It was the year US President Richard Nixon resigned over the Watergate scandal, West Germany won the World Cup and colour television arrived in the UAE.
On September 18, 1974, Sheikh Hamad bin Mohammed Al Sharqi became Ruler of Fujairah at the age of 25. Fifty years later, Sheikh Hamad is still Ruler, exceeded in the UAE only by the 52 years of Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Ruler of Sharjah.
That half-century has brought enormous change to Fujairah and its people. Photographs from the time show arish palm frond houses and wooden fishing dhows rocking gently in the waters of the Arabian Sea. A single two-lane tarmac road wound through arid mountains to Sharjah and the outside world.
These days, people can travel along a modern motorway to get from Fujairah city to Dubai in less than an hour. Fujairah is a popular holiday destination, especially for those keen on diving in its crystal clear waters. Its port is the largest on the east coast of the UAE, while the emirate is the world’s second biggest provider of “bunkering”, as ships’ fuel is known.
It is a transition that has preserved the pace of life and charms of earlier times, represented by Al Bidya Mosque, the oldest working mosque in the country, and the magnificent 16th century Fujairah Fort, restored on the instructions of Sheikh Hamad 25 years ago.
Following in his father's footsteps
Despite his youth, Sheikh Hamad was the second Ruler of Fujairah as an emirate in its own right. His father, Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad Al Sharqi, served from 1938 to 1974, and had led Fujairah to recognition as a fully independent emirate by Britain in 1952.
Less than three years before his death, Sheikh Mohammed stood with other Rulers of the Emirates at Union House on December 2, 1971, as the UAE was born. In 1974, it was the turn of his son to lead his people on this new path.
Sheikh Hamad was already a member of the UAE government at the time of his accession. After attending the Royal Military College Sandhurst in England, he was appointed to the Cabinet as Minister for Fisheries and Agriculture, while continuing as Chief of Police and Security for Fujairah.
The process of modernisation, begun by Sheikh Mohammed, has continued to gather pace. The international airport opened in 1986, with runway improvements in 2022 and the start of direct flights to Cairo beginning earlier this year.
The opening of the airport coincided with the launch of a free zone, linked to the Port of Fujairah, which opened for business in 1983. The emirate may have lacked oil resources, but was to become an integral part of the UAE’s oil industry.
In 2008, construction began on a 360km pipeline from Habshan in Abu Dhabi to a terminal on Fujairah’s coast. Opened in 2012, the pipeline can carry up to 1.5 million barrels of oil a day, bypassing the Strait of Hormuz and securing the UAE’s oil exports.
Not far from the shore, dozens of oil tankers, bulk carriers and other cargo ships rest at their moorings, waiting to be resupplied with fuel in bunkering operations that are second only to the port of Singapore, and with more than 100 supply vessels.
Transforming education
The past 50 years have been a time of transformation in the lives of Sheikh Hamad’s people in education, health and the arts. Higher Colleges of Technology for men and women were opened by 2005, with the University of Fujairah the following year.
The biennial Fujairah International Monodrama Festival, which brings some of the world’s most talented actors, has celebrated solo theatrical performances since 2003. There is a Fujairah National Theatre, established in 2005, while the following year Fujairah Radio broadcast for the first time.
A sign of things to come was the opening of the emirate’s first beach hotel, the Hilton Fujairah, in 1978. Today, a growing number of four and five-star hotels and resorts attract more than a million visitors each year – a figure twice the size of the UAE's population in 1974.
In the immediate future, Fujairah is on track to build the first station in Etihad Rail's new passenger network. The emirate will connect to the capital in about an hour and 40 minutes with high speed trains travelling at up to 200kph.
And after 50 years, for the people of Fujairah and Sheikh Hamad, the journey continues.
