Historical
ReadsArabia and the
Arabs: from the
Bronze Age to
the Coming of
Islam by Robert G
Hoyland
The Arabs by
Peter Mansfield
Arabian Sands by
Wilfred Thesiger
3000 BC
The area known today
as Dubai is populated
by nomadic herders
of sheep, cattle and
goats. The Magan
civilisation dominates
the world’s copper
trade.AD 700
The umayyads
introduce arabic
and islam to the
region. The umayyad
Caliphate was the
first dynasty of islam,
lasting from aD 65 0
to 750.1580
Gasparo balbi, a
Venetian jeweller,
tours the region
to investigate its
potential for the
pearling trade. he
notes in his records
that he visits a town in
the Gulf called ‘Dibei’.dubai’s fast-track transformation from a dusty arabian outpost to a
global leader of tourism and business is an intriguing success story
based largely on geography� located between dubai creek and the
Gulf, dubai lies at the heart of lucrative trade routes, whereas abu
dhabi’s wealth is derived largely from oil�History
anciEnt traDing
It’s hard (if not impossible) to imagine that there was ever an Ice Age
here, but this period, also known as the Pleistocene epoch, took place
roughly 10,000 years ago. Archaeological excavations of sites from
around 8000 BC have revealed evidence of human settlement in the Unit-
ed Arab Emirates (UAE). The first signs of trade date back to 5000 BC
and documented evidence also suggests that this area, with present-day
Oman, was closely associated with the Magan civilisation, which domi-
nated the world’s copper trade during the Bronze Age. Mysteriously, all
records of the Magan civilisation cease after the 2nd millennium BC,
with some historians speculating that the desertification of the area has-
tened its demise.
One of the most significant events in Dubai’s history occurred in the 7th
century when the Umayyads, an Islamic tribe from Damascus, introduced
the Arabic language and made it part of the Islamic world – a connec-
tion still in place today. After their successors, the Baghdad-based Ab-
basid dynasty, went into decline around AD 1000, the tribes of the Arabian
Peninsula asserted themselves in the hinterlands. Meanwhile, the coastal
regions were dominated by ports as, once again, trade became the back-
bone of the local economy, with ships travelling as far as China, returning
laden with silk and porcelain.