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Abstract
This article describes how the idea of the “national” as a spatial category emerged in the United Arab Emirates through integrative and segregative processes exemplified in the experience of suburbanization. While other works have focused on UAE’s physical boundaries, this article focuses on “national” circulations of narratives, symbols, and identities rooted in the spatial experience of UAE citizens. These are illustrated with reference to suburban architecture, popular memory, and non-state heritage practices.
Notes
1 Walker (ed.), UAE: Internal Boundaries and Boundary with Oman (1994).
2 Goswami, Producing India: From Colonial Economy to National Space (2004).
3 McDougall, History and the Culture of Nationalism in Algeria (2006), p. 9. See also: Zubaida, “The Fragments Imagine the Nation: The Case of Iraq”, International Journal of Middle East Studies 34.2 (2002), pp. 205–15.
4 Erskine-Loftus, Reimagining Museums: Practice in the Arabian Peninsula (2014); Exell, Modernity and the Museum in the Arabian Peninsula (2016); Erskine-Loftus, Hightower, and al-Mulla (eds), Representing the Nation: Heritage, Museums, National Narratives, and Identity in the Arab Gulf States (2016); Exell and Rico (eds), Cultural Heritage in the Arabian Peninsula: Debates, Discourses, and Practices (2014); Fox, Mourtada-Sabbah, and al-Mutawa, “Heritage Revivalism in Sharjah”, Globalization and the Gulf, ed. Fox, Mourtada-Sabbah, and al-Mutawa (2006).
5 Khalaf, “The Poetics and Politics of Newly Invented Traditions in the Gulf: Camel Racing in the United Arab Emirates”, Ethnology 39.3 (2000), pp. 243–61.
6 Prager, “Displaying Origins: Heritage Museums, Cultural Festivals, and National Imageries in the UAE”, Horizons in Humanities and Social Sciences: An International Refereed Journal 1.1 (2015), pp. 22–46.
7 Yahyawi (ed.), Awwal Manzil: Dirasah wa Hiwarat Hawla Tufulat 50 Muthaqqafan min al-Imarat [First Home: Studies and Dialogues on the Childhood of 50 Intellectuals from the Emirates] (2007). In references to this work below, the various entries are referred to by their title, which is also the name of the person narrating his or her personal story. Ayyash Yahyawi was the interviewer and transcriber.
8 Henderson, Arabian Destiny (1999), p. 6.
9 Tuan, Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience (1977).
10 De Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life, trans. Rendall (1984), pp. 91–110. De Certeau reverses Tuan’s definitions of space and place but analytically they are quite similar.
11 Bani Hashim, “The History of Planning Residential Neighborhoods in Abu Dhabi: 1961–1990”, Transformations: The Emirati National House, ed. Elsheshtawy (2016), p. 60. Bani Hashim notes that the firjan of Abu Dhabi were organized along tribal lines; however, this was not necessarily the case in other parts of the UAE.
12 Hasan al-Naboodah, quoted in: Zacharias, “Emirati History Like You’ve Never Heard It Before”, The National, 25 Sept. 2014.
13 Lancaster and Lancaster, Honour Is in Contentment: Life Before Oil in Ras al-Khaimah (UAE) and Some Neighboring Regions (2011).
14 The precise nature of these integrative processes is a potential area for future research.
15 For example, see: Fuccaro, Histories of City and State in the Persian Gulf: Manama Since 1800 (2009); Elsheshtawy, Dubai: Behind an Urban Spectacle (2010); Ramos, Dubai Amplified: The Engineering of a Port Geography (2010).
16 Al-Nakib, Kuwait Transformed: A History of Oil and Urban Life (2016), pp. 121–48; Menoret, Joyriding in Riyadh: Oil, Urbanism (2014); Alawadi, “The Evolving Landscape of Dubai’s National Housing Neighborhoods”, Transformations: The Emirati National House, ed. Elsheshtawy (2016), pp. 116–43.
17 Khalaf, “The Gulf City Type, Oil, and Globalization”, Globalization and the Gulf, ed. Fox, Mourtada-Sabbah, and Mohammed al-Mutawa (2006), pp. 244–65.
