Amid Shifting Sands: Ancient History, Explosive Growth, Climate Change and the Uncertain Future of the United Arab Emirates

By James Gordon Nelson

The United Arab Emirates are renowned for their enormous production of oil and the rise of great cities like Dubai and Abu Dhabi, which attract millions of tourists annually. It is as if the great aridity of the country did not exist. Yet the UAE is essentially a vast desert, thinly peopled for thousands of years by nomads, grazing sheep, camels and growing a few crops in great oases like Al Ain and Liwa. Early people used spears and falcons to hunt rich populations of oryx, gazelle, ibex, and the iconic migratory bird, the houbara. These animals were decimated by the introduction of European vehicles and guns in the 1920s, and later by the oil boom in the 1950s and 1960s. Today the desert is virtually devoid of these wild animals. This and many other fascinating little-known highlights of the complex history of the lands now known as the UAE are revealed in this book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Dec 16, 2022
• ISBN: 9781398479562

James Gordon Nelson

Gordon Nelson is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of Waterloo, Canada. He has undertaken research, consulting, teaching, and administrative work in many parts of Canada, the United States, Europe, Asia, and the Caribbean. He has published numerous books, monographs, and articles in the broad fields of geography, human ecology and planning. He lived in Dubai for nearly a year in 2009-10 and has returned to the United Arab Emirates frequently since. He has received awards from organizations such as the Canadian government, the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, The Royal Canadian Geographical Society, and the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario. Professor Amer Rghei has a PH.D., The University of Waterloo, and a M.Arch., McGill University, Canada. He has lived, taught and done research in architecture, interior design, and environmental planning at a number of universities in United Arab Emirates and other countries for close to twenty years. His research and educational work has taken him to many countries including China, India, Yemen, Libya, Morocco, Spain, and other parts of Europe and North America. He has delivered invited lectures and participated in conferences in Korea, Libya, Jordan, Malaysia, Poland, Australia, Canada and elsewhere.

Book preview

Amid Shifting Sands

Ancient History, Explosive Growth,

Climate Change and the Uncertain

Future of the United Arab Emirates

James Gordon Nelson and Amer

Rghei

Austin Macauley Publishers

Amid Shifting Sands

About the Author

Dedication

Copyright Information ©

Introduction

Clarifications

Chapter 1: European Exploration and Travel

Chapter 2: Early Peopling

Chapter 3: From Nomadism to an Urban Nation

Chapter 4: Explosive Growth and Conservation

Chapter 5: Gardens, Parks, and Protected Areas in Dubai

Chapter 6: From Souks to Malls

Chapter 7: The Mosque of Sheikh Zayed

Chapter 8: Al Ain: An Ancient Oasis

Chapter 9: A Trip to Al Ain

Chapter 10: A Trip to Liwa and the Edge of the Empty Quarter

Chapter 11: A Trip to Ras Al Khaimah and the Northern Emirates

Chapter 12: Fujairah and the Northeast Coast

Chapter 13: The Musandam Peninsula: An Icon of Natural and Cultural Heritage

Photographs

List of Figures

Figure 1: – The United Arab Emirates

Figure 2: – Routes Across the Sands (Taylor, 2005)

Figure 3: – Possible Homo erectus Migration Routes into Arabia (Vincent, 2008)

Figure 4: – Political Units (Emirates) of the United Arab Emirates

Figure 5: Marine and Coastal Habitats in Abu Dhabi Emirate (Abu Dhabi State of the Environment, 2007)

Figure 6: Gardens and Meadows around Samarkand (Wilber, 1979)

Figure 7: Hydrography of Water Level Decline at Hili since the Bronze Age (Jorgensen and Al Tikriti, 2002)

Figure 8: Mud-Brick Vault Types (Van Beek, 1987)

Figure 9: Archaeological sites with Brick Arches and Vaults (Van Beek, 1987)

Figure 10: United Arab Emirates, Oman and Musandam Peninsula (Hellyer and Aspinall, 2005)

Figure 11: Schematic of Late Tectonic History of Hajar Mountains (Hellyer and Aspinall, 2005)

About the Author

Gordon Nelson is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of Waterloo, Canada. He has undertaken research, consulting, teaching, and administrative work in many parts of Canada, the United States, Europe, Asia, and the Caribbean. He has published numerous books, monographs, and articles in the broad fields of geography, human ecology and planning. He lived in Dubai for nearly a year in 2009-10 and has returned to the United Arab Emirates frequently since. He has received awards from organizations such as the Canadian government, the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, The Royal Canadian Geographical Society, and the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario.

