| Biographical detail : | The creator of modern Dubai.
Maktum was vice president and prime minister (1979-90). In 1971 after the British left, Rashid and his relative by marriage Sheikh Zaid ibn Sultan al Nahyan of neighbouring Abu Dhabi laid the groundwork for a federation and named it United Arab Emirate.
It was on Maktoum Rashid’s initiative that the creek was dredged and a new major water port constructed, a modern air strip laid to establish Dubai's pre-eminence as the aviation centre of the Gulf countries and made Dubai the commercial centre of the Middle East |
