Four-decade historian of UAE finally translates lifes work into native language

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ABU DHABI – “From Trucial States to United Arab Emirates” will be published in its fourth language, German – the native tongue of author Dr Frauke Heard-Bey, a historian who documented at first-hand the country’s creation.
 
Heard-Bey, who has witnessed huge changes in her four decades as an Abu Dhabi resident, has seen her book become a valuable resource for students of Arabian Gulf history since it was first published in English in 1982 by Longman in London.
 
It is now in its third edition published by Motivate in Dubai and is also available in Arabic and French. Sponsored by leading German private bank BHF-BANK and Abu Dhabi government-owned financial services firm Invest AD, the German translation will appear in bookshops in early 2010.
 
“This book has had a long life because it’s a very useful reference,” Heard-Bey said of a work that took her a decade to research, while she worked at Abu Dhabi’s Centre for Documentation and Research.
 
“But when I arrived, the British were pulling out, and I just found it fascinating to imagine how society would change,” she added.
 
Heard-Bey moved to Abu Dhabi in 1967, shortly after marrying her husband David Heard, an oil industry expert who had been based in the emirate since the early 1960s.
 
With a PHD in history and political science recently completed in Berlin, she began work at the Centre for Documentation and Research in 1969, just two years before withdrawal of British tutelage from 11 territories in the Gulf, which included the “Trucial States” – the –seven emirates that now form the United Arab Emirates.
 
The Centre for Documentation and Research was set up by Dr Mohammed Morsy Abdullah, who realized the new country would need to rely on documentation to resolve any territorial or other disputes that may arise, explained Heard-Bey. 
 
“There was a small collection of books in the old Fort,” she said of Al Hosn, the centre of government during the first few years of the rule of the late Sheikh Zayed Al Nayhan, the first President of the UAE.
 
“And then we began to add written material on the Trucial States that was available in British archives and in the archives of other nations, which had a presence in the Gulf in the past.”
By sifting through the documents and conducting dozens of interviews, Heard-Bey pieced together a picture of how once nomadic tribes settled in communities dependent on pearl diving and irrigated agriculture, were touched by British imperialism, before leaping into modernity thanks to oil revenues.
 
But her account of how, under Sheikh Zayed, the seven Gulf emirates proved the doomsayers wrong by creating a stable country stands out because Heard-Bey observed the process from within Al Hosn, Abu Dhabi’s centre of power.  
 
“Many commentators, especially in Britain, were very critical, and in those days, the Gulf was a big talking point,” Heard-Bey said. “But one can say now that society in the UAE has made a very good job of facing the challenges of a super modern world,” she said.
 
“Society has changed very quickly and is still changing. For example, you see that many men are extremely proud of how their daughters are progressing at university and working, while their wives probably didn’t have the chance to go to school.”
 
Heard-Bey, who left the Centre for Documentation and Research in 2008 after 39 years as an employee, says she misses the closeness of Abu Dhabi society in the late 1960s, where “you knew every single car and if you wanted, could stop on the road for a chat”.
 
But she enjoys Abu Dhabi’s emergence as a global city, as illustrated by its hosting of the Formula One Grand Prix, and attributes much of the UAE’s success to a national unity fostered by Sheikh Zayed and the affection people still feel for him.
 
“When Sheikh Zayed passed away, the decision, to bury him at the Grand Mosque and set his life as a symbol, was very important. A nation needs a symbol, a strong demonstration of togetherness,” Heard-Bey said.
 
“And it’s not artificial,” she said of the deep respect for the founder of the UAE. “It’s a deeply felt gratitude to the father-figure, and people are proud that their country is so well-known because of his leadership. You can hold up your head and say our country has achieved so much.” 
 

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