From The Beginning :

Early Settlement
This part of Arabia has been settled for millennia. Archaeological remains found in Al-Qusais, on the northeastern outskirts of present-day Dubai, show evidence of human remains as far back as 8000 BC, after the end of the last ice age. Up until 3000 BC the area supported nomadic herders of sheep, goats and cattle. These early inhabitants camped on the coast and fished during winter, and moved inland with their herds during summer. The first signs of trade emerge with the discovery of pottery from Ubaid (in present-day Iraq) dating back to 5000 BC. Agriculture developed with the cultivation of the date palm around 2500 BC, which not only provided food and a range of materials for building and weaving, but also shelter for smaller plants grown for food. Archaeological evidence also suggests that this area, together with present-day Oman, was closely associated with the Magan civilisation during the Bronze Age. It is thought that the Magans dominated the ancient world's copper trade, exploiting the rich veins of copper in the hills throughout the Hajar Mountains and especially near Sohar, in Oman. It is also likely that they traded pearls in Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq) and with the Indus Civilisation, in present-day Pakistan. All records of the Magan civilisation cease after the 2nd millennium BC and some historians have speculated that the desertification of the area hastened its demise; others have argued that its importance may have been diminished by the growing reliance on iron over copper for the manufacture of weapons and tools. There is little archaeological evidence of occupation during the Iron Age and the next major habitation of the area appears to have been by the Sassanian empire Archaeological excavations at Jumeirah. about 10km south of Dubai Creek, have revealed a caravan station dating from the 6th century AD, which is thought to have links with this empire. The Sassanids were a dynastv who ruled in Persia from 224 to 636 and wielded power over the region from about the 3rd century' AD until the Umayyads, a Damascus-based Islamic dynasty, uprooted them in the 7th century. Archaeologists believe that the buildings at Jumeirah were restored and extended by the Umayyad dynasty, making it the only site in the UAE to span the pre-Islamic and Islamic periods. The Umayyads brought with them the Arabic language and joined the region with the Islamic world. Christianity had made a brief appearance in the region in the form of the Nestorian sect, members of which had a monastery on Sir Bani Yas Island, west of Abu Dhabi, in the 5th century. It was the arrival of Islam, however, that shaped the future of the region. The early Islamic period, from the 7th to the 14th century, hasn't been well documented in the UAE. It is known that during this period the area was loosely under the control of the Umayyads and their successors the Abbasids. After the Baghdad-based Abbasid dynasty went into decline, the centre of power in the Islamic world shifted to Cairo, leaving the UAE isolated on the periphery. In the absence of centralised control, the tribes of the Arabian Peninsula asserted themselves in the hinterlands, while the coastal regions were dominated by trading ports such as Julfar, near present-day Ras al-Khaimah, and Hormuz, an island in the Strait of Hormuz.In the early Islamic period, the Gulf experienced a boom in maritime trade due to its location on the major trade routes between the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean. Trade soon became the backbone of the local economy as ships travelled as far as China, returning laden with silk and porcelain. The West was first to hear about the settlement in Dubai from two Italian explorers: Gasparo Balbi and Marco Polo. In 1580 Marco Polo described Dubai as a prosperous town, largely dependent on pearl fishing.

EUROPEAN PRESENCE
Attracted by the lucrative trade routes with India and the Far East, in the late 16th century Portugal became the first European power to take an interest in this part of the Gulf coast. Its occupation of the area lasted until the 1630s and eventually extended as far north as Bahrain. The arrival of the well-armed Portuguese was a disaster for the Muslim traders. The Portuguese wanted a monopoly on trade routes between Europe and India and they tolerated no rivals. Local trade dried up to the extent that many coastal settlements were practically abandoned, and the tribes took refuge in oases far from the coast, such as Liwa and Al-Ain. The two cannons on display at the Dubai Museum are the only evidence of the Portuguese presence in the area. The French and the Dutch subsequently infiltrated the area in the 17th and 18th centuries, both aspiring to control the trading routes to the east. The British were equally intent on ruling the seas in order to protect the sea route to India, and in 1766 the Dutch finally gave way to Britain's East India Company, which had established trading links with the Gulf as early as 1616. Throughout this time Dubai remained a small fishing and pearling hamlet, perched on a disputed border between two local powers - the seafaring Qawasim of present-day Ras al-Khaimah and Sharjah to the north, and the Bani Yas tribal confederation of what is now Abu Dhabi to the south. The region was also affected by the rivalries between bigger regional powers - the Wahhabi tribes of what is now Saudi Arabia, the Ottoman Empire, the Persians and the British.

