Word: sharjah
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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UNITED ARAB EMIRATES. For centuries the tribes along the southern gulf coast embodied the essence of Araby. Bedouins roamed the desert in the vast inland stretches of Abu Dhabi. Savvy merchants turned Dubai into a notorious smuggling port. A great seafaring tribe, the Qawasim, ruled Sharjah and dominated the gulfs coastal routes until feudal intrigue and British colonial meddling fractured their holdings into independent emirates...
Today the same people incarnate modern Arab lore emerging from the magic elixir of oil. The oil price boom in 1973 began barely two years after seven gulf emirates-Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm al Qaiwain, Ras al Khaimah and Fujairah-set aside tribal quarrels to form a loose federation. The cornucopia of oil money has yielded perhaps the highest per capita income in the world for Emirates citizens (in excess of $100,000 a year) and created a cradle-to-grave welfare state. But the Emirates face the most serious population imbalance in the region: of a population...