Foreign observers, who lacked an understanding of the importance of a common history and heritage in bringing together the people of the UAE, predicted that the new state would survive only with difficulty, pointing to disputes with its neighbours and to the wide disparity in the size, population and level of development of the seven emirates. Better informed about the character of the country, Sheikh Zayed was naturally more optimistic and the predictions of those early pessimists were shown to be unfounded. During his years in Al Ain Sheikh Zayed had been able to develop a vision of how the country should progress.

Once Ruler of Abu Dhabi, and then President, he had over three and a half decades to devote to making that vision a reality. One foundation of his philosophy as a leader and statesman was that the resources of the country should be fully used to the benefit of the people. He saw them to be not as a means unto themselves, but as a tool to facilitate the development of what he believed to be the real wealth of the country – its people, and, in particular, the younger generation. Within this framework, Sheikh Zayed believed that all of the country’s citizens have a role to play in its development. Both men and women, he believed, should play their part.

Recognising that in the past a lack of education and development had prevented women from playing a full role in much of the activity of society, he took action to ensure that this situation was addressed rapidly and, under hisleadership, the country’s women came increasingly to play their part in political and economic life. Another key feature of Sheikh Zayed’s strategy of government was the encouragement of initiatives designed to conserve the traditional culture of the people, in order to familiarise the younger generation with the ways of their ancestors. In his view, it was of crucial importance that the lessons and heritage of the past were remembered. He who does not know his past cannot make the best of his present and future, for it is from the past that we learn. We gain experience and we take advantage of the lessons and results [of the past].

If the heritage of the people of the UAE was important to Sheikh Zayed, so too was the conservation of its natural environment and wildlife. His belief in conservation of the environment owed nothing to modern fashions. It derived, instead, from his own upbringing, where a sustainable use of resources required man to live in harmony with nature. This led him to ensure that conservation of wildlife and the environment was a key part of government policy. As in other areas of national life, Sheikh Zayed made it clear that conservation is not simply the task of government. He believed firmly that there was also a role for the individual and for non-governmental organisations, both of citizens and expatriates, applying this belief not just to concerns such as environmental conservation, but to other areas of national life as well.

Sheikh Zayed imbibed the principles of Islam in his childhood and they remained the foundation of his beliefs and principles throughout his life. He was a firm and dedicated opponent of those who sought to pervert the message of Islam to justify harsh dogmas, intolerance and terrorism. In Sheikh Zayed’s view, however, such an approach was not merely a perversion of the message but is in direct contradiction of it. Extremism, he believed, has no place in Islam. In contrast, he stressed that: Islam is a civilising religion that gives mankind dignity. A Muslim is he who does not inflict evil upon others. Islam is the religion of tolerance and forgiveness, and not of war, of dialogue and understanding. It is Islamic social justice which has asked every Muslim to respect the other. To treat every person, no matter what his creed or race, as a special soul is a mark of Islam. It is just that point, embodied in the humanitarian tenets of Islam, that makes us so proud of it. He recognised, however, the necessity not only of eradicating terrorism, but of tackling its fundamental causes. Besides the international campaign against the types of terrorism, there should, he believed, be a strong international alliance that worked, in parallel, to exert real and sincere efforts to bring about a just and lasting solution to the Middle East conflict.

Sheikh Zayed was also an eager advocate of tolerance, discussion and a better understanding between those of different faiths and, in particular, was an ardent advocate of dialogue between Muslims and Christians. In the realm of the foreign policy of the state, his firmly-held belief in eschewing rhetoric in the search for solutions led the UAE to adopt an approach of seeking to find compromises, and to avoid, wherever possible, a resort to the use of force, whether in the Arab arena or more widely. Under his leadership, therefore, the country became an important provider of overseas aid, both for the development of infrastructure and for humanitarian relief, whether provided through civilian channels, as with the reconstruction of Iraq following the defeat of the Saddam Hussein government in 2003 or, occasionally, by sending units of the UAE Armed Forces as international peacekeepers, such as to Kosovo in the late 1990s. At the same time, the UAE, under his leadership, showed its preparedness to fight to defend justice, as was seen by its active participation in the war to liberate Kuwait from occupation in 1990–1991.

