^{PRESIDENTOFTHEUAE}

ON6 AUGUST2000, His Highness Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan completed34yearsasRuleroftheEmirateofAbuDhabi,oneoftheseven emiratesthattogethercomprisetheFederationoftheUnitedArabEmirates (UAE),ofwhichhehasbeenPresidentsinceitscreationinDecember1971.
Having first served in government in 1946 as Ruler's Representative in Abu Dhabi's Eastern Region, based in the oasis of Al Ain, Sheikh Zayed has now provided leadership to the country for well over half a century.
Born around 1918 (the date is uncertain), Sheikh Zayed is the youngest of the four sons of Sheikh Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Ruler of Abu Dhabi from 1922 to 1926. He was named after his grandfather, Sheikh Zayed bin Khalifa, who ruled the emirate from 1855 to 1909, the longest reign in the threecenturiessincetheAlNahyanfamilyemergedasleadersoftheEmirate of Abu Dhabi.
Abu Dhabi, like the other emirates of the southern Arabian Gulf known as the Trucial States, was then in treaty relations with Britain. At the time Sheikh Zayed was born, the emirate was poor and undeveloped, with an economy based primarily on fishing and pearl diving along the coast and offshore and on simple agriculture in scattered oases inland. Part of the populationwasnomadic,ranging acrossawideareaofsouth-easternArabia in search of pasture.
Life,evenforayoungmemberoftherulingfamily ,wassimple.Education,
where it was available at all, was primarily confined to the provision of instructionintheprinciplesofIslamfromthelocalpreacher,whilemodern facilitiessuchasroads,communicationsandhealthcarewereconspicuous by their absence.