Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan
Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan (1918-2004), served as president of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from 1971 until his death in Nov. 2, 2004. Born around 1918, he was the youngest of the four sons of Sheikh Sultan bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, a member of the Bani Yas tribe, who ruled Abu Dhabi from 1922 to 1926.
Abu Dhabi Emirate is primarily a vast desert area (It occupies 67,340 square kilometers or 86.7% of the total area of the UAE) with about two dozen islands in the coastal waters, including the island where the city of Abu Dhabi (Previously called Milh or Salt) is located.
The Emirate was poor and undeveloped and its economy was based primarily on fishing and pearl diving along the coast and on date plantations and camel herding in scattered oases inland with part of the population being nomadic.
In 1939, Sheikh Shakhbut, the then ruler of Abu Dhabi, granted the first of several oil concessions on his territory. When oil was discovered in Abu Dhabi in 1958, economic matters began to improve. The first commercial field entered production in 1962. And Abu Dhabi [...]
