The Remarkable Legacy of Sheikh Zayed

Forty years ago, in 1965, as a young journalist for the London newspaper, The Observer, I was privileged to be invited to lunch by Sheikh Zayed at the oasis of al-Ain, where he was then the governor. Sitting on a carpet spread under a tree, we ate a meal of lamb and rice and talked for a couple of hours -- or rather he talked and I listened. It was an encounter I will never forget.

Al Ain was then a very simple place, virtually unchanged for centuries. It consisted of half a dozen mud villages, linked by desert tracks, in which the population scratched a precarious living from a few patches of arable land. Near the place where we lunched was a pond in which he invited me to take a dip, a refreshing experience after the long and dusty journey from the capital. Tarred roads were then unknown and the desert encroached everywhere.

Water was scarce, but it was about water that Sheikh Zayed spoke most eloquently, explaining the vital importance of the network of underground water channels, aflaj in Arabic, which he was improving and expanding. He was a man who evidently loved nature. He gave me the impression that he knew every stone, every tree, every bird of his domain. Above all, he understood the importance of preserving every drop of water and putting it to productive use. Tree-planting was his passion.

No doubt, in his mind was a vision of the magnificent green city Al-Ain has since become. It is said today to be the greenest city in the whole of Arabia.

An article by Peter Seale, a leading British writer on the Middle East. Click here for more.

Two years have passed since our father left us, but it still seems as if it happened yesterday. May Allah have mercy on his soul & grant him a place in the highest ranks of paradise.