Professor Amer Rghei has a PH.D., The University of Waterloo, and a M.Arch., McGill University, Canada. He has lived, taught and done research in architecture, interior design, and environmental planning at a number of universities in United Arab Emirates and other countries for close to twenty years. His research and educational work has taken him to many countries including China, India, Yemen, Libya, Morocco, Spain, and other parts of Europe and North America. He has delivered invited lectures and participated in conferences in Korea, Libya, Jordan, Malaysia, Poland, Australia, Canada and elsewhere.

Dedication

To the early people who survived in the desert and made it their home.

With the research, editorial and technical assistance of Shirley Nelson.

Copyright Information ©

James Gordon Nelson and Amer Rghei 2022

The right of James Gordon Nelson and Amer Rghei to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by the authors in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

The story, the experiences and the writing are the authors’ alone.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781398479555 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781398479562 (ePub e-book)

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Introduction

Along the west coast of the legendary Arabian Gulf lies the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a young country with an important natural and human history, poorly understood by most Europeans and North Americans. (Figure 1) Many westerners envision the UAE primarily as the site of the fascinating cities of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. These cities boomed within a few decades from sparsely populated coastal villages of traditional small palm frond and adobe houses and ancient stone forts into towering sky scrapers and expanding urban centres after the discovery and rapid development of huge deposits of oil in the mid-to-late twentieth century. The two cities became magnets for maritime and airborne trade and travel, attracting millions of residents and visitors, and billions of dollars annually. In the 1970s and 1980s they rose majestically from small places focusing on Indian Ocean and Middle Eastern trade to huge commercial centres playing a significant role in the global economy.

Yet this is far from the first time that the lands and waters of the UAE and the Arabian Gulf have risen to prominence on the global stage. From about the eighth to the sixteenth centuries, places like Ras Al Khaimah (Figure 1) occupied important positions in the economic systems of the time. Ancient Gulf ports, small as they were in present terms, were involved in wide ranging trade that included exchanges in copper, wood, pearls, ivory, fish, and enslaved people among the places and countries of the Gulf, the Indian Ocean, and inland areas in the Middle East. Much of the trade depended upon camel caravans traversing ancient desert pathways. A surprising amount took place by dhows and other watercraft crossing long stretches of seas and oceans to India, Malaysia, and China as well as the coasts of Africa. We owe thanks to Iman Rghei and Nadine Rghei for the enhanced photograph on the cover of this book and to the design staff of Austin Macauley and David Nelson for the cover design.

Figure 1 – The United Arab Emirates

In the last several decades, archaeological research has uncovered evidence to show that such trade and interchange was far older than the eighth to sixteenth centuries. Digs at sites such as Meziyrah in the Liwa oasis and Ras Al Khaimah on the Gulf Coast show that extensive trade in copper, bronze, jewellery, pottery, and other commodities was occurring on an international scale at least 5,500 years ago when Europe was still 3,000 years away from the emergence of the Roman Empire. Copper from the Hajar Mountains of what are now the UAE and neighbouring Oman, was part of a trade network that carried goods to Uruk and other ancient cities in the lower Tigris-Euphrates River delta and Mesopotamia.

Information on the rise of Dubai and Abu Dhabi is available because of scientific and scholarly research and publications in the last several decades. Tourism, advertising, personal experience, and accessible sources such as Wikipedia have enhanced awareness of the two great cities. To think of Dubai is to think of a huge expanding airport; spectacular hotels and sky scrapers; the historically inspired Ibn Battuta Mall; the old spice and gold markets or souks; the Jumeirah resort; dredged offshore residential islands like The Palm; long, sandy tropical beaches; and, international tennis and golf matches on green irrigated playing fields.

Abu Dhabi is more austere and Islamic in tone but still offers: innovative museums such as a branch of the Paris Louvre; numerous mosques of various sizes and splendour, including the magnificent grand mosque in memory of the first ruler of the UAE, Sheikh Zayed; a spectacular waterfront and neighbouring islands; tropical Gulf waters; dugong, turtle, and other wildlife; the Marawah Marine Protected Area; a sprawling international airport; numerous universities; and the buildings and other infrastructure of the national government.

