Sharjah Heritage and Progress

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SHIRLEY K AY

Published with the support

and encouragement of

SHARJAHHERITAGE & PROGRESS



I

ForewordIn the name of Allah

The Most Beneficent, The Most Merciful

HH Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammad bin Sultan Al QasimiCrown Prince and Deputy Ruler of Sharjah

IN A COUNTRY WHERE HISTORY IS MEASURED MOST OFTEN IN TERMS OF DECADES, EVERY CULTURAL ASSET

becomes precious. Preserving the fragile traces of the past heritage remains essential to cultivating a

national identity and to maintaining localised distinctions.

Civilisation is much more than simply buildings and basic infrastructure; it includes the rituals,

beliefs and historical heritage that are inextricably linked to a place. Proudly, the Emirate of Sharjah

has established itself as a curator of heritage for the United Arab Emirates. Indeed, in 1998 Sharjah

was named the ‘Cultural Capital of the Arab World’ by Unesco; an honour richly deserved. Instead

of simply maintaining the past as a dusty story to be told to school children, Sharjah has kept thespirit of its history alive by innovatively incorporating tradition – both Islamic and pre-Islamic

– into every aspect of contemporary development. The result is a vibrant, modern emirate that

simultaneously looks forward to a bright future as it looks back respectfully to its history.

The deliberate efforts to preserve and conserve, restore and renovate historic old buildings, have

obviously been appreciated by a global organisation like Unesco. This is a well-earned tribute to the

humanitarian values that underlie the national ethos. There is a quiet pride in this achievement.

Even as business grows, the protection and preservation of the past provides a sobering and

balancing counterpart. The architecture of even modern constructions blends with the culture of the

past; there is an Old-World ambience that very few urban cities have maintained.

Creative thinking made Sharjah a pioneer in the field of education in the Emirates. It began

back in 1953 when the first properly organised school was established in the old city. This was justthe beginning. With the foresight of His Highness Dr Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammad Al Qasimi,

Sharjah has become one of the most important learning centres in the Middle East and one only has

to visit the impressive University City to understand the vision that lies behind this achievement.

Under the direction of His Highness, the third-largest emirate in the UAE has taken giant strides

in creating a viable infrastructure for business, education and cultural activities. Sharjah is now

recognised as the cultural capital of the Arab World as well as the prime commercial hub of the

region. The successful combination of the values of the past with the hi-tech advantages of modern

and sophisticated systems has created a special ethos for Sharjah. The emirate is confident and

convinced about achieving even higher goals under the guidance of its highly erudite Ruler, who

is also a man of letters, an expert in agricultural matters and a man whose policies encompass a

pragmatism and a practicality even as they espouse the best developments of the new world.The arts are also given much prominence in Sharjah’s scheme of things. Theatre, music, painting

and sculpture are encouraged, as is literature. A multi-dimensional education system, with a wide

and varied network of schools and institutions, has played a pivotal role too in the development of

Sharjah. With some exceptionally good educational institutions housed at University City, Sharjah is

becoming one of the most important centres of learning in the region.

Sharjah’s rich and varied cultural and commercial achievements have a strong and traditional

depth to them. There is that gentle juxtaposition of the modern with the medieval and yet it does

not jar. This accent on maintaining its roots, while enjoying the fruits of technology, is the life motif

which truly and commendably distinguishes Sharjah.



His Highness Dr Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi

Member of the Supreme Council of the UAE and Ruler of Sharjah



Published by

Motivate Publishing

Dubai: PO Box 2331, Dubai, UAE

Tel: (+971) 4 282 4060, fax: (+971) 4 282 7593

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London: Acre House, 11/15 William Road, London NW1 3ER e-mail: motivateuk @motivate.ae

Directors:

Obaid Humaid Al Tayer and Ian Fairservice

Written by Shirley Kay.

This edition edited by Jennifer Evans, Pippa Sanderson and David Steele,

with assistance from Zelda Pinto,

and design by Johnson Machado and Andrea Willmore.

