Cultural Heritage and Traditions of the UAE

The sea has always provided a valuable source of food for the people of the Emirates.
Fish traps could be of the fixed, hadra type by which fish were guided along a stake-fence.
Turtles and dugongs also provided valuable protein.
The territory, which had over time become the exclusive dar of the Bani Yas tribes, is bordered by 600 km of coast.
Fish which was not consumed fresh was hung up in the sun to dry.
Treated with salt, and taken to the inland settlements where this additional protein was very welcome.
Some of the small fish was dried and used as camel fodder or as fertilizer for the gardens.

The Arab dhow is one of the most graceful sailing craft that one could encounter anywhere.
Pearling also depended upon dhows. The craft used were more designed as working platforms and places to live for months.
The purpose for which a traditional wooden vessel was intended greatly influenced its design.
Still today craftsmen build working boats and racing dhows.
Pleasure boats whose vast sails evoke an earlier era when transport by sailing boats was the main means for many people to visit the UAE, or to move along its shores.
The long boats seen on ceremonial occasions in the UAE, with their multiple rows of oarsmen, draw their inspiration from a considerable time ago.
Greek sailors under Alexander the Great, rowed in similar craft across the Arabian Gulf.

One of the most fascinating interactions between nature and man is that which takes place between the bird and its handler in Arabian falconry.
During autumn the houbara bustard flies from the northern hemisphere to the UAE and to Africa to over-winter.
Its migration is preceded by that of peregrine and saker falcons which the bedu captured as they made their own way south.
Once the falconers managed to trap one of the highly prized birds, they had only two to three weeks to train it before the migrating houbaras started to arrive.
This was done by developing a strong bond trust between a wild captured bird and its handler.
The training of the falcon was completed by the day when the first houbaras arrived and the bedouin would hunt the bustards with his falcon throughout the winter months.

The relationship of the bedu with their palm trees is as important as that between man and his camel.
Even though both date palm and dromedary cannot be considered to be truly wild now, it was the bedu that tamed both and put them to good use for his daily life.
The camel provided housing, clothing and useful objects (besides meat and milk) to the bedu of the desert, and the palm tree did almost the same for the bedu of the plantations in the oases and along the coast.
Palm tree trunks supported the roofs of the lovely mud brick castles and towers.
The ribs of the palm leaves were used to weave the walls of the huts or to provide the floating bulk of the interesting small fishing boats, called shasha.
The garghour or domed fishing traps were also made from these palm leaf ribs before the advent of nylon and plastic.
Dried palm leaves were tied together to make barusti, which was (and is) used for a multitude of purposes: shades, roofs, separating walls, and making enclosures.
The fiber on the tree trunk was collected and used to make rope or to weave baskets, mats and the typical pyramid-shaped covers that protect food from flies.

There are said to be 500 different names for the date, which is some indication of its importance to the life of a desert Arab.
A knowledgeable bedu housewife would be able to give her husband a different date dish on each day of the month.

The bedouin like to say that Allah has been fair because He gave them the ideal tree for their desert, but He has shown His bounty by giving them the camel as well.
The camel gives the local tribesman his mobility.
He can ride it to war, to his date garden, to a distant market, a port – or for fun, such as in the traditional races.
He can load his camels and take them in a caravan across terrain, where no other transport could pass.
Often camel milk and the products derived from it were almost the only source of protein for the entire family for months on end.
Camel hide was used to make bags and other useful utensils.
Some of the finest men’s outer garments (bisht) were woven from the hair.

The lulu (locally called qamashah), or pearl oyster provided a source of local wealth in the Emirates, long before the discovery of oil.
The pearling industry had transformed the traditional economy of the tribal population.
Many families moved to live permanently in one of the coastal settlements, increasing, in particular, the size and importance of Abu Dhabi and Dubai, Sharjah, Ras al-Khaimah.
Pearling constituted just another means of exploiting all the resources available to the tribal people.
Increasing number of the able-bodied men participated in the dive (ghaus) during four months in the summer.
Many of the Liwa-based sub-tribes of the Bani Yas formed co-operatives, which jointly owned a boat and whose members shared the proceeds from the sale of pearls.
They give the biggest share to the captain, a larger share to the divers than the haulers, and leaving some money aside to finance the preparations for the following year.

For the bedouin family, who had managed to wrest from the sandy desert the means to survive, a date garden watered by a flowing stream was the height of luxury.
When individual families had accumulated surplus wealth, they turned their attention to the villages in the Al Ain area, the nearest oasis.
Where several age-old aflaj brought underground water from springs near the mountains to the fertile soil in the plain.
This oasis is already mentioned by the name of Taw’am in the early days of Islam, and prehistoric finds from the area point to it having been a center of settled civilization for several thousand years.

The Arabian horse is as much a part of Arab tradition in the UAE as the camel or falcon.
Today great efforts are made to preserve the true character of the breed and the Arabian Horse Society in Abu Dhabi is at the forefront of this effort.
The first Arabian Horse Show was held in Abu Dhabi in March 1996.

The Emirates enjoys a strong tradition of music and dance which played a vital role in many aspects of its people’s lives.
Songs were composed to accompany different tasks, from hauling water at the well, to diving for pearl-oysters out in the Gulf.
In the latter case a professional song-leader was kept on the pearling dhows whose job it was to rally the men to work through music and song.
Each song had a rhythm for a particular task and, like the sea-shanties of western sailors, the music became an inspiration for good team-work.
During celebrations singing and dancing also took place and many of the songs and dances, handed down from generation to generation, have survived to the present time.
Young girls would dance by swinging their long black hair and swaying their bodies in time to the strong beat of the music.
Men would re-enact battles fought or successful hunting expeditions, often symbolically using sticks, swords or rifles.