DUBAYY

also spelled Dubai, constituent emirate of the United Arab Emirates (formerly Trucial States, or Trucial Oman). The second most populous and second largest state of the federation (area 1,510 square miles [3,900 square km]), it is roughly rectangular, with a frontage of about 45 miles (72 km) on the Persian Gulf. The capital, Dubayy town, the largest town of the federation, is on a small creek at the northeast of the state. Well over 90 percent of the emirate's population lives in the capital and nearby built-up sections. Dubayy is surrounded by Abu Dhabi emirate on the south and west and by Ash-Shariqah emirate on the east and northeast. In addition, the small exclave (detached section) of Al-Hajarayn in the Wadi Hatt, more than 25 miles (40 km) from the nearest territory of Dubayy proper, belongs to the state. The settlement of Dubayy town is known from 1799. The sheikh of Dubayy (then a minor) signed the British-sponsored General Treaty of Peace (1820), but the area was seemingly dependent on Abu Dhabi until 1833. In that year, a group of Al bu Falasah clansmen of the Bani Yas, chiefly pearl fishers, left Abu Dhabi in a rivalry dispute and took over Dubayy town without resistance. From then on, Dubayy became, by local standards, a powerful state and was frequently at odds with its former rulers. The Qawasim pirates tried to take control of Dubayy, but its rulers retained their independence by playing off the neighbouring sheikhdoms against each other. Together with the rest of the original Trucial States, Dubayy signed with Britain a maritime truce in 1835 and the Perpetual Maritime Truce in 1853. Its foreign relations were placed under British control by the Exclusive Agreement of 1892. When Britain finally left the Persian Gulf (1971), Dubayy was a prominent founding member of the United Arab Emirates. The sheikhs of Dubayy, unlike most of their neighbours, long fostered trade and commerce; Dubayy town was an important port by the beginning of the 20th century. Many foreign merchants (chiefly Indians) settled there; until the 1930s, it was known for pearl exports. More recently, Dubayy town (including its twin city and commercial centre, Dayrah, on the opposite side of the creek) has become the region's chief port for the import of Western manufactures. Most of the United Arab Emirates' banks and insurance companies are headquartered there. After the devaluation of the Gulf rupee (1966), Dubayy joined the now independent state of Qatar in setting up a new monetary unit, the Qatar/Dubayy riyal. In 1973 Dubayy joined the other emirates in adoption of a national currency, the dirham. Dubayy has free trade in gold, and there is a brisk smuggling trade in gold ingots to India, where gold imports are restricted. In 1966 the offshore oil field of Fath (Fateh, or Fatta) was discovered in the Persian Gulf about 75 miles (120 km) due east of Dubayy town, in waters where the state had granted an oil concession. By the 1970s, three 20-story submarine tanks, each holding 500,000 barrels, were installed on the seabed at the site. Shaped like inverted champagne glasses, they are popularly called The Three Pyramids of Dubayy. Dubayy's estimated oil reserves are less than one-twentieth those of neighbouring Abu Dhabi, but oil income combined with trading wealth have made Dubayy a very prosperous state. An aluminum smelter and an associated natural gas fractionator were built in the late 1970s near Dubayy town. The town has been thoroughly modernized, with electricity, modern hotels, telecommunications stations, hospitals, and an international airport. A new deepwater harbour, Port Rashid (named for the emir), was opened there in 1972 and a supertanker dry dock was completed in 1979. Dubayy town is connected by paved road with Ra's al-Khaymah town and Abu Dhabi town. Pop. (1980) town, 265,702; (1991 est.) emirate, 501,000.