha Fort in Sharjah, as well as the settlement mound of Kush in Ras Al-Khaimah, which was occupied from the 5th to 13th century AD. Chapter 9, ‘The first centuries after the coming of Islam’, mentions the excavations of the Christian church and monastic complex on Sir Bani Yas island, as well as a series of historical texts which provide clues to the early history of the UAE. In chapter 10, ‘From the Portuguese to modernity’, we hear about the arrival of the Portuguese in the region, and see reproductions of some of the earliest most detailed maps published of the UAE. The chapter concludes with the formation of the UAE.

Rather than having a conventional bibliography the author provides a ‘Bibliographical essay’ which highlights a number of key texts published in English relating to each of the book chapters which readers can turn to for more detailed information. Many of these sources are books, which can be purchased online, or articles in journals, which may be obtained online via academic libraries. Some of these may be hard to obtain for the general public without access to certain online privileges. Certainly there is a strong argument nowadays for open access journals so that knowledge can be distributed and shared via the Internet to peer-reviewed scholarly journal articles.

Another quibble is the lack of a timeline for the non-specialist reader to appreciate the precise chronology of various periods, summarizing which key sites are present at particular moments in time. This could have been done in the form of a double-paged chart towards the rear of the book, allowing the readers to refer to it from time to time just to keep them on track.

New archaeological discoveries mean that such a book will always need regular updating. It is a pity that the book does not have an accompanying website to provide links to appropriate related online material for educational purposes. Such a website could provide lesson plans, downloadable maps and images, enabling both teachers and students to benefit from the research that went into preparing this book. Whilst the aim of the book is clearly for a general readership, it is customary nowadays to have publications linked to some related online content.

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One example of such a book with an associated website is ‘Archaeology: An Introduction’ by Kevin Greene and Tom Moore, now in its 5th edition, published in 2010 by Routledge.

Source: http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415496391/ - with its companion website, http://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/greene/.

Another more recent local example is the ‘Environmental Atlas of Abu Dhabi’, published by the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi (EAD) in 2011.Source:http://www.booksarabia.com/books_details.php?id=212,with its companion website, http://www.environmentalatlas.ae/

Let us hope that further editions of this book may be brought out in the future, and that the publishers might consider adding a similar multimedia associated online educational component. It should also be translated into Arabic, so that it may have an even wider audience, enabling it to be utilized in schools, colleges and universities throughout the GCC region and Arab-speaking world.

The book concludes with an ‘Epilogue’, which briefly summarizes the UAE’s passage to modernity. It states that “… Visitors to the area often feel that the Trucial States and the UAE were uninteresting prior to the discovery of oil. The pages of this book have, it is hoped, dispelled that myth, and replaced it with a far richer historical tapestry replete with important and interesting topics for further research and contemplation.” This book definitely does that and is currently the best introduction to the archaeology and history of the UAE available in the market place. It should be recommended reading to all students and teachers, and will be of general interest to all readers interested in the history of the UAE. The Sheikh Sultan Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Culture and Media Centre, as well as Trident Press, should be commended for publishing this excellent book.

ReferencesArmitage, S., S.A. Jasim, A.E. Marks, A.G. Parker, V.I. Usik, and H-P. Uerpmann. 2011 (28 January 2011). The Southern Route “Out of Africa”: Evidence for an Early Expansion of Modern Humans into Arabia”. Science 331(6016): 453–456. doi:10.1126/science.1199113.

Beech, M., R. Cuttler, D. Moscrop, H. Kallweit, and J. Martin. 2005. New evidence for the Neolithic settlement of Marawah Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 35: 37-56.

Cuttler, R., M. Beech, H. Kallweit, A. Zander and W.Y. Al-Tikriti. 2007. Pastoral nomadic communities of the Holocene climatic optimum: excavation and research at Kharimat Khor al-Manahiland Khor al-Manahil in the Rubal-Khali, Abu Dhabi. Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 37: 61-78.

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EAD. 2011. Environmental Atlas of Abu Dhabi. Environment Agency Abu Dhabi & Motivate Publishing, Dubai. Online interactive version: http://www.environmentalatlas.ae/ Greene, K. and T. Moore. 2010. Archaeology: An Introduction. Routledge, London. Companion website: http://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/greene/

Hellyer, P. 1998. Hidden Riches. Union National Bank, Abu Dhabi.

Kay, S. 1988. Emirates Archaeological Heritage. Motivate Publishing, Dubai.

McSweeney, K. and M. Beech. In prep. The human skeletal remains from site MR11, Marawah Island, Al Gharbia, United Arab Emirates.

Potts, D.T. 2000. Ancient Magan: The secrets of Tell Abraq. Trident Press, London.

Potts, D.T. 2002. Feast of Dates. Trident Press, London.

Rose, J., V.I. Usik, A.E. Marks, Y.H. Hilbert, C.S. Galletti, A. Parton, J.M. Geiling, V. Cerny, M.W. Morley and R.G. Roberts. 2011. The Nubian Complex of Dhofar, Oman: An African Middle Stone Age Industry in Southern Arabia. PLoS ONE 6(11): e28239. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0028239.

Wahida, G., W.Y. al-Tikriti, M. Beech and A. al-Meqbali. 2009. Middle Palaeolithic Assemblage in Abu Dhabi Emirate: The view from Jebel Barakah. Pages 23-36 (english version); Pages 23-37 (arabic version). In: New Perspectives on Recording UAE History. Proceedings of the International History Conference, New Perspectives on Recording UAE History, National Center for Documentation and Research 40th Anniversary Conference (23-25 November 2008). National Center for Documentation and Research, Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Mark J. Beech Historic Environment Department, Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi).