Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahayan
Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan (Arabic:الشيخ زايد بن سلطان أل نهيان), (1918 — 2 November 2004), the principal architect of the seven United Arab Emirates, was the moderate ruler of Abu Dhabi and president of the UAE for over 30 years (1971-2004).
On August 6, 1966 Sheikh Zayed succeeded his brother, Sheikh Shakhbut Bin-Sultan Al Nahyan, as emir of Abu Dhabi after the latter was deposed in a palace coup. Sheikh Zayed was first elected to the presidency of the UAE in 1971 and was reelected on four further occasions: 1976, 1981, 1986, and 1991. He was considered a liberal ruler, and allowed private media. His religious tolerance of Christians and the freedom given Western workers sojourning in the UAE was in marked contrast to neighbors in the region and exposed him to criticism. Sheikh Zayed was most respected around the world for his drive to reconcile the hostile tribes and make the Emirates one nation. His calls for conciliation extended across the Gulf to non-Gulf nations. Sheikh Zayed advocated dialogue as the means to settle the row with Tehran over three strategic Gulf islands. He also took the lead in calling for lifting sanctions on Iraq imposed by the United Nations in the aftermath of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
Sheikh Zayed was considered one of the wealthiest men in the world. A Forbes magazine estimate put his fortune at around USD $20 billion. The source of this wealth could be almost exclusively attributed to the immense oil wealth of Abu Dhabi and the Emirates, which sit on a pool of a tenth of the world's proven oil reserves. He continued to live a modest and traditional lifestyle, riding and hunting with falcons, though he gave up hunting with firearms, a sport at which he excelled, to set an example for wildlife conservation in his fragile desert homeland. He lived as a pious Muslim.
At the time the British withdrew from the Persian Gulf, Sheik Zayed oversaw the establishment of the Abu Dhabi Fund for Arab Economic Development; through it oil riches were channeled to some forty less fortunate Islamic nations in Asia and Africa during the decades that followed. He is also remembered as "the man who turned the desert green," because he invested oil revenues into projects to improve the harsh desert environment. A major vehicle for his ideas and activities is the Zayed Center for Coordination and Follow-Up.
Zayed was the youngest son of Sheikh Sultan bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the traditional ruler of Abu Dhabi from 1922 to 1926. He was named after his famous grandfather, Zayed bin Khalifa al Nahyan, who ruled the emirate from 1855 to 1909.
In 1999, while he was in a hospital for some tests, the people of the UAE wrote him a personal thank-you letter with 1.5 million signatures. He underwent a kidney transplant in 2000.
On November 2 2004, Sheikh Zayed passed away, as announced by Abu Dhabi TV. No official cause of death was given; however he was in London recently undergoing hospital treatment.
His eldest son, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahayan, born in 1947, took an increasing role in the government from the 1990s; he was selected as president of the United Arab Emirates directly after his father's death.
External links
- Sheikh Zayed's website (http://www.sheikhzayed.com/index_noflash.htm)
- UAE embassy obituary profile (http://uae-embassy.org/profile.htm)
ar:زايد بن سلطان آل نهيان de:Zaid ibn Sultan Al Nahyan es:Zayed ibn Sultán Al Nahayan ms:Syeikh Zayid bin Sultan Al Nuhayyan nl:Zayid bin Sultan al Nuhayyan ja:ザーイド・ビン＝スルターン・アール＝ナヒヤーン zh:扎耶德·本·苏尔坦·阿勒纳哈扬
Categories: United Arab Emirati politicians | 1918 births | 2004 deaths