DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – When Sheikh Maktoum Bin Rashid al-Maktoum was born in 1943, it was in a small coral and mud-built house with fishing boats pulled ashore on the beach outside.
But when the sheikh, Dubai's ruler since 1990, died on Wednesday in an Australian beach resort, his old childhood home was already a museum. And the nearby pearl-fishing town of Dubai had grown into a dynamic trading city, boasting an indoor ski resort, giant manmade residential islands and, soon, the world's tallest building.