Emirate of Sharjah in the context of "Exclave"

The Gulf of Oman or Sea of Oman (Arabic: خليج عمان khalīj ʿumān; Persian: دریای عمان daryâ-ye omân), also known as Gulf of Makran or Sea of Makran (Arabic: خلیج مکران khalīj makrān; Persian: دریای مکران daryâ-ye makrān), is a gulf in the Indian Ocean that connects the Arabian Sea with the Strait of Hormuz, which then runs to the Persian Gulf. It borders Iran and Pakistan on the north, Oman on the south, and the United Arab Emirates on the west.

Madha (Arabic: مَدْحَاء, romanized: madḥāʾ) is a wilayah in northern Oman, and is an exclave of the Musandam Governorate, enclaved by the United Arab Emirates (UAE); inside it, there is a second-order enclave: Nahwa, which is part of the UAE Emirate of Sharjah. Madha is located halfway between the Musandam Peninsula and the rest of Oman.

The exclave is on the Fujairah–Khor Fakkan road, which is mostly in the Emirate of Sharjah, and covers approximately 93.34 km (36.04 sq mi). There are two exits to Madha on the Fujairah–Khorfakkan road. This territory is the only territory between UAE and Oman which is not lined with any barrier and there is no border crossing between Madha, Nahwa, or the UAE.

The Trucial States, also known as the Trucial Coast, the Trucial Sheikhdoms, or Trucial Oman, was a group of tribal confederations to the south of the Persian Gulf (southeastern Arabia) whose leaders had signed protective treaties, or truces, with the United Kingdom between 1820 and 1892.

The Trucial States remained an informal British protectorate until the treaties were revoked on 1 December 1971. The following day, six of the sheikhdoms—Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain and Fujairah—formed the United Arab Emirates; the seventh, Ras Al Khaimah, joined on 10 February 1972.

Khor Fakkan (Arabic: خَوْر فَكَّان, romanized: Khawr Fakkān, lit. 'Creek of the Two Jaws') is a city and an exclave of the Emirate of Sharjah, located on the east coast of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), facing the Gulf of Oman, and geographically surrounded by the Emirate of Fujairah. The city, the second largest on the east coast after Fujairah City, is set on the bay of Khor Fakkan, which means "Creek of Two Jaws". It is the site of Khor Fakkan Container Terminal, the only natural deep-sea port in the region and one of the major container ports in the UAE. The Port of Khor Fakkan faces the Emirate of Sharjah’s eastern seaboard, extending connections with Asia and the Far East. This port is one of the Emirate’s three ports.

It is also a popular spot among domestic tourists due to its white sand beaches and coral reefs that attract many marine life enthusiasts. Khor Fakkan beach lies to the north of the center of the town. Khor Fakkan is located on the east coast of the UAE, between the Shumayliyah Mountains and the Arabian Sea, with an altitude of 1,023 meters (3,356 ft) at al Hilqah Mountain (Jebel al Hilqah). The bay of Khor Fakkan faces the northeast and is protected from prevailing winds by a jetty serving terminal for container ships. In the mountains of Khor Fakkan and off the Sharjah-Khor Fakkan highway lies the Rifaisa Dam that is considered to have been built over a village, and thus when the water is very quiet, the tops of the old houses are visible. The development of Al Rifaisa Dam spans an area of 10,684 square meters.

Sharjah (/ˈʃɑːrdʒə/; Arabic: ٱلشَّارقَة aš-Šāriqah, Gulf Arabic: aš-Šārja) is a major port city and the third-most populous city in the United Arab Emirates, after Dubai and Abu Dhabi. it is the capital of the Emirate of Sharjah and forms part of the Dubai-Sharjah-Ajman metropolitan area. The emirate shares legal, political, military and economic functions with the other emirates of the UAE within a federal framework. Each emirate has jurisdiction over some functions such as civil law enforcement and provision and upkeep of local facilities. Sharjah has been ruled by the Al Qasimi dynasty since the 18th century.

The city is a center for culture and industry, and alone contributes 7.4% of the GDP of the United Arab Emirates. The city covers approximately 235 km and has a population of over 1,800,000 (2022–2023). Sharjah has been officially named as a WHO healthy city. The 2016 edition of QS Best Student Cities ranked Sharjah as the 68th best city in the world to be a university student. Sharjah is regarded as the cultural capital of the UAE, and was the Islamic culture capital of 2014 and Sharjah World Book Capital for 2019 by UNESCO.

Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi (Arabic: سلطان بن محمد القاسمي, romanized: Sulṭān bin Muḥammad al-Qāsimī; born 2 July 1939) is an Emirati politician, author, historian, and the current and 11th ruler of the Emirate of Sharjah and a member of the Federal Supreme Council of the United Arab Emirates since January 1972. He is best known for his historical publications, support for education, and preservation of cultural landmarks. He restored the Al Hisn Fort in Sharjah in 1970 and served as the United Arab Emirates first Minister of Education in 1971. As an academic, he has authored multiple historical documents as well as memoirs, studies, novels, poetry and plays regarding the Middle East and North Africa.

Nahwa is a territory that forms part of the Emirate of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. It is a counter-enclave (or second-order enclave) within the Omani territory of Madha, which is itself an exclave of Oman and an enclave within the United Arab Emirates.

Access to the village of Nahwa is through the northernmost road into the Madha enclave south of Khor Fakkan which leads to New Madha. From New Madha, there is a paved but winding road (about 5 km (3 mi)) leading to Nahwa.

The Al Qasimi (Arabic: القاسمي, spelled sometimes as Al Qassimi or Al Qassemi; plural: Al Qawasem Arabic: القواسم and, archaically, Joasmee) is an Arab dynasty and tribe that rules Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah, today forming two of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates. They are one of the longest reigning royal families in the Arabian peninsula. Historically, they also ruled over the town of Lengeh as sheikhs for a century until its annexation by Iran in 1887.

The Qawasem were a confederation of Sunni tribes in south eastern Gulf region surrounding the cities of Ras Al Khaimah and Sharjah; and faced strong rivalry with the Omani empire for naval domination along the Persian Gulf. Due to their allegiance to the Emirate of Dir'iyah, the British Empire branded them as "pirates" and fought two major military campaigns against them in 1809 and 1819.

The Persian Gulf campaign of 1809 was an operation by the British East India Company and Royal Navy to force the Al Qasimi (plural Qawasim, referred to by the British at the time as 'Joasmees') to cease their attacks on British ships in the Persian Gulf, particularly on the Persian and Arab coasts of the Strait of Hormuz. The operation's success was limited as the British did not press their advantage when invading Ras Al Khaimah and embarked without consolidating their gains and failed to permanently suppress the strong fleets of the Qawasim of Ras Al Khaimah and Sharjah. The expedition did achieve its short-term goals by destroying three Al Qasimi bases and over 80 vessels, including the largest Al Qasimi ship in the region, the converted merchant ship Minerva. Although operations continued into 1810, the British were unable to destroy every Al Qasimi vessel. By 1811, attacks had resumed, although at a lower intensity than previously.

The operation against the Qawasim was a joint campaign by the Royal Navy and the fleet of the Honourable East India Company (HEIC), with soldiers drawn from the garrison of Bombay. The expeditionary force, led by Captain John Wainwright in the Navy frigate HMS Chiffonne, was despatched to the region, following an escalation in attacks on British shipping in the Persian Gulf after the French established diplomatic missions in Muscat and Tehran in 1807. These attacks not only threatened British trade links in the region, but also placed British relations with Oman and Persia in jeopardy at a time when French aspirations against British India were a cause for concern to the British government.

The Emirate of Ajman (Arabic: إمارة عجمان ʼImāra(t) ʻAǧmān, pronounced [ʔɪ.maː.ra(t) ʕad͡ʒ.maːn]) is one of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates. It joined the United Arab Emirates federation on December 2, 1971. It has an area of 259 square kilometers (100 sq mi), which makes it the smallest of the emirates in area, while its population of approximately 582,852 in 2024 makes it the fourth most populous emirate. It is named after the city of Ajman, which is its seat of government. The main landmass of the emirate is a semi-enclave, surrounded on the north, east, and south by the Emirate of Sharjah.

Located on the coast of the Persian Gulf, Ajman also controls two small inland exclaves: Manama and Masfout, both of which are primarily agricultural. Approximately 95% of the population of the emirate resides in the city of Ajman, which forms part of the Dubai-Sharjah-Ajman metropolitan area. Ajman is ruled by Sheikh Humaid bin Rashid Al Nuaimi III of the Na'im tribe. The Crown Prince of the emirate is Sheikh Ammar bin Humaid Al Nuaimi.

The Foundation of the United Arab Emirates (Arabic: تأسيس دولة الإمارات العربية المتحدة, romanized: tasis dawlat al'iimarat alearabiat almutahida) was the result of an agreement initially made between the rulers of the Trucial States of Abu Dhabi and Dubai, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan and Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum in the face of the British intention, announced on 24 January 1968, to withdraw from its semi-formal protectorate over the Trucial States, and its various treaty relations with them.

