Butti Bin Sohail
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Butti bin Suhail Al Maktoum ( ar, ٱلشَّيْخ بُطِّي بِن سُهَيْل آل مَكْتُوْم, Ash-Shaykh Buṭṭī bin Suhayl Āl Maktūm) became the Ruler of the
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on 16 February 1906, following the death of his cousin, Sheikh Maktoum bin Hasher, of heart disease. He continued the liberal policies of his predecessor, expanding Dubai's trading port.


Rule

Early in his rule, Butti was called to intervene in a conflict between
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and the influential
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tribe, which had broken out the year before. With the Sheikhs of
Umm Al Quwain Umm Al Quwain is the capital and largest city of the Emirate of Umm Al Quwain in the United Arab Emirates. The city is located on the peninsula of Khor Al Bidiyah, with the nearest major cities being Sharjah to the southwest and Ras Al Khaimah ...
and
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also involved, a general meeting of Rulers was called at Khawaneej which resulted in a settlement of the dispute in April 1906. However, in the following year the dispute flared up again with Dubai and Abu Dhabi, together with Sharjah, pitted against Umm Al Quwain. This resulted in a final agreement in which Sheikh Butti represented both Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
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continued to be a thriving and expanding port: by 1907, J. G. Lorimer notes that 335 pearling boats were operating from the town (compared to 183 from
Sharjah Sharjah (; ar, ٱلشَّارقَة ', Gulf Arabic: ''aš-Šārja'') is the third-most populous city in the United Arab Emirates, after Dubai and Abu Dhabi, forming part of the Dubai-Sharjah-Ajman metropolitan area. Sharjah is the capital o ...
and 25 from
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. Only Abu Dhabi was a larger pearling port on the
Trucial Coast The Trucial States ( '), also known as the Trucial Coast ( '), the Trucial Sheikhdoms ( '), Trucial Arabia or Trucial Oman, was the name the British government gave to a group of tribal confederations in southeastern Arabia whose leaders had s ...
, sending 410 boats to the pearl beds. 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 breadwinner 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
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in 1911, Butti laments, 'Misery and poverty are raging among them, with the result that they are struggling, looting and killing among themselves.'


The Hyacinth incident

In 1903, Butti had travelled with Sheikh Maktoum to Sharjah at the invitation of British Viceroy and Governor-General of India, George Curzon, to a Durbar, held on 21 November, at which Curzon delivered a speech reminding the assembled Sheikhs of the benefits of the ''
Pax Britannica ''Pax Britannica'' (Latin for "British Peace", modelled after '' Pax Romana'') was the period of relative peace between the great powers during which the British Empire became the global hegemonic power and adopted the role of a " global pol ...
''. The memory would have struck Butti as ironic when, seven years later, British troops were involved in a vicious confrontation in Dubai, killing 37 of his people. A lively trade in arms had grown in the Trucial States and, at the turn of the century, Sharjah and Dubai became centres for the flourishing trade. By late 1902, Lorimer records that up to 200 guns a month were being traded, despite an agreement with the
British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...
that banned the import and re-export of arms. In an attempt to curb the trade, the British ship HMS ''Hyacinth'' patrolled the coast. In December 1910, its crew suspected a group of smugglers had docked at
Al Shindagha Al Shindagha ( ar, الشندغة), sometimes spelled Al Shindagah or Al Shindaga, is a neighbourhood in the traditional centre of the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.http://www.dubai-travel-uae-guide.com/index.php?p=1_65_Dubai-past-Al-S ...
h under cover of darkness and, early the next morning, a 100-strong landing party was sent ashore. The presence of a large armed group in the town triggered an angry reaction from locals and a fight followed in the narrow alleys of the souq. The British party retreated after four of their men were killed and nine wounded; however, they in turn had killed 37 local men. Adding insult to injury, the British attempted to impose a number of reparations following the incident, including a fine of 50,000 Rupees, the surrender of 400 rifles and demands to establish a telegraph station and post office onshore. Both of the latter demands ran contrary to the nature of the relationship the British government had established with the Trucial Sheikhs and Butti had already, in 1906, made his opposition to the establishment of a British Indian post office in Dubai clear to the British. The additional demands were withdrawn following a petition to the British by an enraged Butti.


Death

Already 'an elderly man' upon acceding, Sheikh Butti bin Suhail died in 1912.


See also

*
Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Persis, Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a Mediterranean sea (oceanography), me ...
*
Eastern Arabia Eastern Arabia, historically known as al-Baḥrayn ( ar, البحرين) until the 18th century, is a region stretched from Basra to Khasab along the Persian Gulf coast and included parts of modern-day Bahrain, Kuwait, Eastern Saudi Arabia, Unite ...
*
History of the United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (the UAE or the Emirates) is a country in the eastern part of the Arabian Peninsula located on the southeastern coast of the Persian Gulf and the northwestern coast of the Gulf of Oman. The UAE consists of seven emirate ...
**
History of Dubai The earliest written record of Dubai (''Dibei'') is accredited to Muhammad al-Idrisi, who mapped the coast of the UAE in the tenth century AD. Circa 1580, the state jeweler of Venice, Gasparo Balbi documented the pearling industry of Dubai and o ...


References

{{Rulers of Dubai Maktoum family Rulers of Dubai 20th-century Arabs