Ras Al Khaimah in the context of "Emiratis"

The Musandam Governorate (Arabic: مُحَافَظَة مُسَنْدَم, romanized: Muḥāfaẓat Musandam) is a governorate of Oman. With the exception of the exclave of Madha, it is located on the Musandam Peninsula, which juts into the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow entry into the Persian Gulf, from the Arabian Peninsula. The governorate is also an exclave, separated from the rest of Oman by the United Arab Emirates. Its location gives Oman partial control, shared with Iran, of the strategic strait. In the northern section of Musandam, around Kumzar, the language is Kumzari, which is a southwestern Iranian language closely related to Larestani and Luri. The Musandam Peninsula has an area of 1,800 km (690 sq mi) and, at the 2020 census, a population of 49,062.

Access to the peninsula was formerly difficult, with the only options being limited flights or a ten-hour drive through four immigration posts. The Shinas fast ferry service between Muscat and Musandam was launched in August 2008 to alleviate this problem and make the region more accessible. The governorate is accessible by land only from the United Arab Emirates. Mainland Musandam can be accessed by Ras al-Khaimah near Al-Jeer via Route 2, and an exclave of Sharjah, Dibba Al-Hisn. Oman Air provides an air link between the capital of the country, Muscat, and the main administrative town of the governorate, Khasab.

Piracy in the Persian Gulf describes the naval warfare that was prevalent until the 19th century and occurred between seafaring Arabs in Eastern Arabia and the British Empire in the Persian Gulf. It was perceived as one of the primary threats to global maritime trade routes, particularly those with significance to British India and Iraq. Many of the most notable historical instances of these raids were conducted by the Al Qasimi tribe. This led to the British mounting the Persian Gulf campaign of 1809, a major maritime action launched by the Royal Navy to bombard Ras Al Khaimah, Lingeh and other Al Qasimi ports. Some critics of the historical narrative, such as Sharjah ruler Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi in his book The Myth of Piracy in the Gulf, argue that the allegations of piracy were exaggerated by the East India Company to cut off untaxed trade routes between the Middle East and India.

Piratical activities were common in the Persian Gulf from the late 18th century to the mid-19th century, particularly in the area known as the Pirate Coast which spanned from modern-day Qatar to Oman. Piracy was alleviated from 1820 with the signing of the General Maritime Treaty, cemented in 1853 by the Perpetual Maritime Truce, after which the Pirate Coast began to be known by the British as the Trucial Coast (present-day United Arab Emirates).

Dubai–Sharjah–Ajman (DSA) (Arabic: منطقة دبي والشارقة وعجمان الكبرى), is the largest and most densely populated metropolitan area in the United Arab Emirates, located along the central section of the country's coast. It encompasses the contiguous urban territories of the cities of Dubai, Sharjah, and Ajman, forming a singular socio-economic zone governed by three separate emirates.

With a population of 6.3 million, this region is characterized by intense interdependence, high rates of cross-emirate commuting, and shared infrastructure, forming the UAE’s principal urban corridor. The area is also part of a wider conurbation that extends into parts of Umm Al Quwain and western Ras Al Khaimah, though those areas are not included in standard definitions of the DSA core. This metropolitan area represents one of the most densely populated and economically significant regions in the Middle East.

Ras Al Khaimah is the northernmost of the seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates. The city of Ras Al Khaimah, abbreviated to RAK or RAK City, is the capital of the emirate and home to most of the emirate's residents. It is linked to the Islamic trading port of Julfar, its predecessor settlement. Its name in English means "headland of the tent". The emirate borders Oman's exclave of Musandam, and occupies part of the same peninsula. It covers an area of 2,486 km (960 sq mi) and has 64 km (40 miles) of beach coastline. As of 2023, the emirate had a population of about 400,000.

The city of Ras Al Khaimah has two main areas — the Old Town and Nakheel — on either side of a creek that is home to mangroves and is framed by the North-Western Hajar Mountains. The emirate also consists of several villages and new gated residential developments, such as Al Hamra Village and Mina Al Arab. The emirate is served by Ras Al Khaimah International Airport. Its geography consists of a northern part (where Ras Al Khaimah City and most towns are situated) and a large southerly inland exclave with an area of 866.50 km² and a population of 14,533 as of 2017 (near the Dubai exclave of Hatta), and a few small islands in the Persian Gulf. Ras Al Khaimah has the most fertile soil in the country, due to a larger share of rainfall and underground water streams from the Hajar Mountains, which overlook the city on the landward side.

The General Maritime Treaty of 1820 was initially signed between the rulers of Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah and Great Britain in January 1820, with the nearby island state of Bahrain acceding to the treaty in the following February. Its full title was the "General Treaty for the Cessation of Plunder and Piracy by Land and Sea, Dated February 5, 1820".

The treaty was signed following decades of maritime conflict in the Persian Gulf, with British, French, and Omani flagged ships involved in a series of disputes and actions that were characterized by officials of the British East India Company as acts of piracy on the part of the dominant local maritime force, the Qawasim. It led to the establishment of the British protectorate over the Trucial States, which would last until the independence of the United Arab Emirates on 2 December 1971.

The Perpetual Maritime Truce of 1853 was a treaty signed between the British and the Rulers of the Sheikhdoms of the Lower Gulf, later to become known as the Trucial States and today known as the United Arab Emirates. The treaty followed the effective subjugation of the Qawasim (singular Al Qasimi) maritime federation and other coastal settlements of the Lower Gulf by British forces following the Persian Gulf campaign of 1819, a punitive expedition mounted from Bombay which sailed against Ras Al Khaimah, and which resulted in the signing of the General Maritime Treaty of 1820.

The Perpetual Maritime Truce was conceived by the British Political Resident in the Persian Gulf Colonel Samuel Hennell following a series of seasonal treaties intended to preserve peace at sea between the coastal communities of the region during the annual pearling season and was signed in August 1853 by the Rulers of the area during meetings at Basidu on the island of Qeshm and at Bushire. It was enacted by Hennell's successor, Arnold Burrowes Kemball.