In 1948, when Wilfred Thesiger, the British traveller, visited him at Muwaiji fort in Al-Ain, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan was a young man of around thirty. He would not become emir until 1971. It was in these early decades, well before the formation of the United Arab Emirates (the UAE), however, that Sheikh Zayed laid the groundwork for his future role, using everyday traditions of mediation and consultation, but expanding them to the scale of nation state formation. Deep in the interior oases, he cultivated a form of charismatic leadership called Hakimism, one that linked together multiple, distinct constituent groups by promising to resolve disputes and by distributing funds and supplies needed for survival. Later, even as he was an early proponent of development, modernisation and investment, he was careful to not alienate those tied to traditional ways of life or to pre-development social structures. He especially had “a great reputation among the Bedu. They liked him for his easy informal ways and his friendliness, and they respected his force of character, his shrewdness, and his physical strength”. At the same time, Sheikh Zayed was respected by merchants from cities on the coast, and by the British. This chapter examines Thesiger’s description of his month-long stay with Sheikh Zayed, and uses British documents showing the crucial role of Sheikh Zayed in litigating the borders of the UAE. Later, his mediation skills became especially useful during the creation of the UAE out of the seven emirates. Sheikh Zayed was a bridgebuilder between otherwise non-communicating parties, who could live in separate cultural worlds. He provided an opportunity for parties caught up in disputes to resolve them in a way that benefited both and, for the most part, benefited the idea of larger united, ‘national’ system. Sheikh Zayed’s personal charisma and skills as a hakim (a leader who resolved disputes) were elements key to the negotiation and long term success of the UAE’s federal system.