NAHYAN, SHAYKH ZAYID IBN ...

also spelled Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahayan, or Nuhayyan born 1918? president of the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) and emir of Abu Dhabi. Zayid was raised as a desert nomad and was governor of Abu Dhabi's Eastern Province from 1946 to 1966, when he deposed his brother Sheikh Shakhbut ibn Sultan and became emir. Zayid was the principal architect of the federation of the old Trucial States and became president of the renamed U.A.E. in 1971. In 1973 he reorganized the U.A.E.'s federal structure, bringing most of Abu Dhabi's ministries into the federal Cabinet. Zayid's second term as president, beginning in 1976, brought more reforms, including the integration of the emirates' defense forces and increased budgetary contributions from member emirates. One of Zayid's primary concerns as emir and president was to use oil revenues to raise the standard of living in the sheikhdoms and internationally. When a new Cabinet was sworn in in 1977, Zayid attempted to further tighten the structure of the federation, maintaining that its government would reflect the available bureaucratic talent rather than the interests of separate emirates. Zayid was reelected president of the federation in 1981.