History of Dubai

           

The United Arab Emirates is located on the southeast coast of the Persian Gulf coast. The UAE consists of 7 Emirates, which are essentially states that are run by 7 different families. Those emirates are: Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Ras Al Khaimah, Fujairah & Umm Al Quwain. The 7 emirates were previously “trucial states,” until the year 1972 when they became united. The capital of the United Arab Emirates is Abu Dhabi, which, along with Dubai, are the only two emirates have veto power over critical matters of national importance in the country's legislature. Dubai is where I grew up, so that’s what I’ll focus on now. Itsi is Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who is a member of the leading royal family of Dubai, the Al Maktoum family. Dubai is one of the most beautiful places in the Middle East with year-round sunshine, intriguing deserts, beautiful beaches, luxurious hotels and shopping malls, fascinating heritage attractions and a thriving business community. In addition to its vibrant population, Dubai receives millions of leisure and business visitors each year from around the world.

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Pre-Modern Dubai

         

 

Growing up in Dubai was a totally unique experience in my life. When I was a young boy, it was mostly desert. However, it kept evolving and by time I was in my teens and early twenties, Dubai was the most famous city in Middle East and became one of the top visited place in Middle East. During the late 90’s Dubai had very few places that would attract tourists. I remember everywhere it was just pure sand and hardly any buildings that could have been seen from a far distance. It didn’t have any parks or any kind of malls, and even the airport hardly had any fences around the runway. All these malls and attractive buildings that are there now were not even imagined as ever being there one day. During my childhood, we were mostly unaware of any foreigners in the country as it was not diverse back then. For the most part, any foreigners were from South Asia, but very few were from any of the western part of the world. In that time, every visitor, regardless of nationality, followed their own cultures strongly, as if they were in their own country, and the locals never had any objections on that. The Emirati people are very welcoming and generous in their approach to visitors, which encouraged foreigners to move to Dubai. These were the few characteristics of the city that created interest among western countries in Dubai and its potential as a big city.

 

Modern Dubai

       

 

Later, in the early 2000s, is when Dubai actually started moving towards modernity in its physical structures and when it started adapting western cultures. People from the USA, U.K, Australia and many other countries were invited to Dubai to start this transition from a premodern city to the modern city it is today. People started investing more and more in Dubai, and it eventually became the main hub of Business in the Middle East. More and more people moved to Dubai from every different corner of world, and as such, there had to be appropriate living spaces which led Dubai to do more construction and to develop faster. As the city was rich in jobs, that, too, made the royals to decide to build more tourist attractions throughout Dubai. It now has many different attractions which make people visit Dubai. The number of tourist has, and will, continually increasing over the years.

 

Reality

           

 

When people think of the Middle East, they automatically assume that it would be identical to how the writers and other media have explained in their books, movies, etc. But it’s not necessarily true; in order to really see the countries in the Middle East, one has to visit and see how they are for themselves. Dubai is definitely not exactly the same as western countries, nor is it trying to be exactly the same, but still is very much similar to them. In terms of religion, Islam is very important to the native inhabitants of the land who still are the majority of the population. But despite Islam’s importance to the royals and the population, the city allows every religion to build up their own praying facilities and does not disrespect them for who they are. Further, other rules and laws are not bound by religion or culture; everyone is free to do what they want. Most importantly, nobody is ashamed if they are religious or not. Finally, when I’m with my friends in Dubai, we do things that would be fun to anyone from around the globe; we hang out, play soccer, go out at night, and more. Living in Dubai is special with all of its attractive places like deserts, buildings, parks, malls, food bazaars, beaches, a great night lift and so much more. Dubai is definitely breaking the mold and the stereotypes of what most people expect when they think of the Middle East.