Founding of Dubai

Dubai grew from a small fishing and pearling settlement on a creek on the Persian Gulf coast. In the early nineteenth century a group from the Bani Yas tribe, led by Maktoum bin Butti of the Al Bu Falasah, settled at the creek, and his descendants of the Al Maktoum family have ruled the emirate ever since. Dubai became a busy trading port and entered a treaty relationship with Britain in the late nineteenth century. The discovery of oil in the 1960s funded modern infrastructure, and Dubai joined the United Arab Emirates when it was founded in 1971. Its leaders then diversified into trade, tourism, aviation and finance, building the Jebel Ali port, Emirates airline and skyscrapers such as the Burj Khalifa.

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