ABU DHABI

The largest, wealthiest, and most powerful of the seven shaykhdoms that make up the United Arab Emirates (UAE); also, the capital city.

Abu Dhabi's 28,000 square miles (75,520 square kilometers) make up 87 percent of the federation's area, and its 1.3 million inhabitants comprise about 40 percent of its population. Its terrain is mostly flat and rocky, with areas of dunes in the interior, and salt flats and numerous islands along the coast. Abu Dhabi City, the capital of the emirate and the country, occupies one of these islands. In the eastern part of the emirate lies its second most important city, al-Ayn, which grew from a small village within the Buraymi Oasis. In the western part of the emirate slight rainfall collects in depressions to create the arc of oases called al-Liwa. Abu Dhabi possesses 90 percent of the UAE's approximately 100 billion barrels of oil reserves and 60 percent of its significant gas reserves.

The al-Nahayyan section of the Banu Yas tribal confederation has dominated the political history of the region for more than 200 years. According to the founding legend of the emirate, a hunting party of the Bani Yas followed a gazelle across a shallow ford to an island in the Persian (Arabian) Gulf. After the discovery of water around 1761, a small settlement was established, which was named Abu Dhabi, "Land of the Gazelle." Shakhbut bin Diyab, ruler of the Bani Yas, had a small fort built over the settlement's well, and he moved his seat of power to the island from al-Liwa. The coral block, adobe, and timber fort was the largest structure in Abu Dhabi for most of the town's history and was first mentioned in a written source in 1791. Because of its proximity to rich oyster banks in the Gulf, in the nineteenth century Abu Dhabi was host to many pearling ships. Before the discovery of oil, the principal means of livelihood for the emirate's inhabitants were diving for pearls in the summer and engaging in animal herding and oasis agriculture (mainly in al-Liwa and al-Ayn) during the rest of the year. The rulers of Abu Dhabi signed a series of treaties with Britain in the nineteenth century that put them under the Empire's protection.

The wholesale transformation of the emirate began in the 1960s with the advent of increasing revenues from oil exports. Under the rule of Zayid ibn Sultan al-Nahayyan, which began in 1966, a modern infrastructure and a large range of social services were established. Following the 1968 British announcement of impending withdrawal of military and political protection, Zayid convinced the rulers of the other emirates who were part of Trucial Oman, as the British protectorate was known, to form the UAE. Because of the prestige of its ruling family, and especially the magnitude of its oil and gas revenues, Abu Dhabi dominates the UAE politically and economically. These economic endowments helped to fund the construction of modern international airports, universities, hospitals, museums, towering hotels and office buildings, and a modern communications and transportation infrastructure where only fifty years earlier there were simple palm-frond huts and dusty paths.

see also al nahayyan family; ayn, al-; buraymi oasis dispute; dubai; raʾs alkhayma; rub al-khali; sharjah.

Bibliography

Hoogland, Eric, and Toth, Anthony. "United Arab Emirates." In Persian Gulf States: Country Studies, 3d edition, edited by Helen Chapin Metz. Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 1994.

Peck, Malcolm C. The United Arab Emirates: A Venture in Unity. Boulder, CO: Westview Press; London: Croom Helm, 1986.

Zahlan, Rosemarie Said. The Origins of the United Arab Emi-rates: A Political and Social History of the Trucial States. New York: St. Martin's Press; London: Macmillan, 1978.

Malcolm C. Peck

Updated by Anthony B. Toth

Abu Dhabi , Arab. Abu Zabi, sheikhdom (1995 pop. 928,360), c.26,000 sq mi (67,300 sq km), part of the federation of seven United Arab Emirates , SE Arabia, on the Persian Gulf. The sheikhdom is the largest in the federation; in it is located the city of Abu Dhabi (1995 pop. 398,695), founded c.1760 and the second largest city in the United Arab Emirates. The city of Abu Dhabi became the provisional capital of the United Arab Emirates when it was formed in 1971.

The history of Abu Dhabi was marked by violence within the ruling dynasty, and Abu Dhabi frequently clashed with the neighboring sheikhdom of Sharjah . In 1892 the sheikhdom became a British protectorate. There was a long period of tranquillity during the rule (1928-66) of Sheikh Shakhbut ibn Sultan, broken only by a war between Abu Dhabi and Dubai from 1945 to 1948. The pearling industry that once thrived in Abu Dhabi declined after oil was discovered there in the early 1960s. The abundant oil revenues have been used for development and modernization. The current ruler is Sheikh Khalifa ibn Zaid Al Nahayan, who succeeded his father when the latter died in 2004.

Abu Dhabi (Abū Ẓaby), United Arab Emirates Abothubbee The largest and wealthiest of the seven emirates of the UAE; the city of Abu Dhabi is the capital of the UAE. Literally, the name means the ‘Father, abū, of Ẓaby’, a personal name derived from z̳ab ‘gazelle’. According to legend, in 1761 a Bani Yas hunting party from Liwa Oasis found a gazelle drinking at a spring around which a fort was built in 1793. Under the terms of an Exclusive Agreement in 1892, the UK took control of Abu Dhabi's foreign affairs in return for British protection until independence was achieved 1971. The British Royal Navy mapped the coastline of the Emirates in the 1830s and referred to Abu Dhabi as Abothubbee.

Abu Dhabi (Abu Zaby) Largest and wealthiest of the seven United Arab Emirates, lying on the s coast of the Persian Gulf. Also the name of its capital city (1995 pop. 398,695), federal capital of the UAE. It has been ruled since the 18th century by the Al-bu-Falah clan of the Bani Yas tribe. There are long-standing frontier disputes with Saudi Arabia and Oman. Since the discovery of oil in the late 1950s, Abu Dhabi's economy has been based almost entirely on crude oil production. It has an international airport and a modern container port. Area: 67,340sq km (26,000sq mi). Pop. (1995) 942,463.

Abu Dhabi, see United Arab Emirates

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