Beyond the glitter of Dubai and the formality of Abu Dhabi lie lesser-known places and vast deserts that do not show such strong signs of modernity and rapid growth. Al Ain, an ancient inland oasis settlement, has: numerous archaeological sites; old forts and graves; falaj irrigation systems; numerous palm groves; lucerne and other traditional crops; and, goats, camels, and other domestic animals like those recorded by early European visitors in the nineteenth century. Other places, like Ras Al Khaimah, are sites of sand and limestone mining and ceramic industries; traditional walled mud-brick homes; reed or palm frond barasti houses; shattered clay remnants of historic buildings; restored ancient forts; numerous mosques; a major university; and growing numbers of modern skyscrapers. Numerous places in the desert hinterlands have ancient and historic roots, notably the northern peninsula of Musandam, a place that still retains many historical architectural and landscape features, side by side with modern harbours and facilities serving a very active oil industry.

These historic places in more distant parts of the deserts have attracted less attention than the grand cities of Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Yet they are repositories of a long history. They possess visible markers and memories of past landscapes, architectures, designs, ways of life and human heritage that reflect the remote as well as the more recent history of the places and people of the desert. Visitors can make their way into these areas, and some do through guided tours often taken from the principal cities of Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Yet individual opportunities for travel and personal experience are increasingly attractive to more curious visitors. This book will be useful to these people, as well as researchers, government officials, educators, students, and general readers wishing to know more about the fascinating desert country of the UAE. The book will promote deeper understanding of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, but more particularly of the less well understood, fascinating places in the desert and the UAE as a whole.

Amid Shifting Sands relies heavily on the idea of landscape, of places shaped primarily by the forces of nature as well as by human activities. Nature includes such features as: mountains; wadis or dry river valleys; rivers; shorelines; sand dunes; wild animals and plants; as well as processes such as weather, erosion, fluctuating ocean levels, wind storms, and alkali or saline deposits. Human or cultural features include: archaeological sites; historic forts and buildings; old canals and wells; planted palm groves; old pathways and roads; ancient residences, forts, mosques, and formerly cultivated fields. These cultural features have been shaped by differences in architecture, design, and ways of life over the centuries. They help us to read the land’s evolving history and heritage.

Many landscapes are composites, products of the interaction between culture and nature. In this sense, a landscape may primarily exhibit natural or non-human processes but be marked by human ideas and activities. Landscapes are often palimpsests, combinations of features created by nature and culture at different times in the past. Examples include the ancient modernising oasis city of Al Ain with its wadis, underground water channels and irrigation systems, palm groves, old forts, and ancient archaeological sites. Another example is the great oasis of Liwa with its enormous sand dunes, remnant post glacial shorelines, camel herds, oil fields, military posts, roads, villages, protected areas and tourism resorts.

The idea of landscape is a useful way of learning and understanding because it makes knowledge visible as well as literary. Here we use visits to and observations of various landscapes as sources of understanding along with written sources of information. We begin by reviewing some fundamental studies that provided valuable background for our field trips as well as context for many scholarly and scientific papers, media reports, and discussions used in preparing the chapters in this book. These studies not only provide much general information on key topics but include details that go beyond our book and meet the needs of readers with deeper and more specific interests.

The background books include:

Hellyer, Peter and Simon Aspinal, eds. 2005. The Emirates, A Natural History: Wildlife of the United Arab Emirates. London: Trident Press. This now classic book deals with geology, plants, animals, terrestrial and marine environments, coasts and seas, and life of the mangrove, with less attention to human activities and effects. Published 15 years ago, it still remains a prime source of information on wildlife and natural systems in the UAE.

The book can be used to emphasise that, while wild life is often considered to be separate from the landscape, it is, in fact, part of it. In discussing wildlife and natural history, Hellyer and Aspinal link wildlife with bedrock, stratigraphy, climate and atmospheric processes. Coasts and marine and terrestrial habitats, clearly show that wildlife is a reflection not only of landscape but ecosystems as well.

Potts, Daniel, Hasam al Naboobah and Peter Hellyer. eds. 2003. Archaeology of the United Arab Emirates, Proceedings of the First International Conference on the Archaeology of the UAE. London: Trident Press. This book offers the first wide-ranging outline of the UAE’s archaeological riches and human effects on landscapes. This was the first publication to provide a well-founded picture of the ancient ways of life of the desert people of the UAE, from the late Stone Age over 7,000 years ago until the late Islamic Period, revealing trade and other contacts with the Arabian Peninsula and other countries for thousands of years.