THE TRUCIAL COAST
At the turn of the 19th century, Dubai was governed by Mohammed bin Hazza who remained ruler of Dubai until the Al-Bu Fasalah, a branch of the Bani Yas tribe from Abu Dhabi, came to dominate the town in 1833, severing it from Abu Dhabi. The Bani Yas were the main power among the Bedouin tribes ot the interior. Originally based in Liwa, an oasis on the edge of the desert known as the Empty Quarter (Rub' al-Khali), in the south of the UAE, they engaged in the traditional Bedouin activities of camel herding, small-scale agriculture, tribal raiding and extracting protection money from merchant caravans passing through their territory. At the end ot the 18th century, the leader of the Bani Yas moved from Liwa to the island of Abu Dhabi on the coast.About 800 people from this tribe settled by the Creek in Bur Dubai under the leadership of Maktoum bin Butti, who established the Al-Maktoum dynasty of Dubai, which still rules the emirate today. For Maktoum bin Butti, good relations with the British authorities in the Gulf were essential to safeguard his new and small sheikhdom against attack from the larger and more powerful sheikhdoms of Sharjah to the north and Abu Dhabi to the south. In 1841 the Bur Dubai settlement extended to Deira on the northern side of the Creek, though throughout the 19th century Dubai largely remained a tiny enclave of fishermen, pearl divers, Bedouin, and Indian and Persian merchants. The Indian and Persian (now Iranian) merchants still give much of the CreeK its character today. Things began to change, however, around the end of the 19th century. In 1892 the British, keen to impose their authority on the region and protect their empire in India, extended their power through a series of so-called exclusive agreements under which the sheikhs accepted formal British protection and, in exchange, promised to have no deal ings with any other foreign power without British permission. As a result of these treaties, or truces, Europeans took to calling the area the Trucial Coast, a name that was retained until the 1971 federation. At the end of the 19th century, Sharjah, the area's main trading centre, began losing its trade prosperity to Dubai. In 1894 Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Maktoum bin Hasher al-Maktoum, permitted tax exemption for foreign traders and the free port of Dubai was born -something that exists to this day. Around the same time Lingah (now Bandar-e Langeh), across the Strait of Hormuz in Iran, lost its status as a duty-free port, and the Al-Maktoum family made a concerted effort to lure Lingah's disillusioned traders to Dubai while also managing to convince some of Sharjah's merchants to relocate. At first the Persians who came to Dubai believed that it would just be a temporary move, but by the 1920s, when it became evident that the trade restrictions in southern Iran were there to stay, they took up permanent residence. More good news for the town came in the early 20th century when the Al-Maktoums, probably with the assistance of the Persian traders, prevailed on a British steamship line to switch its main port of call in the lower Gulf from Lingah to Dubai. This gave Dubai regular links with British India and the ports of the central and northern Gulf- Bahrain. Kuwait, Bushehr and Basra. Dubai's importance to Britain as a port of call would remain in place for half a century, marking the beginning of Dubai's growth as a trading power and fuelling the prosperity that would soon follow.

THE EXPANDING CITY
By the turn of the 20th century, Dubai was well established as an independent town, with a population of about 10,000. Deira was the most populous area at this time with about 1600 houses,inhabited mainly by Arabs but also by Persians and Baluchis who came from parts of what are now Pakistan and Afghanistan. By 1908 there were about 350 shops based in Deira and another 50 in Bur Dubai, where the Indian community was concentrated. To this day the Bur Dubai Souq shows a strong Indian influence and is home to the only Hindu temple in Dubai. The development of Dubai as a major trading centre was spurred on by the collapse of the pearling trade, which had been the mainstay of Dubai's economy for centuries. The pearling trade fell victim both to the worldwide depression of 1929 and to the Japanese discovery, in 1930, of a method by which pearls could be cultured artificially. Sheikh Rashid concluded that the pearling industry was almost certainly finished and started to look for alternative forms of revenue. This chain of events heralded a new era in Dubai's trade - reexporting . The rise of this trade was spurred on by WWII and continued to flourish thereafter. The next key event in Dubai's expansion occurred in 1939 when Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed al-Maktoum took over as regent from his father, Sheikh Saeed, but only formally succeeded to the leadership when his father died in 1958. He quickly moved to bolster the emirate's position as the main trading hub in the lower Gulf. At about the same time, the rulers of Sharjah made the costly mistake of allowing their harbour to silt up, while in Dubai Sheikh Rashid was fast improving facilities along the Creek. In January 1940 war broke out briefly between Dubai and Sharjah. In 1951 the Trucial States Council was founded, bringing the leaders of what would become the UAE together. The council comprised the rulers of the sheikhdoms and was the direct predecessor of the UAE Supreme Council. It met twice a year under the aegis ol the British political agent in Dubai. The end of the war, India's independence and the decline of the British Empire saw the end of Britain's presence in the region and prompted the establishment of the UAE. Before withdrawing from the region, the British set in motion the means by which the borders that now make up the UAE were drawn. Incredibly this involved a British diplomat spending months riding a camel around the mountains and desert asking village heads, tribal lead ers and Bedouin which sheikh they swore allegiance to. The British withdrawal and the discovery of oil accelerated the modernisation of the region. For more on modernisation and development.