History of the Arab Gulf States

Today, there are eight state entities in the Gulf. The areas covered in this book comprise five states in total: the State of Kuwait (Dawlat al-Kuwait), the Kingdom of Bahrain (Mamlakat al-Bahrain), the State of Qatar (Dawlat Qatar), the federation of the United Arab Emirates, the UAE (al-Imārāt al-ʿarabiyya al-muttaḥida), and the Sultanate of Oman (Saltanat ʿUmān). In terms of governance, these countries are conservative tribal monarchies with minor variations, and all—with the exception of the UAE—have a dynastic (family) form of government. The UAE is a formal exception; it is a federation of its kind, headed by a president—the supreme leader of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi—and its prime minister is the supreme leader of the Emirate of Dubai. The interpretation of the history of these states takes into account the division of local societies into 'settled' and 'nomadic' and always keeps in mind the mobility of the population living there. It does not, therefore, present processes we are accustomed to from European history. The subject of observation and analysis is the community—regardless of whether it leads a nomadic life in the desert, a settled life in oases, or as a community in fishing ports and villages on the southern coast of the Gulf.