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For the first time in history Dubai was referred to in 1095 by the Spanish-Arab geographer Abu Abdullah al-Bakri in his "Book of Geography". The first mentioning of Dubai by a European traveler was made in the late XVI century by a Venetian merchant Gaspero Balbi who estimated the land highly for its pearling industry calling the area Dibei.

Another European source refers to Dubai in 1820 when British historians made an allusion to a city calling it Al Wasl. The origin of the word itself is disputable: some historians believe it to be of Persian origin while others say ut is ancient Arabic. The most credible variant, however, is that the word comes from an ancient Arabic ?Daba (a derivative of Yadub)? ? which means ?to creep? ? a hypothetic reference to Dubai creek.

Precious little is known of the Early Islamic Period of the country?s history, more exactly the period between the VII (adoption of Islam religion) and the XV centuries, except that those were the long years when the area of the present-day Dubai played a great role in maintaining of trade connections between the East and the West.

One of the archeological sites in Dubai area was discovered while executing municipal building works near Dubai Internet City (a free economic are in the city). The excavation works showed that there had been an ancient mangrove swamp in this area some 7,000 ago.

The city was officially established until the early XIX century by Al Abu Falasa clan and until 1833 it made an exclave of Abu-Dhabi.

The independent history of Dubai started with the capture of the city by the Al Maktoum dynasty who were descendants of the same family that the Abu Fasala clan. A newly renowned city was taken under protectorate by the Queen of England which was stated in "Exclusive Agreement" of 1892.

However, in 1833, the Al Maktoum dynasty (also descendants of the House of Al-Falasi) of the Bani Yas tribe left the settlement of Abu Dhabi and took over Dubai from the Abu Fasala clan without resistance.

The crucial milestone for the city was that on December 2, 1971 it formed The United Arab Emirates together with other six emirates. Ever since then the former protectors of the city, who in fact were simple boarders, left the newly formed federation in 1971.