First published 1990

Second edition 1994

Third edition 2006

© 1990 and 2006 Motivate Publishing

Photographic credits:

All photographs by the author, with the exception of the following:

Crescent Petroleum: 48/49; Dana Gas: 50; Gulf Images: 11B; Gulf News: 95;

MAPSgeosystems: 6/7; Motivate/Gwanny, Fadi/Kita, Karel/Newington, Greg: Back cover,

1, 8, 9, 11T, 13, 16T&B, 18B, 20, 21B, 22, 24, 36, 47, 52/53, 54, 56, 57T, 58T&B, 60,

65, 77B; Sanderson, Pippa: Front cover, 12, 15, 17B, 18T, 21T, 22/23, 25, 28T, 31T&B,

32, 33, 34/35, 41, 42T, 55, 64, 69, 73, 84/85, 88, 89, 93, 94; Searight Collection: 86;

Sharjah Commerce & Tourism Development Authority: 44T, 68/69; Steele, David: 4/5,

10, 14/15, 17T, 19, 26/27, 28/29, 40, 42B, 43, 62/63, 66, 67, 70/71, 80, 90/91, 92.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form

(including photocopying or storing in any medium by electronic means) without the writ-

ten permission of the copyright holder. Applications for the copyright holder’s written

permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the publishers.

In accordance with the International Copyright Act 1956 and the UAE Federal Copyright

Law No 40 of 1992, any person acting in contravention of this will be liable to criminal

prosecution and civil claims of damages.

ISBN 1 86063 138 X

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data. A catalogue record for this

book is available from the British Library.

Printed by Rashid Printers & Stationers LLC, Ajman, UAE



Sharjah and the UAE 6Around the emirate 14

The East Coast 26

The people and their culture 34

Oil and gas 48

Commerce and industry 52

A wealth of souks 62

Agriculture 70

An ancient past 78

A proud history 84

Sport and leisure 90

Bibliography and acknowledgements 96



Sharjah Heritage & Progress

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Right to left: Sharjah’s Khaled Lagoon and Al Khan

Creek, and Dubai’s Al Mamzar Park lagoons. M A P

S G E O S Y T E M S

S

Chapter one

Sharjah andthe UAE

S, C C the Arab World by Unesco for 1998, is situated at the

heart of seven autonomous emirates (the others being

Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ra’s al-Khaimahand Umm al-Qaiwain), which make up the Federation

of the United Arab Emirates. The present ruler of

Sharjah, HH Dr Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed Al

Qasimi, is the direct descendant of a very long line of

Qawasim sheikhs.

The UAE is located in the south-east of the Arabian

Peninsula. It borders the sandy shores of the Gulf’s

southern coastline and straddles the rocky interior of

the peninsula that runs northwards towards the Strait

of Hormuz. In summer this is one of the hottest regions

of the world, with temperatures rising to more than45°C and humidity reaching as much as 100 per cent

at times.

Rainfall is scarce, some 10 centimetres a year on

average, and the land for the most part is arid, sandy

desert or barren rocky mountains. In winter, however,

the UAE enjoys one of the most idyllic climates in the

world, with day after day of gloriously clear sunshine,

comfortable temperatures and only rare days of rain

and cloudy skies, which has resulted in its rapid rise as

one of the world’s most favoured tourist destinations.

Abu Dhabi and Dubai are both ruled by members of

the same tribe, the Bani Yas, whose homeland had ori-

ginally been in The Liwa Oases of southern Abu Dhabi.

The ruling branch of the tribe are the Al Nahyans in

the capital city of Abu Dhabi, while in Dubai the Al

Maktoums have ruled since 1833. But, despite these

same tribal origins, the two emirates are very different.

Until the discovery of oil, the people of Abu Dhabi

lived mainly in the desert and the oases; and the present




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SHARJAH AND THE UAE

9

modern city was scarcely more than a fishing village.

The people of Dubai, however, had always been more

settled around the excellent harbour provided by its

Creek. They had long concentrated on trade and this

line of work was given a dynamic boost in the early part

of the 20th century when many families emigrated to

Dubai from Lingeh and neighbouring districts on the

Persian coast. These families already had good tradinglinks with their former homeland in what is now Iran

and, from that base, they built up a network of trade

with India, Persia, East Africa and the Gulf, bringing

with them a more cosmopolitan atmosphere to the

coastal towns of the British-protected Trucial States,

as the UAE was then known.

For 150 years, Britain had maintained treaty rela-

tions with the individual sheikhdoms that together

constituted the Trucial States. For most of that time

the British interest was purely maritime and it was

only in the mid-20th century that British presenceon land became more and more pervasive. When the

British announced their withdrawal from east of Suez

in 1968, the rulers of the individual emirates agreed to

create a united country and, in December 1971, the

UAE was founded and recognised as an independent

nation and member of the United Nations.

Today, this region is one of the richest in the

world and experiencing phenomenal development.

