Arabian Peninsula

The History Hour

BBC

History, Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.4 • 879 Ratings

🗓️ 19 November 2022

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History and Sporting Witness episodes, which focus on the Arabian Peninsula to mark the start of the football World Cup in Qatar.

Our guest is Dr Wafa Alsayed, Lecturer in Political Science and History at the Gulf University for Science and Technology in Kuwait.

We hear about how the states across the peninsula won independence, and speak to the architect of the region's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa.

There's also the invention of the robot camel jockey, and a pioneering female Qatari author.

On the World Cup theme, we end with the story of American popstar Diana Ross missing a penalty during the opening ceremony of the 1994 tournament.

Contributors: Mohammed Al-Fahim on the formation of the UAE Adrian Smith, architect of the Burj Khalifa Kaltham Jaber, Qatari author Esan Maruff who developed robot camel jockeys Alan Rothenberg who organised the 1994 World Cup

(Photo: Dubai skyline. Credit: Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:05.0	and Indian in the 21st century.
0:07.4	With guests from all walks of life, singing is a part of storytelling for me.
0:11.1	I need to tell my story to the world.
0:12.8	And from all across this huge country.
0:15.0	So as a tribe, we are not mere part of nature,
0:18.5	but we are nature, each with a story to tell.
0:21.5	Winning the gold medal in Paralympics was a dream.
0:24.0	That's Kalki presents My Indian Life from the BBC World Service.
0:27.5	Just search for My Indian Life wherever you found this podcast. collection of this week's witness history and sporting witness episodes from the BBC World Service,
0:44.5	the past brought to life by those who were there.
0:47.5	And with the Men's Football World Cup about to kick off in Qatar, we're looking at the history of
0:52.2	the Arabian Peninsula from the emergence of new
0:54.9	states rich in oil to a Shakespeare dream of the world's tallest building.
0:59.8	He basically sold the whole building and he made over a billion dollars in those three days.
1:06.0	Also the struggles faced by women writers in Qatar.
1:10.0	The University of Qatar's magazine which contained story, glued the first two pages together to stop people reading it.
1:16.5	And controversy over the region's other top sport, Camel Racing.
1:20.8	So slowly they were reducing the age of the jockey so that leads to lots of violation like they were using like five years six years kids.
1:31.0	That's all coming up in the podcast just 50 years ago. That's all coming up in the podcast.
1:34.0	Just 50 years ago, the region, which is now characterized by skyscrapers, pleasure beaches and
1:39.0	luxury, would have been unrecognizable.
	...

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