Word: sheikdom
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...placid, Lilliputian Persian Gulf sheikdom of Sharjah was unexpectedly disturbed last week by the thud of hand grenades and the rattle of rifle fire. Former Sheik Saqr bin Sultan, deposed in 1965 in a peaceful coup, had returned from exile in Cairo. With two truckloads of Bedouins, he stormed Sharjah's blue-and-white palace in an attempt to overthrow his ruling cousin Sheik Khalid bin Mohammed. In a brief battle with tribesmen loyal to Khalid, Saqr was captured. But Sheik Khalid was trapped and murdered before he could be rescued...
Political Clout. The union was, and is, far from perfect. Qatar (pop. 85,000) refused to join because its proposed political clout would not be consonant with its huge economic wealth (roughly $240 million annually in oil royalties, or $2,824 per capita). The island sheikdom of Bahrain also declined; as the most populous (250,000) of the Trucial States it wanted more power than the other sheiks were willing to give. Both countries declared independence and have joined the United Nations, as has the Union. Qatar is now the U.N.'s smallest member...
...sheikdom of Abu Dhabi is not one of our heaviest circulation areas, but TIME has had an impact on the Persian Gulf state of 50,000. An article we ran four years ago described efforts by University of Arizona scientists to grow vegetables in the desert. The story so intrigued Sheik Zaid bin Sultan al Nahayan, that he gave the university's Environmental Research Laboratory more than $3,000,000 to build an experimental "controlled environment greenhouse" on the tiny island of Saadiyat off the Abu Dhabi coast...
Burma's building is shaped like a royal catamaran barge, Hawaii's like a volcano, the Ivory Coast's like elephant tusks. Even the tiny Persian Gulf sheikdom of Abu Dhabi has a pavilion-because, the Expo guidebook notes, it "hopes to gain new friends in the world by taking part." Japanese Architect Kenzo Tange, in charge of overall planning, claims that he likes the clashing effects. The only building that really angers him, he says, is a traditional seven-story pagoda erected by Japan's Furukawa conglomerate...