Progress report

Aveteran historian of the region, German scholar and researcher Dr Frauke Heard Bey has seen the growth of the UAE since the sixties. While a lot has changed, one thing that has remained constant is her belief in the people of this country. They are simply amazing, she tells Kavitha S Daniel.

Rewind to the past and quiz her about the Ottoman Empire's designs on the Arabian Peninsula or on Portuguese travellers who passed through the Gulf in ancient times and you'll get a novel insight into those eras. Fast-forward to the present and seek her views on the transition of the UAE society to a modern technology-driven one and she will enthral you with her perspective on the subject.

These are just some of the reasons why Dr Frauke Heard Bey, historian and researcher at the Abu Dhabi-based Centre for Documentation & Research of the Presidential Court, is often invited to lecture at many fora.

Her solid background on the UAE makes her a sought-after spokesperson on the subject and, in fact, early this month, Dr Frauke addressed a visiting high-profile German delegation led by the German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder.

Recognised as one of the foremost experts on the Middle East, she was also asked to deliver the Centenary Lecture at the prestigious Royal Society for Asian Affairs (formerly the Royal Central Asian Society) last year.

Her topic at this 100-year-old London-based society, formed to promote greater knowledge and understanding of Asia from the Middle East to Japan was, "The Gulf in the 20th Century".
As a scholar, Dr Frauke is also often requested to review books on the region in academic journals.

Filling up history

A German, Dr Frauke first arrived in the UAE in the '60s to join her husband, a British petroleum engineer employed in an oil company. Having just completed her PhD in history, it was but natural for Dr Frauke to be drawn to the region's past and draw parallels with the present.

Luckily for her, despite the lack of educational institutions, a fledgeling research centre was taking shape in a corner of Al Hosn, which was also the political seat of the Ruler.

Set up by an Egyptian historian, Dr Mohammed Morsy Abdullah, the Centre for Documentation & Research as it was called, functioned from a room in the old fort. It was established as a response to the anticipation of "border problems" between the Trucial States, Oman, Bahrain and Qatar once the British left the area in 1971, she explains.

"There was clearly a lack of written material about the past of this region well into the '50s and '60s. There was an urgent need among the people of this region to (collect and preserve) their history in black and white," relates Dr Frauke.

It did not mean the society of the time did not have a history. It was just that the past was being handed down orally and, thus, not very authentic, she emphasises.

In 1968, the Centre was established to collect all recorded material on the region... to fill up the empty cupboard, as it were, comments Dr Frauke.

Ferreting through the parchments

The Centre started to track down the history and found it in different corners of the world. The India Office in Britain, interestingly, provided the maximum material, especially of the period from 1600 to 1947, admits Dr Frauke.

The Public Record Office in London yielded valuable information on the region after 1947. For example, says Dr Frauke, it was from the British archives that the Centre obtained the agreements made in the 1820s between the British authorities, and tribal rulers like the Qawasim (Al Qassimis) and the Omanis to stop trade rivalry and bring peace on the seas.

The extent of material found from the India Office and the Public Record Office in Britain can be gauged from the fact that out of the around 9,000 volumes of archival material in the Centre today, nearly 6,000 volumes were sourced from Britain.

Dr Frauke says that the Lorrimer Gazetteer also turned out to be another valuable fund of information on the area.

At that time (in the late '60s), she says humorously, the Lorrimer was a well-guarded secret among researchers, and the volumes were available only with the British political agent, the head of the oil company and the Centre.

"Our largest collection of material however, continues to be the British archives," she states. "It may mean we see the Gulf through British eyes and that might be a limiting view but it's better than nothing," Dr Frauke adds.

However, the Centre did tap the doors of other archives in the world, namely those in countries like Portugal and Holland (because of the Dutch East India Company) for their trading ventures in the Gulf during the 15th and 16th centuries.

"Some of the Dutch accounts are precise because they detail the prices of each item available during that time. Being merchants they might have had to keep perfect accounting." Their accounts also detail accurate maps and legible names. This material is immensely useful for historians, she adds.

Apart from Portugal and Holland, the Centre also tapped the Vatican, and countries such as Turkey and Iran too to acquire chunks of history.

"We've also acquired information from the American archives of material for the 20th century and collected nearly 1,000 volumes of material from this country. We also found material from France, Russia, Belgium and Germany, and from Egypt, particularly for the Turkish Ottoman empire activities in the region," she divulges.

It's but natural that this German intellectual might have concentrated on exploring the relationship between Germany and this region. The German archival material largely has to do with her country's attempts to trade in this region and their rivalry with the English in the Gulf before the First World War.

Dr Frauke also mentions another historian's delight - the famous, legendary Arab seafarer, Ahmed bin Majed. The diary of this seaman, who hailed from Ras Al Khaimah, has been translated into a number of languages and builds a picture of this very clever sailor who travelled far into East Africa in his time.

History books say that Ahmed Majed also helped the Portuguese traveller Vasco da Gama find his way around in this area. He's even mentioned in Portuguese records as a good navigator, she points out.

Walking into the past

In the '60s, little did Dr Frauke realise that as a young expatriate keen on researching a developing region that was her temporary home at that time, she would go on to live and work here for more than 30 years.

"I walked into the Centre to research my first article on the transition of Trucial States and Oman following the discovery of oil," reminisces Dr Frauke. "I found the material here was so rich, it was an oasis in the middle of the desert! The surroundings outside the fort were so bare and rudimentary, but, inside the fort, the Centre seemed full of value."

Gradually, as she frequented the Centre, the director, Dr Morsy, roped her in to index the documents to prevent visitors from making off with the precious works.

So keen was her interest in her work, Dr Frauke remembers, that she would not have left the country even if her