Thank you Houri, you understood correctly what I meant to say. The fact is Iran is only a stones throw away from the UAE and the rest of the eastern side of the arabian peninsula. It is to my knowledge that the ruling family of Sharjah, Al-Qassimi, openly states that they are originally from Iran and there was a time (before the 20th century) when Sharjah and Dubai were a part of Iran, just as previously Bahrain was also a part of Iran, called then Persia. I am not a historian, and I don't want to sound like a know-it-all..I could look up the dates if you want. But local Emirates themselves tell me this, otherwise I would not know about it. I have never heard or read the Al-Maktoum openly stating they have iranian origins, but Al-Qassimi does. If you look at the names of the upper aristocratic families in Dubai, many have iranian roots in terms of the etymology (which is the study of history of words and languages) of the word (not an arabian-bedouin origin) then there are those families in Dubai that do trace back to the arabian peninsula and not southern iran, and their family names and tribes have arabian origins in terms of history and etymology...so there are both types in the UAE..You can basically tell from the apprearance of the person.
Apparently, as it was explained to me by Dubai locals (as I am not from Dubai I am Kuwaiti) the Al-Qassimi and other Emirati families with iranian ties are part of the sunni-Irani sector as opposed to the majority Shia-sect of Iran and the iranian government. No one ever explained the exact details, but the story I was told goes something like they left iran after the islamic revolution and the fall of the shah (as did many iranian nationals who live in Dubai, but still have iranian passports..there is a HUGE Iranian national community in Dubai, apart from the Emirati national citizens with some iranian backgrounds).
Then on the other hand, I have had other emirati locals explain to me that Dubai and Sharjah used to be part of Iran and that they have always been in Dubai/Sharjah and never came from Iran, but were previousl considered to be a part of persia. I have met many here who are from the island of Kish in southern iran (close to Dubai) who claim to be complete Arabs, but in fact have iranian passports and speak both Arabic and Farsi, and sometimes marry with emiratis. And they get really upset and offended if you say they are iranian, I don't know why. So I think from an anthropological point of vue, it is just a matter of people who are close geographically mixing, and sharing their culture and influencing each others culture vice versa for many centuries. I don't mean to sound hitlerian about it, as I really don't care about race, and many anthropologists only consider various ethnic groups as opposed to 'races'...but that is not the issue here. I just don't want to offend anybody, and this is what the locals themselves say, and as I said Al-Qassimi is proudly from iranian backgrounds..but also consider themselves Arab. I think it is political really. When the British demarcated the Trucial States and then became UAE, they did not take into consideration these were actually the same peoples, and now they make differences between sharjah, between ras al khaimah, between Dubai etc...but I don't expect Al-Maktoum to claim to trace themselves back to iran, and I have never seen their geneology books (I know in Kuwait and in Bahrain, the royal family's geneology is kept under lock and key at their amiri diwans even though many websites claim to have 'geneologies' they don't have the official ones) so I am not claiming that they are iranian origin, I can only say Al-Qassimi is because they openly say so. I think people should be proud of their roots and origins no matter what the political climate is, and I admire Al-Qassimi for that. I only brought up the iranian connection to explain the meaning of the name 'Fazza'.