Following the communication of the news of British abrogation of its treaties by Labour MP Goronwy Roberts, Zayed and Rashid met at Argoub Al Sedirah in the desert between Abu Dhabi and Dubai and agreed on the principle of Union on 18 February 1968. A subsequent meeting on 25 February with the rulers of Sharjah, Ajman, Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain would lead to a proposal to create a Federation of Arab Emirates together with Bahrain and Qatar. However, Qatar and Bahrain went on to choose independent statehood.

Al Rafisah Dam (Arabic: سدّ اٱرَّفِيْصَة, romanized: Sudd Ar-Rafīṣah) is a dam in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. It dams the Wadi Shie, a seasonal waterway in the Hajar Mountains that runs down to the city of Khor Fakkan on the east coast of Sharjah.

Kalba (Arabic: كَلْبَاء, romanized: Kalbāʾ) is a city in the Emirate of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is an exclave of Sharjah lying on the Gulf of Oman coast north of Oman. Khor Kalba (Kalba Creek), an important nature reserve and mangrove swamp, is located south of the town by the Omani border.

Kalba Mangrove reserve is open to the public and was developed as an eco-tourism resort by the Sharjah Investment and Development Authority (Shurooq). A number of conservationists and ecologists have expressed concern regarding the project.

Dhaid, or Al Dhaid (Arabic: ٱلذَّيْد, romanized: Adh-Dhayd), is the capital of the Central Region of the Emirate of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. An oasis town, it has extensive irrigated date palm plantations with water channelled from the nearby Hajar mountains, at least in part through ancient tunnels dug for that purpose, known as aflāj in Arabic (falaj in the singular).

Dhaid has long occupied a strategic location in the mouth of the important Wadi Siji.

The 1987 Sharjawi coup or the 1987 Emirati crisis was a political crisis in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) when, due to economic recession due to the 1980s oil glut, the brother of Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi, the Sheikh of the Emirate of Sharjah, Sheikh `Abd al-`Aziz bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, attempted to stage a bloodless palace coup seizing key positions throughout Sharjah with military elements loyal to him. The coup destabilized the foundation of the still young UAE, and threatened to break the union back into its constituent Emirates, however, it would ultimately fail due to Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum convincing the other Emirati leaders to reinstall the deposed Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi.

Emiratis (Standard Arabic: الإماراتيون; Gulf Arabic: الإماراتيين) are the citizen population of the United Arab Emirates. Within the UAE itself, their number is approximately 1.15 million.

Formerly known as the Trucial States, the UAE is made up of seven emirates, each of which has a ruling family. Abu Dhabi was home to the Bani Yas tribal confederation; Dubai was settled in 1833 by an offshoot of the Bani Yas, the Al Bu Falasah; Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah are the home to the Al Qasimi or Qawasim; Ajman to the Al Na'im, Umm Al Quwain to the Al Ali and Fujairah to the Sharqiyin.

Ajman (Arabic: عجمان 'Aǧmān; Gulf Arabic: عيمان ʿYmān) is the fifth-largest and fifth-most populous city in the United Arab Emirates, after Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, and Al Ain. It is the capital of the Emirate of Ajman and forms part of the Dubai-Sharjah-Ajman metropolitan area, It is bounded by the Persian Gulf to the west and surrounded by the Emirate of Sharjah on land.

Emirati Arabic (Arabic: اللهجة الإماراتية, romanized: al-Lahjah al-Imārātīyah), also known as Al Ramsa (Arabic: الرمسة, romanized: al-Ramsa), refers to a group of Arabic dialectal varieties spoken by the Emiratis native to the United Arab Emirates that share core characteristics with specific phonological, lexical, and morphosyntactic features and a certain degree of intra-dialectal variation, which is mostly geographically defined. It incorporates grammatical properties of smaller varieties within the UAE, generally of tribal nature, which can be roughly divided into a couple of broader sub-varieties: the first spoken in the Northern Emirates of Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm al-Quwain, and the western part of Ras al-Khaimah; the second in the eastern part of the country, mainly in Fujeirah, Dibba, Khor Fakkan, Hatta, Kalba, and the eastern part of Ras al-Khaimah, some of the dialects in this group bear similarity to neighbouring Omani varieties; the third in Abu Dhabi including the oasis city of Al Ain, the dialect is also seen in the Omani region of Al-Buraimi. Emirati Arabic varieties can also be distinguished based on environmental factors, including variations associated with Bedouin communities, coastal, agricultural, and mountainous regions.

Additionally, a pidgin form of Emirati Arabic exists, predominantly utilized by blue-collar workers in the UAE. This linguistic variant, which is closely related to other variants of Gulf Pidgin Arabic, amalgamates elements of Emirati Arabic with other languages like English, Farsi, Hindi, Urdu, and Tagalog. Serving as a simplified means of communication, Emirati Pidgin Arabic facilitates basic interactions in workplaces, construction sites, and similar environments where multilingual communication is necessary.