In the nearly 20 years since its publication, archaeological research has advanced dramatically with Neolithic and, more recently, Paleolithic sites found, studied, and reported upon in considerable scientific and scholarly detail. A very useful more recent volume is Peter Magee’s The Archeology of Prehistoric Arabia, Adaptation and Social Formation from the Neolithic to the Iron Age. Cambridge World Archeology Series, 2014. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Wilkinson, T. J. 2003. Archaeological Landscapes of the Near East. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. This book discusses wadis, dunes, and other landscape features and sites that can tell us about the natural history of places in the UAE, as well as ancient dams, old fields, ancient graves, and other signs of the impacts that humans have made on the land for millennia. The book is said to be the first to describe and explain the development of the Near Eastern landscape using archaeological data. Wilkinson uses specific archaeological sites and historic and other evidence to describe the early stages of social and economic development from the fifth and the sixth millennium BCE to the Islamic Period around the tenth century AD.

Collas, Elizabeth and Andrew Taylor. 1992. Gulf Landscapes. London: Motivate Publishing. This book provides descriptions of geological, biological, and other landscape features of the UAE and the Arabian Gulf. Collas and Taylor focus on features formed naturally—totally or largely independent of human influences. In this sense, Collas’ and Taylor’s orientation to landscape differs from the primarily cultural orientation of Wilkinson. In both cases, some attempts are made to reveal the other side of the coin and indicate links between nature and culture. Examples are discussions of abandoned watercraft, as well as brief descriptions of the physical and geological features of the Gulf and its cities, roads, oil wells, and skyscrapers built on formerly unmarked coasts.

Collas and Taylor offer outstanding photographs and descriptions of: dunes and barchans; palm trees and oases; limestone and other bedrock; black desert varnish on long exposed rocks; anticlines, synclines, and other markers of millions of years of earth history. They also describe: wadis; underground rivers; rocky pools; desert plants and animals; old or abandoned stone and adobe forts; cemeteries; and ancient pathways.

Hallstein, Markus and Peter Delius. 2007. Islam, Art and Architecture. Berlin: h.f. ullman. This is a truly remarkable book, encyclopaedic in content, and vividly informative with its colourful plates and careful text. The book relates the historical development of Islamic places and dynasties, highlighting their diversity of artistic expression from the inception of the faith through the present day. This includes discussions of art, designs, and architectures originating in different Islamic areas and dynasties. The areas and rulers include: Iraq, Iran, Egypt, and the Abbasid Caliphate; Spain, Morocco, and Moorish Caliphates such as the Nasrids of Granada; and, central Asia, Asia Minor and the Anatolian Seljuks. The discussion includes text on history, architecture, and decorative arts, with important definitive sections on key traits such as Islamic Ornament, Islamic Metalwork, Tiles as Architectural Decoration, Gardens as a Reflection of Paradise, and Islamic Calligraphy. Examples of these things are found throughout the UAE.

Islam Art and Architecture is an exhaustive book, not intended to be absorbed completely in one reading. It is most useful as a reference that sheds light on Islam’s imprints on landscapes, architectures, designs, and ways of life. We used it in this way in studying the features of Dubai’s exotic Ibn Battuta Mall, a creation based on various artistic and architectural markers of the countries of the Middle East, Africa, and Asia through which the great Berber traveller passed in his monumental journeys in the fourteenth century. A simple way of using Islam Art and Architecture is to study the vivid photos and portrayals of the impressive art and architecture of Islam.

Amid Shifting Sands came about through collaborative opportunities available to a Canadian geographer and environmental planner, Gordon Nelson, with strong interests in interactions between nature and culture, and Amer Rghei, an architect, planner, and professor at the American University in Dubai and, more recently, the American University of Ras Al Khaimah. The opportunity for collaboration arose when, in 2007, Nelson became involved in academic planning and administration at the Canadian University in Dubai. While living in Dubai in 2008–2009, he began to work with Rghei on landscape, environment, and design in the UAE. During 2009–2014, the joint work went forward through periodic visits by Nelson to the UAE and intervening research and writing by the authors. The interacting knowledge and experience of the geographer and the architect are reflected in the various chapters of the book. In the course of the work, an effort was made to visit as much of the UAE as possible and illustrate key features through photographs. The years since 2014 have been devoted, to the extent possible, to further research and writing.

