A Timeline of Ras Al Khaimah
From Julfar to the modern United Arab Emirates.
رأس الخيمة
A brief timeline of the place I'm from. Not exhaustive. Bones, not flesh. These are the markers most useful to keep in mind when reading the longer history of the lower Gulf.
- Ubaid-period settlements established in the area now known as Ras Al Khaimah. Among the oldest continuously inhabited sites on the Arabian Peninsula.
- Julfar (جلفار) flourishes as one of the principal trading ports of the Arabian Gulf, renowned for pearls, pottery, and shipbuilding. It is also the home port of the navigator Ahmad ibn Majid.
- The Qawasim (القواسم), the Al Qasimi dynasty, establish themselves at Ras Al Khaimah and rise to become the dominant maritime power of the lower Gulf.
- A British naval expedition razes Ras Al Khaimah town.
- The British return and besiege Ras Al Khaimah, by then rebuilt.
- The General Treaty of Peace is signed at Ras Al Khaimah, ending decades of conflict and beginning the formal British relationship with the Qawasim and the wider coastal sheikhdoms.
- The Perpetual Maritime Truce binds the coastal sheikhdoms together as the Trucial States.
- The United Arab Emirates is founded. Ras Al Khaimah does not join at the moment of federation.
- Ras Al Khaimah formally accedes to the United Arab Emirates as the seventh and final emirate.
- Under His Highness Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi, Ras Al Khaimah continues to develop its archival, museum, and heritage infrastructure. The longer history is still being recovered, written, and translated.
Compiled by Ahmed Shahin Khalisdar (أحمد شاهين خالصدار). For a fuller treatment of this history, see the forthcoming At The Tents Crown: A History of Ras Al Khaimah.