18 Elsheshtawy, Dubai: Behind an Urban Spectacle, pp. 107–1; Ramos, Dubai Amplified: The Engineering of a Port Geography (2010), pp. 28–9, 68–71.
19 Kanna, Dubai: The City as Corporation (2011), pp. 135–70.
20 Elsheshtawy, “Transforming the Emirati National House”, Transformations: The Emirati National House, ed. Elsheshtawy (2016), pp. 14–155.
21 Alawadi, “The Evolving Landscape of Dubai’s National Housing Neighborhoods”, pp. 128, 132–7.
22 Ibid., pp. 130–1.
23 This is not unique to the UAE: we might in some ways compare it to the process of “white flight” to the suburbs in the postwar United States.
24 Khalaf, “Globalization and Heritage Revival in the Gulf: An Anthropological Look at Dubai Heritage Village”, Journal of Social Affairs 19.75 (2002), p. 18.
25 “Ibrahim Salim”, Awwal Manzil, ed. Yahyawi, p. 536.
26 Al-Fahim, From Rags to Riches: A Story of Abu Dhabi (1995).
27 “Nasser al-Dhaheri”, Awwal Manzil, ed. Yahyawi, p. 492.
28 “Nasser Hussein al-Aboodi”, Awwal Manzil, ed. Yahyawi, p. 137.
29 Elsheshtawy, Dubai: Behind an Urban Spectacle, pp. 78–81.
30 “Omar Ghobash”, Awwal Manzil, ed. Yahyawi, pp. 510–1.
31 “Asma al-Mazrui”, Awwal Manzil, ed. Yahyawi, p. 157.
32 “Ibrahim al-Mas”, Awwal Manzil, ed. Yahyawi, 260–1.
33 “Abdullah Ali al-Tabur”, Awwal Manzil, ed. Yahyawi, p. 50.
34 Kanna, Dubai: The City as Corporation, pp. 105–34.
35 Cooke, Tribal Modern: Branding New Nations in the Arab Gulf (2014).
36 Cf. the above quote from Abdullah al-Tabur. See also: Lancaster and Lancaster, Honour Is in Contentment: Life Before Oil in Ras al-Khaimah (UAE) and Some Neighboring Regions, p. 459.
37 Gargash, “Our Elders Are a Blessing”, Uncommon Dubai, ed. Shoufani (2014), pp. 14–27.
38 Fox, Mourtada-Sabbah, and al-Mutawa, “Heritage Revivalism in Sharjah”, pp. 266–87.
39 Elsheshtawy, “Transforming the Emirati National House”, Transformations, ed. Elsheshtawy, pp. 14–55; and El-Aswad, “Social and Spatial Organization Patterns in the Traditional House”, Transformations, ed. Elsheshtawy, pp. 190–203.
40 Piesik, Arish: Palm Frond Housing in the United Arab Emirates (2012).
41 For more on this history cross-Gulf migration, see: Beeman, “Gulf Society: An Anthropological View of the Khalijis – Their Evolution and Way of Life”, The Persian Gulf in History, ed. Potter (2009), pp. 147–59.
42 Kanna, Dubai: The City as Corporation, pp. 118–9.
43 McDougall, History and Culture of Nationalism, p. 9.
44 Lancaster and Lancaster, Honour Is in Contentment: Life Before Oil in Ras al-Khaimah (UAE) and Some Neighboring Regions, p. 237–8.
45 Zacharias, “UAE Villas Prove Architectural Marvels Don’t Always Reach for the Sky”, The National, 15 June 2012; Zacharias, “Year-Round Workers Breathe Life into Farms”, The National, 3 July 2010; Zacharias, “Opening up the Mountain Wadis to a New Generation”, The National, 1 May 2014.
46 Divecha, “Back to the Future”, designMENA, 23 Feb. 2012.
47 The sidr (zizyphus) tree features prominently in eleven of the fifty oral histories in Awwal Manzil, and is the tree for which Freej Sidroh in Ras al-Khaimah was named after.
48 Luciani, “Allocation vs. Production States: A Theoretical Framework”, The Rentier State, ed. Luciani and Beblawi (1987), p. 75.