Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Note on Transliteration
- Abbreviations and Acronyms
- Foreword
- Introduction
- Part I The Heritage
- Part II The Transformation
- Chapter 4 The Imperative for Change
- Chapter 5 A New Ruler Acclaimed
- Chapter 6 Building a New Abu Dhabi
- Part III The Union
- Part IV The Legacy
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Select Bibliography
- Index
- Plate Section
Chapter 4 - The Imperative for Change
from Part II - The Transformation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Note on Transliteration
- Abbreviations and Acronyms
- Foreword
- Introduction
- Part I The Heritage
- Part II The Transformation
- Chapter 4 The Imperative for Change
- Chapter 5 A New Ruler Acclaimed
- Chapter 6 Building a New Abu Dhabi
- Part III The Union
- Part IV The Legacy
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Select Bibliography
- Index
- Plate Section
Summary
During the 1950s, the emirate of Abu Dhabi experienced disparate paces of development in the settlements of Abu Dhabi and al Ain. Edward Henderson described the island of Abu Dhabi as he had first seen it in 1948, accompanied by Wilfred Thesiger. They stayed in “the only substantial house on the seashore,” Bait al Shamali. Recalling his visit, Henderson later wrote:
Since the death of the great Zayed bin Khalifah in the early years of this century, trading from Abu Dhabi had gone down hill… The souk was tiny, and the majority of houses in which the inhabitants lived were of the palm-branch, barasti type. The foreshore of the island was three to four miles in length, and the town occupied only a tiny fraction of this. There was a thin scattered line of date palms just inland of the coast, and there was the cluster of huts which formed the town; then near the palm trees, the large fort.
The Abu Dhabi settlement was to change very little during the ensuing decade. The Ruler's residence was enlarged after 1949, but it remained austere rather than luxurious. The creation of the Development Office by the British government promised change for the future, but in reality little evidence of development was seen in Abu Dhabi. Rather, the limited funds available were distributed between Shaikh Zayid's falaj program in al Ain, the building of a school in Sharjah and a new hospital building in Dubai.
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- With United StrengthHH Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan: The Leader and the Nation, pp. 103 - 126Publisher: Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and ResearchPrint publication year: 2013