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Ctesiphon Books
THE MAKING OF THE
MODERN GULF STATES
KUWAIT, BAHRAIN, QATAR
THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES & OMAN
By:
ROSEMARIE
SAID
ZAHLAN
LONDON: First Edition 1989
Publisher/Year: LONDON, Unwin Hyman, First Edition 1989. Binding: Original Illustrated Wrapper, 21x14 cm. Pages: 180 Illustrations: 10 photo illustrations, 2 maps.
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Rosemarie Said Zahlan (1937-2006)
Rosemarie was born in Egypt on August 20, 1937. Her father, Wadie Said, a Palestinian Anglican, had emigrated to the US before the first world war, then returned to the Middle East with American nationality to establish his business. Like her elder brother Edward Said, Rosemarie's Palestinian identity was central to her life. She was stamped from an early age by the experience of cousins, aunts and friends made refugees in 1948, and she married a Palestinian academic from Haifa, Tony Zahlan. She was an Anglican and a US citizen, but Palestine was in her heart, and she brought her intellect to a close analysis of every detail of negotiations, political infighting, and the western policy she so wanted to see change.
Rosemarie taught for a while in Cairo, then went to live in Beirut, giving courses on cultural history at the American University of Beirut and the Beirut College for Women. She moved on to London to take her PhD at the School of Oriental and African Studies - her subject was the 18th-century history of the Red Sea route to India, and its pioneer, George Baldwin. She was working on his biography when she was taken ill and died after three weeks in intensive care, on May 10, 2006.≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈
ORIGINAL 1989 FIRST EDITION
EXCELLENT WORK
On the POLITICAL & SOCIAL HISTORY of
U.A.E.
KUWAIT~BAHRAIN~QATAR~OMAN
and others
This Book ...
THE Gulf States are currently the focus of great international interest - yet their fabulous evolution from pearl-fishing to oil-drilling, their individuality and variety, are screened by a thick cloud of petro-dollars.
Rosemarie Said Zahlan tells the story of their formation, their evolution from colonial dependency to statehood, and their fairy-tale transformation by oil. She illuminates their relationship with each other, with the wider Arab World and, crucially, with the major world powers. -
The result is an informed and balanced picture of the political, economic, religious and cultural character of the area. It is also a story of the powerful families and their sheikhs that have had to hurry these states into the modern world; of the interchanging role of political and economic dependence, the influence of the oil industry, the influx of workers from abroad, and the varying forces currently acting on the Gulf States.
This authoritative and very human portrait will be as helpful to the area's many visitors as to students of modern history.
Rosemarie Said Zahlan is an experienced professional author of a variety of works, on both sides of the Atlantic, about the Gulf States. She has been widely concerned with the study of the area, in all its aspects, for many years.
From Introduction ...
UNTIL the 1970s, the five Gulf states (Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman) were hardly known beyond the shores of the Gulf. Since then, they have been propelled into the international limelight, this extraordinary transition being marked by a wide variety of misconceptions in the West, where their great wealth evoked images of extravagance, medieval splendour and autocratic rule.
These early misconceptions gradually faded as an awareness of the realities of the Gulf region grew. Nevertheless, the Gulf states today remain the focus of widespread interest, both because of their strategic location and their principal resource, oil. The states have much in common. They are sparsely populated and most have an overwhelmingly large expatriate community. They are young states; two of them (Qatar and the United Arab Emirates) ended their treaty relations with Britain - a euphemism for attaining independence - as recently as 1971.
By and large, the states are extremely wealthy, in striking contrast to the poverty of only a few decades ago. In 1985, for example, the United Arab Emirates' per capita income of $19,270 was the highest in the world, according to the World Bank; a mere thirty years earlier, the economy there was at subsistence level. The high rate of socio-economic change, the rapid expansion of educational and health facilities, the huge development projects, the complex new industries and the sophisticated communications networks that exist there now all attest to the swift transformation taking place.
This transformation relies heavily on international transactions for the provision of the manpower and technology vital to effect it. A state of interdependence has arisen between the Gulf states, the West and Japan. The Gulf states rely on Japan and the West as markets for their oil and as sources for technical services and industrial products, while Japan and the West rely heavily on the Gulf states not only for their energy supplies but also for their financial assets, and the employment opportunities afforded by their rich markets.
This interdependence has given rise to repeated expressions of concern, particularly in the West, about the internal stability of the Gulf states, and their external security. Central to this concern is the knowledge that half the world's proven oil reserves are in the Gulf region, which is also known to possess the greatest potential for further discoveries. It is largely because of these facts that the fleets of so many nations are at present crowding the waters of the Gulf.
The genesis of much of this concern was Britain's termination of its east of Suez defence policy and departure from the Gulf in 1971. It was sharpened by a number of subsequent events: the oil embargo following the 1973 Arab-Israeli war and the consequent dramatic rise in oil prices; the fall of the Pahlavi dynasty and the establishment of the Islamic republic in Iran; and the war between Iraq and Iran which threatened at times to spread beyond the confines of these two countries.
Since the early 1970s, the United States of America (USA) has regarded the Gulf region as vital to its national security interests. While the Pahlavi dynasty was still in power, it relied on the Shah of Iran to act as 'policeman' of the region. After the Islamic revolution in Iran, the USA abruptly and dramatically lost its best friend in the Gulf, leaving it to manifest its policies primarily on the military plane.
Contents ...
Chapters
Introduction
The Gulf in History
The Emergence of the Gulf States
Representative Government in Kuwait
Political Developments in Bahrain
The Political Order
The Ruling Families of Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar
The Ruling Families of the United Arab Emirates
The Ruling Family of Oman
Saudi Arabia, the Powerful Neighbour
The International Setting
Appendix: The Ministers of the Gulf States
Index
Illustrations ...
In 1937, water was still being brought into Kuwait in dhows from the Shatt al-Arab; it was then delivered to the townspeople
Water towers are part of the complex system including desalination plants which provides water in abundant to modern Kuwait
Aerial view of Abu Dhabi in 1955, the year oil was discovered there, with the ruler's fort in foreground
Aerial view of Abu Dhabi two decades later
Sultan Taymur bin Faisal of Oman in 1919 with some of the leading men of the Sultanate
Sultan Taymur bin Faisal's grandson, Sultan Qaboos bin Said, introducing Queen Elizabeth II to some of the leading men of Oman at his palace in Muscat in 1979
The luminous pearl which was the major natural resources of the Gulf states before oil
Old and new intermingle in Oman, a satellite tracking station seen through the arch of an old fort
Old and new intermingle in Qatar, a modern hotel in Doha with traditional craft in the foreground
Condition ...
Library copy with sticker and stamps, otherwise book in good condition. Scarce work.
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