Dubai is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai. It is on a creek on the southeastern coast of the Persian Gulf. As of 2025, its population stands at 4 million, 92% of whom are expatriates. The wider urban area includes Sharjah and has a population of 5 million people as of 2023, while the Dubai–Sharjah–Ajman metropolitan area has a population of 6 million people.
Founded in the early 18th century as a pearling and fishing settlement, Dubai became a regional trade hub in the 20th century after declaring itself a free port (1901) and extending the Creek (1961). Modest oil revenue helped accelerate Dubai's development from the 1960s to the 1990s, when the city started to diversify its economy. In 2018, oil production contributed less than 1% to the emirate's GDP.
Rapid construction since the 1990s has produced one of the world's densest skylines, including the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa. Extensive land-reclamation projects have added more than 300 kilometres (190 mi) of artificial coastline. The city has a large real estate market, especially in the luxury segment.
Dubai's economy centres on trade, tourism, aviation, financial services, and real estate. The Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) is one of the world's major financial centres. In 2024, Dubai was the seventh most-visited city globally. Dubai International Airport (DXB) is the world's busiest airport for international passenger traffic, handling over 92 million passengers in 2024.
Etymology
Many theories have been proposed about the origin of the word "Dubai". One theory suggests the word used to be the souq in Ba. The linguist Zana Vahidzadeh (Dana Pishdar) holds that the word comes from 'money', a reference to the prosperity of the trading centre or that the word refers to 'two brothers'—Deira and Bur Dubai.
The poet and scholar Ahmad Mohammad Obaid traces it to the same word, but to its alternative meaning of "baby locust" (جراد) due to the abundance of locusts in the area before settlement.
History
The history of human settlement in the area now defined as the United Arab Emirates is complex and extensive, formed by the extensive trading links between the civilisations of the Indus Valley and Mesopotamia, and even by cultures as far afield as the Levant. Archaeological finds in the emirate of Dubai, particularly at Al-Ashoosh, Al Sufouh, and the notably rich trove from Saruq Al Hadid show settlement through the Ubaid and Hafit periods, the Umm Al Nar and Wadi Suq periods, and the three Iron Ages in the UAE. The area was known to the Sumerians as Magan and was a source of metallic goods, notably copper and bronze.
The area was covered with sand about 5,000 years ago as the coast retreated inland, becoming part of the city's present coastline. Pre-Islamic ceramics have been discovered from the 3rd and 4th centuries. Before the introduction of Islam to the area, people in this region worshiped Bajir (or Bajar). After the spread of Islam in the region, the Umayyad Caliph of the eastern Islamic world conquered southeast Arabia and drove out the Sassanians. Excavations by the Dubai Museum in the region of Al-Jumayra (Jumeirah) found several artefacts from the Umayyad period.
An early mention of Dubai in 1095 is in the Book of Geography by the Andalusian-Arab geographer Abu Abdullah al-Bakri. The Venetian pearl merchant Gasparo Balbi visited the area in 1580 and mentioned Dubai (as Dibei) for its pearling industry.
Establishment of modern Dubai
Dubai is thought to have been established as a pearling and fishing village in the early 18th century and was, by 1822, a town of some 700–800 members of the Bani Yas tribe and subject to the rule of Sheikh Tahnun bin Shakhbut of Abu Dhabi. In 1822, a British naval surveyor noted that Dubai was at that time populated by a thousand people living in an oval-shaped town surrounded by a mud wall, scattered with goats and camels. The main footpath out of the village led to a reedy creek, while another trailed off into the desert and merged into caravan routes.
In 1833, after tribal feuds, members of the Al Bu Falasah tribe seceded from Abu Dhabi and established themselves in Dubai. The exodus from Abu Dhabi was led by Obeid bin Saeed and Maktoum bin Butti, who became joint leaders of Dubai until Ubaid died in 1836, leaving Maktoum to establish the Maktoum dynasty.
Dubai signed the General Maritime Treaty of 1820 with the British government along with other Trucial States, following the British campaign in 1819 against Ras Al Khaimah. This led to the 1853 Perpetual Maritime Truce. Dubai—like its neighbours on the Trucial Coast—entered into an exclusivity agreement in which the United Kingdom took responsibility for the emirate's security in 1892.
In 1841, a smallpox epidemic broke out in Bur Dubai, forcing residents to relocate east to Deira. In 1896, fire broke out in Dubai, a disastrous occurrence in a town where many family homes were still constructed from barasti (palm fronds). The conflagration consumed half of Bur Dubai's houses, and the Deira district was said to have been destroyed. The next year, more fires broke out. An enslaved woman was caught in the act of starting one such blaze and was put to death.
In 1901, Maktoum bin Hasher Al Maktoum established Dubai as a free port with no taxation on imports or exports, and also gave merchants parcels of land and guarantees of protection and tolerance. These policies led merchants not only to move directly from Lingeh, but also from those who had settled in Ras Al Khaimah and Sharjah (which had historical links with Lingeh through the Al Qawasim tribe) to Dubai. An indicator of the growing importance of the port of Dubai is the movements of the steamer of the Bombay and Persia Steam Navigation Company, which from 1899 to 1901 paid five visits annually to Dubai. In 1902, the company's vessels made 21 visits to Dubai, and from 1904 on, the steamers called fortnightly, trading 70,000 tons of cargo in 1906. The frequency of these vessels only accelerated Dubai's role as an emerging port and trading hub of preference. Lorimer notes the transfer from Lingeh "bids fair to become complete and permanent", and also that the town had by 1906 supplanted Lingeh as the chief entrepôt of the Trucial States.
