DUBAI - Historical Background Of Al Maktoum Family.

Dubai's history is like that of Abu Dhabi and reflects the history of their ruling families who originated from the Bani Yas tribes of Arabia. The Maktoums of Dubai are part of the Bu Falasa, a branch of the Bani Yas, like the Bu Falah branch which moved to Abu Dhabi. The Bu Falasa settled in Dubai during the 18th century. In 1833 the tribe made it an independent entity under Maktoum Bin Buti Bin Suhail. This was disputed by the rulers of Abu Dhabi and Sharjah; but it preserved its independence, as the Trucial Coast became a British protectorate late in the 19th century.

Family violence among the Bu Falasa occurred as Maktoum Bin Buti died in 1852. His younger brother Said Bin Buti took over as the second ruler of Dubai. While Maktoum's son Hasher was too young to succeed his father, Said claimed the line of succession should pass among brothers. But he was killed and succeeded by Maktoum's son Hasher in 1859. Violence persisted in Hasher's reign. When he died in 1886 the rulership was taken forcibly by his younger brother Rashid Bin Maktoum. Hasher's sons, Maktoum and Majid, had to hide for fear of being assassinated by their uncle.

Rashid Bin Maktoum is a name to remember. In the 1930s his sons tried to topple Shaikh Said, a grandson of Hasher and grandfather of the currently ruling sons of Rashid Bin Said. Theirs was a "revolt of the Municipality Council". When Rashid Bin Maktoum died in 1894, the rulership went to his nephew Maktoum, who defeated his younger uncle Suhail. But Suhail's son Buti campaigned against Maktoum and his claim to the throne was backed by the sons of Rashid - Said, Buti, Suhail, Mana, Hasher and Maktoum. Maktoum Bin Hasher was killed in 1906 and the rulership was taken by force by Buti Bin Suhail. However, Buti was defeated in the ensuing violence and, on his death in 1912 the rulership was taken by Said Bin Maktoum. Said's weak personality encouraged the sons of Rashid Bin Maktoum (ruler in 1886-1894) to stage a coup in the 1930s. But Said's son, Rashid (the previous ruler) defeated them in 1938 and became the "Regent of Dubai". Rashid Bin Said became Dubai's 8th ruler in 1958, on the death of his father.

The Deira Movement: In his campaign against the "Bani Rashid" group, in 1934, young Rashid and his mother Hessa asked the admiral of the British Navy in the Gulf to arbitrate between his father and his cousins. British intervention saved the throne for the house of Shaikh Said. That was in 1938. Later in that year, Said's opponents again tried to take power by urging the Municipal Council to control public spending. Young Rashid, in league with tribal shaikhs unfriendly to his father's opponents, seized the opportunity of an incident at a wedding in Deira and, under the guise of re-establishing order, opened fire. The "Bani Rashid" brothers Said, Buti and Hasher were killed. Shortly thereafter, a younger brother of the "Bani Rashid" - Shaikh Mana Bin Rashid - resumed the war and helped set up a new Municipal Council, to rival Said's. This council absorbed most of the revenues of Said's office. Its power base was Deira, on the northern side of the emirate's creek, while the power base of Said's "Emiri Diwan" was Dubai, on the southern side.

Weeks later young Rashid Bin Said, as "regent" of Dubai, led another attack against Mana's Municipal Council. In 1958 Rashid became the ruler of Dubai and renewed attacks against Mana's "Municipal Council gang", also known as the Deira Movement, as opposed to Rashid's "Dubai Front". As Rashid's forces defeated them, the "gang" had to flee to Sharjah and Abu Dhabi. Some of them settled in Al Ain, where they entered into business and had the support of Shaikh Zayed, who was governor of the Al Ain as they arrived, while Shaikh Tahnoun backed Rashid's sons.

Having eliminated the old "Municipal Council", Shaikh Rashid set out to unify both sides of the creek - Dubai and Deira. To neutralise the "Bani Rashid" alliance with Shaikhs Shakhbut and Zayed, Rashid in the late 1930s had married Shaikha Latifa Bint Hamdan, the daughter of a ruler of Abu Dhabi who had been assassinated by Zayed's father, Sultan Al Nahyan.

In the 1960s, Shaikh Rashid made Dubai a regional trading centre, and married his daughter to the ruler of Qatar, Shaikh Ahmad Bin Ali Al Thani. Qatar then was the second richest oil state on the Arab side of the Gulf next to Kuwait. As Ahmad poured money into Dubai, Rashid turned his emirate into a "family corporation", with an elite of local merchant families as "junior partners" including the Ghurairs, the Futtaims, the Naboodahs, the Galadaris, the Lootas, etc. Rashid's laissez-faire attitude helped Dubai become the busiest trading and entertainment spot in the Gulf before oil was discovered in 1966.

In 1966 Zayed became ruler of Abu Dhabi and began moves towards setting up the UAE. Despite the creation of the UAE in Dec. 1971, Rashid continued to maintain Dubai's economic independence. Politically there was more co-operation, but only as long as the federal apparatus did not infringe on the sovereignty of Dubai. Zayed's subsequent proposals for a tight federation and a permanent constitution were not well received in Dubai. By the mid-1970s a power struggle had developed between Zayed and Rashid. Matters came to a head in 1979 over a draft Permanent Constitution which the UAE National Council and cabinet had prepared for submission to the Supreme Council. The provisional constitution of Dec. 1971 provided a transitional period of five years before it could be revised or replaced. In 1976, a slight revision was introduced to enable the federal authorities to have a unified military command and united judiciary. Dubai had been opposed to all that. So Rashid and Saqr of Ras Al Khaimah refused to attend a Supreme Council meeting on March 27, 1979. For almost six months, the deadlock between Abu Dhabi and each of Dubai and Ras Al Khaimah prevented the Supreme Council from resuming its meetings.

Mediations by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait as well as the other UAE rulers provided rapport between Zayed and Rashid and reduced differences on the unification of the armed forces (which Rashid resisted) and preservation of the provisional constitution (which Rashid wanted). Time and again Rashid stated that the drive towards the union should not be pushed too soon in order to consolidate the federal system and overcome "obstacles which might impede the achievement of national goals".

It was in May 1996, six years after Rashid's death, that finally Dubai agreed to a permanent constitution. In late 1997, as people matured and Dubai needed to shift its high defence costs to Abu Dhabi, Mohammed Bin Rashid got his army to be integrated into the federal system (see OMT).