United Arab Emirates

The lower Gulf coast was long a region of small tribal sheikhdoms living from fishing, date farming, and above all pearling, which by the nineteenth century supplied much of the world's natural pearls. A series of treaties with Britain, beginning in 1820 and culminating in an 1892 agreement, made the "Trucial States" a British-protected coast, secure from outside interference but underdeveloped.

The pearl trade collapsed in the 1930s with the Great Depression and the arrival of Japanese cultured pearls, bringing severe hardship. Oil, found in commercial quantities in Abu Dhabi in the late 1950s and exported from 1962, changed everything. When Britain announced its withdrawal from east of Suez, six emirates — Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, and Fujairah — federated as the United Arab Emirates on 2 December 1971, with Ras Al Khaimah joining in early 1972. Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi was the founding president and dominant figure until his death in 2004.

Abu Dhabi, holding most of the oil, has funded the federation and built sovereign wealth funds among the world's largest. Dubai, with far less oil, deliberately diversified into trade, logistics, aviation (Emirates airline), real estate, finance, and tourism, weathering a 2009 debt crisis with Abu Dhabi's help. The UAE has become an assertive regional actor — intervening in Yemen and Libya, normalising relations with Israel through the 2020 Abraham Accords, and hosting the COP28 climate summit in 2023.

Emirati citizens — under one in ten of the population — retain a culture rooted in Bedouin and coastal traditions: falconry, camel and horse racing, poetry, the majlis gathering, and dress in the white kandura for men and the black abaya for women. Islam shapes law and the public calendar, with Ramadan observed publicly (eating, drinking, and smoking in daytime in public are restricted) and Friday the weekly holy day.

In practice the UAE operates a pragmatic tolerance: churches, Hindu and Sikh temples, and licensed bars exist, most residents are non-Muslim, and daily life in Dubai and Abu Dhabi is cosmopolitan. But conservative norms and strict laws remain in force, and the balance is managed rather than open — criticism of the rulers, certain online speech, and public behaviour seen as immodest can bring serious consequences.

The society is steeply stratified by nationality and job, from Emirati citizens and highly paid Western and Arab professionals to the large South Asian construction and service workforce, whose pay and conditions under the sponsorship (kafala) system, though reformed, have drawn long-standing criticism.

Around 10 million people live in the UAE, roughly 3.5 million in Dubai and 1.5 million in Abu Dhabi city, and the great majority are foreign nationals — Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Filipino, Egyptian, and others — many on temporary, job-linked visas. There is no path to citizenship for almost all of them, and no income tax.

Life is air-conditioned and car- and mall-centred, especially in summer. Citizens receive extensive state support — housing, education, healthcare, public jobs — funded by oil and investment income; expatriates rely on employer-provided or private cover. Working weeks in the federal government run Monday to Friday after a 2022 change, and the country runs on long hours in the private sector.

Away from the towers, life on the east coast and in the northern emirates is slower and more traditional, and Emirati family and tribal networks remain important beneath the modern surface.

Emirati cuisine is simple and Bedouin-influenced, built on rice, meat, fish, and dates. Machboos (also majboos) — spiced rice cooked with meat or fish, dried lime, and a blend called bezar — is the signature dish. Harees, a smooth paste of wheat and slow-cooked meat, is a Ramadan and wedding food, and thareed (a bread-and-broth stew) and grilled or steamed fish are coastal staples.

Hospitality centres on gahwa, cardamom-scented coffee served in small cups from a long-spouted pot, with dates. Sweets include luqaimat (fried dough balls in date syrup), balaleet (sweet vermicelli with egg), and khabees.

Because the population is so international, the everyday food scene is overwhelmingly foreign — South Indian and Pakistani cafeterias, Lebanese and Iranian restaurants, Filipino and East Asian food, and global fine dining — and the Friday brunch, a long buffet-and-drinks affair, is a local institution.

Dubai's showpieces are the 828-metre Burj Khalifa and the Dubai Mall and Fountain at its base, the palm-shaped Palm Jumeirah, the Burj Al Arab hotel, the Museum of the Future, and the older quarter along Dubai Creek — the Al Fahidi historic district, the gold and spice souks, and the wooden abra ferries — plus desert safaris in the dunes just outside the city.

Abu Dhabi centres on the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, the Louvre Abu Dhabi and the wider Saadiyat cultural district, Qasr Al Watan (the presidential palace), and Yas Island with its Formula 1 circuit and theme parks. Inland, the oasis city of Al Ain, a UNESCO site, has falaj irrigation channels, forts, and the mountain road up Jebel Hafeet, and the Liwa Oasis fringes the vast dunes of the Empty Quarter.

Sharjah, a dry emirate, is the cultural heavyweight, with strong museums, restored heritage areas, and a biennial art scene. Ras Al Khaimah has the country's highest peak, Jebel Jais, with the world's longest zipline, and Fujairah on the Gulf of Oman coast offers diving, wadis, and the Hajar Mountains.