But this was not always so. Its intractable desert

terrain supported only minimal agriculture and its

only-known exploitable resources were the naturalpearls that flourished in the warm waters of the Gulf,

which could be collected each summer only through

immense effort. Pearls and maritime trade were

therefore the only major livelihoods in the region

and the inhabitants of the country were, for the most

part, a tough desert people who worked tirelessly to

maintain their subsistence economy.

Discovery of oil

By the 1950s, however, oil companies were beginning

to prospect in this corner of Arabia and hopes were

high that oil, which had already been discovered in

Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar, might be

found here too. The old informal and fluctuating

claims to land ownership would no longer suffice as

it became necessary to determine ownership of the

desert hinterland and shallow seas. For the first time

in history, formal boundaries were drawn up between

one emirate and another.

In 1959 oil was struck under Abu Dhabi’s desert

sands and, shortly afterwards, it was also found under

its seas. The first oil was exported from the emirate

in 1962 and this was followed by such an increase in

quantities of oil exports that Abu Dhabi, the mostdesert-orientated of all the emirates, was soon to be-

come the richest state in the land by far. Today, at

present rates of extraction, Abu Dhabi is estimated to

possess enough proven oil reserves to last for at least

two centuries. In addition, it enjoys one of the highest

per-capita incomes in the world.

Meanwhile, oil was also discovered in Dubai’s off-

shore areas and exports began from 1969 onwards,

although in nowhere near the quantities exported

from Abu Dhabi. It was enough, however, to provide

a welcome boost to Dubai’s already active merchanteconomy and to bring the start of modern-era pros-

Right: Fishing played a fundamental part in the

livelihoods of local people.

Left: Modern edifices rise from the desert on the

island of Abu Dhabi, the UAE’s capital city.




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perity to the emirate just before the founding of the

independent UAE.

Abu Dhabi and, to a lesser extent Dubai, were

to play leading roles in the massive expenditure in-

volved in developing the country after independence

and in bringing it rapidly into the 20th century. In

fact, almost all of the roads, schools, colleges, hos-

pitals, ports and modern buildings in the land have

been constructed since that time. The first two de-

cades in the life of the UAE must have witnessed more

rapid and more extensive development than virtually

any other country in the world, with the possible ex-

ception of Kuwait.

Since the burden of financing this fast-paced de-

velopment fell on Abu Dhabi’s shoulders, its capital

city was chosen as the provisional seat of government

for the country as a whole and its ruler, HH Sheikh

Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, was elected President

of the UAE. Dubai’s ruler, HH Sheikh Rashid bin

Saeed Al Maktoum, was elected Vice-President

and Prime Minister of the new state and the rulers

of Sharjah, Ajman, Fujairah, Ra’s al-Khaimah and

Umm al-Qaiwain became automatic members of the

controlling Supreme Council.

Some of these ‘Northern Emirates’, as they are

collectively called, were also destined to experience

the benefits of oil strikes in their territories, although

never on the same scale of those in Abu Dhabi or

Dubai. Sharjah has so far been the most fortunate in

the discovery of oil and gas, while Ra’s al-Khaimah

and, most recently, Fujairah, have also enjoyed some

success. Prospecting continues in other areas of the

UAE and, with improved modern techniques, may at

any moment achieve further success.

Dubai Creek, with its state-of-the-art, unique buildings, is believed to be one of the world’s oldest ports.



SHARJAH AND THE UAE

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Cosmopolitan building styles, such as the central coral and limestone courtyard, above, and evocative windtower,

below, featured in Dubai’s residential architecture in the early part of the 20th century.

People of the UAE

Until the founding of the UAE most of the popu-lation were of Arab tribal origin – members of tribes

which had inhabited the land, archaeologists believe,

for some 7,000 years. These people controlled the

deserts, bred camels, fished along the coast, dived

for pearls each summer and, latterly, cultivated date

palms in small oases and mountain wadis. Some

settled permanently in the small towns dotted along

the shore, where they engaged in maritime trade with

fluctuating fortunes during the ensuing centuries.

From the seventh-century AD, all were Muslims from

the Sunni sect of Islam.

They were joined in the early part of the 20th

century by numerous merchant families from the

southern shores of Iran, who were also mostly Sunni

Muslims and probably of Arab origin, since these

southern shores had often been ruled by the Qawasim

in the past, and most pure Iranians are of the Shia

sect. A few Indian merchants arrived and settled on

the coasts too, mostly in Dubai. From the 1950s on-

wards, there were other immigrants, including Arabs

from Palestine, Lebanon and Syria, who moved south

to escape turmoil at home and to enjoy the peace and

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