Most of Dubai Emirate is covered with rolling sand dunes at the foot hills of the arid Hajar Mountains.

A decade back, the dunes were inhabited by nomadic Bedouin roaming with their flocks and herds. Today the nomads have all settled, in villages in the few fertile oases or valleys, or else in the city.

Today's modern Dubai is actually the product of very fast and intensive development for the past 20 years. Dubai was a small trading port, clustered around the mouth of the Creek.

It had grown gradually from a fishing village inhabited in the 18th century by members of the Bani Yas tribe. Its origins, however, go back into the far more distant past, as a caravan station of the sixth century AD was excavated in the emigrant suburb of Jumairah Historical Background of Dubai.

The village really began to grow in the early 19th century, when some 800 members of the Bani Yas tribe, the Al Bu Falasah, moved north and settled in Dubai.

By the turn of the 20th century Dubai was an adequately well-to-do port to draw settlers from Iran, India and Baluchistan, while the marketplace on Deira side was thought to be the largest on the coast, with some 350 shops.

The facilities for trade and free venture were sufficient to make Dubai a natural shelter for merchants who left Lingah, on the Persian coast, after the foreword of high customs dues there in 1902 Historical Background of Dubai.

The international trade which flowed from Dubai's cosmopolitan contracts was the foundation of rapidly increasing opulence.

This gave the city an early start in development before the beginning of oil production in the late 1960s.

During the 20th century the city has benefited from the stabilizing pressure of two extraordinarily long rules: that of H H Shaikh Saeed Bin Maktoum from 1912 to 1958, followed by that of his son,

H H Shaikh Rashid Bin Saeed al-Maktoum. While this development has been greatly facilitated by the discover of oil and its production from the 1960s, oil revenues in Dubai have always been a portion of those in Abu Dhabi, so Dubai's growth has always depended partly on the inhabitants' own industrial abilities.

Soon everyone wanted a piece of the Gulf's action. By the late 16th century the Portuguese were attempting to control local trade.

Their success was limited, and they retreated when faced with French, Dutch and British attempts to take over the ancient trade routes. The British finally gained control of the region's waterways in 1766 Historical Background of Dubai.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Dubai’s main economic activity was in pearling, but Dubai’s closeness to India and other parts of Asia soon made this town an important seaport and trade centre. With trade came foreigners, and many of them permanently settled in the Dubai. By the 1930s, ¼ of Dubai’s residents came from other countries, mainly from Persia, India and England.

Both world wars and Great Depression seriously affected Dubai’s economy and totally ruined its pearl industry, but Dubai managed to recover by developing its trade, especially with Persia and India.

Dubai’s next turn in economy started with discovery of oil in the1960s and from that period to 1990s Dubai’s main profits came from oil’s production and export. With new industry came new labor forces, first from Pakistan and India, then the refugees from Lebanon’s civil war.

In 1971 the Great Britain ended its protectorate in Persian Gulf. Dubai, together with six other emirates, formed the United Arab Emirates.

Oil industry stayed the main economic activity in 1980s, but in this period, Dubai slightly changed its economical direction by establishing the Jebel Ali Free Zone in 1979.

Persian Gulf War in 1990s and its consequences on Dubai’s economy and on the world oil prices encouraged Dubai to focus more on free trade by establishing new clusters of free zones and to develop other brunches such as tourism, construction and real estate.

Dubai was caught between local power struggles and the Europe's imperial dreams, but somehow turned this bad situation to its advantage, expanding its pearl trade through every channel.

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