| 1966 Dhabyani coup | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Emirate of Abu Dhabi in theUnited Arab Emirates | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Abu Dhabi | Al Nahyan council United Kingdom | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Shakhbut Al Nahyan  | Zayed Al NahyanGlencairn Balfour Paul | ||||||
| Units involved | |||||||
| Shakhbut loyalists |  Trucial Oman ScoutsUnknown British Military Formations[a] | ||||||
 | |||||||
On August 6, 1966,Zayed Al Nahyan, the younger brother of rulingSheikh ofAbu DhabiShakhbut Al Nahyan, staged a bloodless palacecoup with direct military assistance from theUnited Kingdom, then Abu Dhabi's colonial overlord via theTrucial States.
During the 200-year rule of theAl Nahyan dynasty, the Emirate of Abu Dhabi was the scene of a series of succession conflicts, including palace coups, royal plots and assassinations.[2] In 1928, SheikhShakhbut bin Sultan Al Nahyan became ruler of Abu Dhabi following acoup led by SheikhKhalifa Al Nahyan, which killed his predecessor, SheikhSaqr bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Saqr, in turn, had seized power through a1926 royal plot, which resulted in the assassination of SheikhSultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Shakhbut's uncle.[3][4]
Abu Dhabi had transformed from a collection of huts clustered around a fort to a thriving city due to the discovery of oil in the region under the leadership of Shakhbut bin Sultan Al Nahyan in the 1960s.[5] Shakhbut had named his younger brotherZayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan as the governor ofal-Am due to a vow their mother had made the two of them swear, following a series of fratricidal murders among their uncles.[5] Zayed quickly made a name for himself being vehemently opposed to political Islam, notingWahhabism and theSaudi government activelydisputed territories in al-Am, spreading Wahhabism among locals to further their cause.[6]
Shakhbut had resisted efforts by theBritish towesternize Abu Dhabi, gaining the reputation as the most tight-fisted ruler in the Persian Gulf[according to whom?]. Shakhbut's refusal to westernize and financial mismanagement, angered British authorities who wanted to see the royal treasury, thus raised primarily off oil revenues, to be re-invested back into building more oil wells, and developing more infrastructure.[5] Concurrently, the British and their Arab allies in the rest of theTrucial States andOman where fighting theDhofar War against theMarxist-LeninistPopular Front for the Liberation of the Occupied Arabian Gulf, vowed to spread Communism to the Trucial states, including Abu Dhabi, and the British saw it vital to oust older more traditionallyislamist leadership in the gulf.[7] The British also orchestrated coups inSharjah in 1965 andOman in 1970 to install more western-oriented and business leaders.[7] In Abu Dhabi, the British reported in 1964 that Shakhbut's autocratic rule, and an influx of Arab migrant workers potentially harboringPan-Arab sentiments, made Abu Dhabi a "perfect target for subversive and revolutionary activity".[8]
Protests inside Abu Dhabi began to question the governance of Shakhbut, with Zayed secretly meeting withHugh Boustead to argue that Shakhbut was clinicallyinsane and unfit to govern in 1964. Boustead wrote that Zayed convinced him that his brother was "basically mad".[9] Zayed presented himself to both Boustead and his successorArchie Lamb as the opposite of Shakhbut, and wrote to British leadership in the region that despite personally pleading with his brother, Shakhbut routinely rejected calls to develop infrastructure, seemingly unaware of becoming increasingly unpopular with the general public.[9] Zayed supported closer cooperation with the other members of theTrucial States and supported British activities to federalize the Sheikdoms into theUnited Arab Emirates, but Shakhbut opposed federalization and cooperation with the other Trucial States.[10] When he was required to attend pan-Trucial talks, Shakhbut wouldn't attend in person, instead, he would send Zayed as his official representative.[11]
Boustead andWilliam Henry Luce had been attempting to pressure the British government into replacing Shakhbut with Zayed without Zayed's support since at least 1962.[12] In 1963, Luce planned to hand deliver a letter to Shakhbut demanding his abdication in favor of Zayed, otherwise the British government would rescind their recognition of his government, instead recognize a rival government led by Zayed, and would use military force to maintain order via theTrucial Oman Scouts. Luce was ordered to halt his plans due to lack of confirmed support from Zayed.[13]
TheBritish Foreign Office routinely opposed proposals established by Boustead and Luce, arguing that their time in theSudan Political Service had made them think of themselves as colonial administrators instead of diplomats, and that an overt coup would be seen as a colonial power-grab.[14] The Foreign Office argued that Shakhbut's poor governance was "strictly speaking not our affair"[14]
Zayed became convinced that a coup would be needed to remove his brother following a meeting in June 1964 in attempt to explain the royal family was becoming increasingly unpopular with the public,but was met with Shakhbut dismissing his brother: "I know we are popular, and I know that they like me."[15] With Zayed's support confirmed, the British began to plan a coup; Shakhbut wasyachting withPrince Rainier ofMonaco.[16] The Trucial Oman Scouts presumably escort Zayed to assume the role of Sheikh, and aRoyal Navy detachment would intercept Rainier's yacht and escort Shakhbut toQatar orBahrain.[16] However, as the planned date expired, no coup took place, due to concerns that direct British involvement couldn't be defended in theHouse of Commons.[16]
Zayed would immediately step into power, on 6 August 1966,H. G. Balfour-Paul orchestrated a bloodlesspalace coup to replace Shakhbut with Zayed.[5][6] Exact details on the coup remain unknown, as most documents on the coup areClassified information due to the direct involvement of the British Government.[1] On the night of August 4, 1966, Balfour-Paul received a letter from the Foreign Office that theAl Nahyan family council would be seeking to depose Shakhbut, and were to receive British assistance.[1] The Foreign Office notes that the letter was signed by "both required persons" to authorize direct use of British personnel, but did not specify who those were.[b][17] Zayed would march on the royal palace with the backing of the Trucial Oman Scouts, and force his brother to abdicate to him.[18] Shakhbut would then take a flight into exile in Bahrain.[18]
Historian Helene von Bismarck concluded that Zayed and the British government were equal partners in the coup, rather than the coup being a purely British instrument to preserve power, or solely a move by Zayed to increase his own personal power.[18]
Shakhbut would go into exile but was invited back to Abu Dhabi by Zayed, fixing their relationship.[5] The British government argue that Shakhbut was “failing to create an efficient administration, failing to govern and for not using the state’s wealth for the benefit of the people” in an official statement on the coup.[5] Zayed promptly banked most of Abu Dhabi's wealth into theBritish Bank of the Middle East and rapidly developedAbu Dhabi into a modern metropolis.[5] Zayed went on to serve as thePresident of the UAE.[5]
The 1966 coup would often be compared to efforts bySheikh Hamdan bin Zayed al-Nahyan to stage apalace coup during theArab Spring in 2011, although the attempt would ultimately be foiled, especially due to Hamdan supposedly being backed[according to whom?] by British investment bankers.[19]
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