The book is not written as a continuous narrative, an approach that would be very complex given its purposes. It consists of a series of essays or chapters directed to significant themes and places. The different religious and cultural backgrounds of the two authors are quite important in working out the agenda, and approaches to it. The chapters are interrelated and inform one another. Chapters 2 and 3 are intended to give the reader a good grasp of historical changes in landscapes, architectures, designs, and ways of life in the UAE and the evolving character of a modernising Islamic country. These early chapters provide historical views of the deserts of the UAE and the changes that occurred as people moved from nomadism to a modern, technically advanced, oil producing nation. The later chapters incorporate more detailed field studies of remote parts of the country including the oases of Al Ain and Liwa, the Batinah coast in the Emirate of Fujairah on the Gulf of Oman, and the rugged coast and the mountains of the Musandam peninsula.

Before the reader proceeds to the book itself, we would like to acknowledge certain organisations and individuals. Without their help it would not have been possible to complete our work. While at the Canadian University of Dubai, Gordon Nelson had some opportunities to begin the work during off-hours. The American University in Dubai and the American University of Ras Al Khaimah were the locations of Amer Rghei’s work. The library of the American University in Dubai provided work space for Gordon Nelson as well as access to its collection while working with Professor Rghei. Thanks are also extended to the National Library in Al Ain where both Nelson and Rghei spent considerable time.

Gordon Nelson wishes to thank the family of Amer Rghei for support during work visits to UAE. Shirley Nelson accompanied Gordon on two trips to UAE and helped with field studies and the manuscript. Samiul Hasan, Professor of Political Science, Abdelaziz Jawahri, Professor of Urban Studies, and Gerry Garland, then Chair of the Department of Geography, all members of the United Arab Emirates University in Al Ain, were helpful in field trips and other ways. The University of Waterloo, especially the Faculty of Environment, was supportive of Gordon Nelson’s work. We give special thanks to Dr James S. Gardner, Professor Emeritus, the University of Manitoba, who carefully reviewed and offered improvements to the manuscript as well as photos and additional references. We offer thanks to these and numerous other people and institutions whose help made this book possible.

In the UAE, we are grateful to the staff of the Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi and especially Ms Gayatri Raghwa, Specialist, Program Development, Environment Education, Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi for providing opportunities for interviews and copies of the nine Environmental Sector Papers (Environmental Agency-Abu Dhabi 2005), which provided broad background for preparation of the first Abu Dhabi State of the Environment Assessment Report (2007). We were aided by Mr Suhail Manzoor, the chief librarian of the Environmental Agency-Abu Dhabi, for facilitating the use of this library and guiding us to further reading. Many thanks are offered to Stacy Cooper of Cooper Admin for her initial help in preparing the manuscript and to Kathryn Nelson and especially to Shirley Nelson, for help in editing and preparing the final manuscript. Barry Levelly did his usual fine job on the maps.

We also wish to express gratitude to the Review Board of Austin Macauley Publishers for their valuable assistance in arranging for publication of Amid Shifting Sands, as well as Alexander Holiday, Head of Editorial, Oliver Jefferson and especially Jasmine Smith, who worked to put the manuscript and its figures and photos into their final form, and by the design staff of Austin Macauley and David Nelson for the cover design. We owe thanks to Iman Rghei and Nadine Rghei for the enhanced photograph on the front cover of this book.

Clarifications

In this book we use the term landscape to include physical features such as dunes and wadis and the processes that formed them as well as active, living elements and processes, for example plants, animals, and wildlife. Measurements are expressed in both American and Metric units. For convenience, American and Metric equivalents are given below for some standard measures.

1 inch = 2.54 centimetres

1 foot = 0.30 metres

3 feet = 1 yard = 0.91 metres

1 mile = 1.61 kilometres

1 square foot = 0.108 square metres

1 square mile = 2.6 square kilometres

1 cubic foot = .35 cubic metres

1 hectare = 11.96 square yards = 2.47 acres

2.2 pounds = 1 kilogram

Measurements are often rounded off or may be estimates. Precision is not always an object in their use, rather provision of the relative size of a feature. We do not attempt to standardise Arabic names, rather relying on the spelling and terminology of the major sources of information drawn upon for the book. A number of maps are presented to aid the reader. These are not intended to locate all of the many places mentioned in the text. A keen reader will be aided by use of a good atlas and local maps of areas such as