Saeed bin Maktoum was the son of
Maktoum bin Hasher, who ruled Dubai from 1894 to 1906. Following Maktoum's death, his cousin
Butti bin Suhail Al Maktoum ruled for six years, before his own death in 1912. Suffering from a stroke on 15 October 1912 that paralysed his left hand, Butti bin Suhail died on 29 November at the end of the pearling season. His cousin, Saeed bin Maktoum's smooth accession was guaranteed by Sheikh Butti bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the son of the former Ruler Rashid bin Maktoum, who managed the transition. A simple man, Saeed travelled to hunt in the desert and was respected for his staunch Islamic values. Relations with neighbouring sheikhs were stable, as was Saeed's relationship with the British. The
pearling industry was still lucrative, although facing clear signs of over-fishing and difficult market demand, Following the movement of merchants from
Lingeh to Dubai in the early years of the 20th century, another migration took place with increasingly restrictive conditions for trade being experienced in Southern Persia. Many more merchants from the areas of
Bastak and Lingeh moved to Dubai, where they were welcomed. A number had established businesses in Dubai but hadn't moved their families and, in the 1920s, many of these made the move to Dubai permanent. There had long been a trading relationship between Dubai and Bastak, with the latter being a major source of firewood for the coastal communities of the
Persian Gulf.
The collapse of the pearl trade As this new influx of trading families took place, storm clouds were brewing over the pearling market. The accepted narrative is that the Gulf pearling industry was decimated by a double blow, the invention of the
cultured pearl by the Japanese entrepreneur
Kokichi Mikimoto and the
Great Depression of 1929. Between them, these two events caused the decline of the pearl fisheries, plunging the economies of the
Trucial Coast into penury and extreme hardship. According to contemporary research, this narrative is disputed and was derived from two entries in the 1929 and 1930 British Residency Monthly Report by Hugh Biscoe, a newly arrived administrator with a lifetime of experience in India and none in the Gulf. Over-fishing, regional and world wars, poor weather and problems with mounting debt had sent the industry into decline some 20 years before Biscoe's memo, with reports of consistently poor harvests and depressed markets since 1910. By the time of Biscoe's reports, the failing industry was already beyond recovery and the Great Depression and cultured pearl had played no role in its decline. However, this slow collapse took place during the opening years of Saeed's rule, following on from the plague along the coast. A record number of slaves approached the British Agent seeking
manumission, a reflection of the parlous state of the pearling fleet and its owners. By 1926, the very existence of the pearling industry was in question across the Trucial Coast and indebtedness ran throughout the whole pearling ecosystem to the point where merchants could not provide advances or supplies to divers and haulers. The Trucial rulers, first
Sultan bin Saqr Al Qasimi of Sharjah and then Saeed bin Maktoum as well as the Rulers of Ajman and Umm Al Quwain, settled the advances on divers at 100 rupees and two bags of rice and seventy rupees and one bag of rice on haulers. This was quarter of the normal sum advanced to the pearlers. The boats started out for the banks late and the season was once again bad and earnings for the average boat dropped 40 per cent on the previous year. In November 1926, so desperate was the situation, that fourteen boats set out from Dubai to try for a late season around Socotra in Yemen and even, with Italian permission, Eritrea. The agreement brought welcome revenue. He also signed a preliminary agreement for an oil concession (with British company Petroleum Concessions Ltd) on 22 May 1937, stipulating that local labour would have to be used in an effort to create employment for the people of Dubai. Alongside these efforts, Dubai's traders found new markets in Persia, trading sugar, tea, cloth, hides and even cement into the Persian mainland. Their increasing prosperity came a time when Dubai's traditional wealthy class, the pearl merchants and boat owners, faced penury. This led to growing tensions and rising discontent among some of the more influential families of the town, particularly those based in
Deira, which was becoming increasingly lawless - including a rise in gambling and prostitution. In 1930, Sheikh Saeed banished prostitutes from Dubai but the lawlessless of Deira persisted and so on 19 January 1936, Saeed bin Maktoum appointed his cousin Sheikh
Saeed bin Butti bin Suhail as
Wali over Deira, telling him to take whatever measures were necessary to clean up the area and restore the
rule of law. Saeed bin Butti acted decisively, imposing a 4pm curfew (enforced with a beating and a night in the city jail) and clamped down on gambling and theft. The move was highly unpopular with Saeed's cousins in Deira but they climbed down faced by his censure. == Majlis ==