The prosperity, harmony and modern development that characterises the United Arab Emirates, led today by President HH Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, also the Ruler of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and his fellow-members of the Supreme Council of Rulers of the seven emirates, is due to a very great extent to the role played by Sheikh Zayed, both prior to the formation of the Federation and in the nearly 33 years that followed until his death in November 2004.

The achievements of his career are well summed up elsewhere in this Yearbook, but a brief overview of his life and achievements is appropriate here. Born around 1918 in Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Zayed was the youngest of the four sons of Sheikh Sultan, Ruler of Abu Dhabi from 1922 to 1926. He was named after his grandfather, Sheikh Zayed bin Khalifa. At the time Sheikh Zayed was born, the emirate was poor and undeveloped and life, even for members of the ruling family, was simple. Throughout the late 1920s and 1930s, as Sheikh Zayed grew to manhood, he displayed an early thirst for knowledge that took him out into the desert with the bedu tribesmen and into the sea with the fishermen and pearl divers, to learn about the people and the environment in which they lived. He later recalled with pleasure his experience of desert life and his initiation into the sport of falconry, which became a lifelong passion.

These travels provided Sheikh Zayed with a deep understanding both of the country and of its people. In the early 1930s, when the first oil company teams arrived to carry out preliminary surface geological surveys, he obtained his first exposure to the industry. In 1946, Sheikh Zayed was chosen to fill a vacancy as Ruler’s Representative in the Eastern Region of Abu Dhabi, centred on the oasis of Al Ain, approximately 160 kilometres east of the island of Abu Dhabi itself. The job involved not only the task of administering the six villages but also the whole of the adjacent desert region, enabling Sheikh Zayed to learn the techniques of government as well as deepening his knowledge of the tribes.

Sheikh Zayed brought to his new task a firm belief in the values of consultation and consensus, in contrast to confrontation. Foreign visitors, such as the British explorer Sir Wilfred Thesiger, who first met him at this time, noted with approbation that his judgements ‘were distinguished by their acute insights, wisdom and fairness’. Sheikh Zayed swiftly established himself not only as someone who had a clear vision of what he wished to achieve for the people of Al Ain, but also as someone who led by example. A key task in the early years in Al Ain was that of stimulating the local economy, which was largely based on agriculture. He also ordered a revision of local water ownership rights to ensure a more equitable distribution, surrendering the rights of his own family as an example to others. With development gradually getting under way, Sheikh Zayed commenced the laying out of a visionary city plan, and ordered the planting of ornamental trees that, now grown to maturity, have made Al Ain one of the greenest cities in Arabia.

Despite the lack of government revenues, Sheikh Zayed succeeded in bringing progress to Al Ain, establishing the rudiments of an administrative machinery, personally funding the first modern school in the emirate and coaxing relatives and friends to contribute towards small-scale development programmes. Oil production was to provide Sheikh Zayed with the means to fund his dreams, with the export of the first cargo of Abu Dhabi crude in 1962. On 6 August 1966, Sheikh Zayed succeeded his elder brother as Ruler of Abu Dhabi, with a mandate from his family to press ahead as fast as possible with the development of Abu Dhabi. One of his early steps was to increase contributions to the Trucial States Development Fund, while when, in February 1968, the British announced their intention of withdrawing from the Arabian Gulf by the end of 1971, Sheikh Zayed acted rapidly to initiate moves towards establishing closer ties with the emirates, these efforts culminating in the establishment of the UAE.

Sheikh Zayed was elected by his fellow rulers as the first President of the UAE, a post to which he was successively re-elected at five-year intervals. The new state came into being at a time of political turmoil in the region. A couple of days earlier, on the night of 30 November and the early morning of 1 December, Iran had seized the islands of Greater and Lesser Tunb, part of Ra’s al-Khaimah, and had landed troops on Abu Musa, part of Sharjah (see section on Foreign Policy).