Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi in the context of "Emirate of Sharjah"

Sheikh Nasr Al-Madhkur (Arabic: الشيخ نصر آل مذكور) was the 18th-century Arab governor from a Huwala clan under Karim Khan Zand of the Zand dynasty of what was described by a contemporary account as an "independent state" in Bushehr and Bahrain. The account by German geographer Carsten Niebuhr who visited the region at the time describes Sheikh Nasr as "the sole Monarch of the Isle of Bahrain”. A “mutashayi’” (convert to Shi’ism, as described by Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi), Sheikh Nasr lost Bahrain - which was inhabited by his Shi’a compatriots - in 1783 after his defeat by the Bani Utbah tribal alliance at Zubarah in 1782.

The Al-Madhkur family was regarded as an Omani Arab clan and led the Bushehr province on the Persian Gulf littoral. According to Carsten Niebuhr, the 18th-century German geographer, the Abu Shahr Arabs under the Al Madhkurs were one of three major Arab forces ruling parts of southern Persia in the 1760s. Although the Abu Shahr Arabs lived on the Persian Gulf littoral they should not be confused with Huwalas, and did not share their sense of identity, at least according to Niebuhr. Niebuhr visited Bushire in 1765, and when he wrote of independent Arab states, he included Bushire.

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).

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.