The "Great Storm" of 1908 struck the pearling boats of Dubai and the coastal emirates towards the end of the pearling season that year, resulting in the loss of a dozen boats and over 100 men. The disaster was a major setback for Dubai, with many families losing their breadwinners and merchants facing financial ruin. These losses came at a time when the tribes of the interior were also experiencing poverty. In a letter to the Sultan of Muscat in 1911, Butti laments, "Misery and poverty are raging among them, with the result that they are struggling, looting and killing among themselves."
In 1910, in the Hyacinth incident, the town was bombarded by HMS Hyacinth, with 37 people killed.
Pre-oil Dubai
As well as expanding its regional trade links, Dubai was also an important regional centre for the collection, sale, and trade of pearls. The collapse of the pearling industry plunged the city into a deep depression, and many residents lived in poverty or migrated to other parts of the Persian Gulf.
In 1937, an oil exploration contract was signed, guaranteeing royalty rights for Dubai and concessionary payments to Sheikh Saeed bin Maktoum. But due to World War II, oil was not struck until 1966.
In its early days, Dubai was constantly at odds with Abu Dhabi. In 1947, a border dispute between Dubai and Abu Dhabi on the northern sector of their border escalated into war. Arbitration by the British government resulted in a cessation of hostilities.
Despite a lack of oil, Dubai's ruler from 1958, Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, used revenue from trading activities to build infrastructure, initially through loans raised from local merchants and the ruler of Kuwait. Private companies were established to build and operate infrastructure, including electricity, telephone services, and both the ports and airport operators. An airport of sorts (a runway built on salt flats) was established in Dubai in the 1950s and in 1959, the emirate's first hotel, the Airlines Hotel, was constructed. This was followed by the Ambassador and Carlton Hotels in 1968.
Throughout the late 1950s, the British had urged Sheikh Rashid to approve a town plan to manage an already burgeoning real estate market. In 1959, through the correspondence of the British political agent, Sheikh Rashid invited architect John Harris to Dubai to discuss the parameters of a town plan. In May 1960, Harris returned to Dubai with the plan. Harris, who ran his own architectural practice, had only a matter of weeks to create the plan after receiving aerial photographs of the city that spring. No later than 1961, the British engineering firm Halcrow was marking the city's street system as shown on the plan and hardening designated routes with asphalt. The plan continued to function as a guide for further extensions of Dubai's street system as municipal funding became available. Harris's plan made only minimal proposals to disrupt the commercial and social life in the existing areas of Bur Dubai and Deira. Therefore, new development was proposed outside these areas, further inland from the Gulf. While the town plan of 1960 envisioned a very low-rise city that was not realised, its proposed road system was largely implemented as planned. Harris's firm acted independently of Halcrow, but the plan's accurate representation of ongoing land reclamation and the future Maktoum Bridge, which had not yet been proposed to the municipality, suggests that the two firms kept an open line of communication. The master plan's road system also served as a guide for the municipality in designating utility easements, as these became increasingly necessary.
In 1959, Dubai's first telephone company was established, with 51% owned by IAL (International Aeradio Ltd) and 49% by Sheikh Rashid and local businesspeople. In 1961, both the electricity and telephone companies rolled out operational networks. The water company (Rashid was chairman and majority shareholder) constructed a pipeline from wells at Awir and a series of storage tanks and, by 1968, Dubai had a reliable supply of piped water. The same year, a sand tax was briefly imposed by Rashid in an effort to boost trade by monetising the Emirate's most abundant resource. The tax was lifted after 11 days, making it the shortest-lived tax in the region's history.
On 7 April 1961, the Dubai-based MV Dara, a five-thousand-ton British-flagged vessel that plied the route between Basra (Iraq), Kuwait, and Bombay (Mumbai, India), was caught in unusually high winds off Dubai. Early the next morning, in heavy seas off Umm al-Quwain, an explosion tore out the second-class cabins and started fires. The captain gave the order to abandon ship, but two lifeboats capsized, and a second explosion occurred. A flotilla of small boats from Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, and Umm al-Quwain picked up survivors, but 238 of the 819 persons on board were lost in the disaster.
Construction of Dubai's first airport began on the northern edge of the town in 1959, and the terminal building opened for business in September 1960. The airport was initially serviced by Gulf Aviation (flying Dakotas, Herons, and Viscounts) but Iran Air commenced services to Shiraz in 1961.
In 1962, the British Political Agent noted that "Many new houses and blocks of offices and flats are being built... the Ruler is determined, against advice [from the British authorities] to press on with the construction of a jet airport... More and more European and Arab firms are opening up, and the future looks bright."
In 1962, with expenditure on infrastructure projects already approaching levels some thought imprudent, Sheikh Rashid approached his brother-in-law, the Ruler of Qatar, for a loan to build the first bridge crossing Dubai Creek. This crossing was completed in May 1963 and was paid for by a toll levied on traffic from the Dubai side of the creek to Deira.
BOAC was initially reluctant to launch regular flights between Bombay and Dubai, fearing insufficient seat demand. However, by the time the asphalt runway of Dubai Airport was constructed in 1965, opening Dubai to both regional and long-haul traffic, several foreign airlines were competing for landing rights. In 1970, a new airport terminal building was constructed, which included Dubai's first duty-free shops.
Throughout the 1960s, Dubai was the centre of a lively gold trade, with 1968 imports of gold at some £56 million. This gold was, in the vast majority, re-exported – mainly to customers who took delivery in international waters off India. The import of gold to India had been banned, and so the trade was characterised as smuggling. However, Dubai's merchants were quick to point out that they were making legal gold deliveries and that it was up to the customer where they took it.