9 Preface Under the rule of Sheikh Sultan bin Saqr bin Rashid al-Qasimi, the Qawasim tribe in Sharjah reached the peak of its power and territorial expansion. Their territories stretched from the village of al-Mamzar eastwards to Khatm Malaha, and, to the north, all the way to the islands of Tunb, Abu Musa, Sari, Abu Nu’eir and Lengeh (on the Persian coast). The capital of the land under Sheikh Sultan’s rule was Ras al-Khaimah. In 1809, just before Sheikh Sultan managed to escape from his imprisonment in Dir’iyyah, Ras al-Khaimah fell into the hands of Sheikh Hasan bin Rahmah. Stripped of his territories and finding the British forces bombarding his capital, Sheikh Sultan headed for Lengeh on the Persian coast. Four years later, he managed to recoup Sharjah and made it his capital. The conflict between Hasan bin Rahmah, ruler of Ras al-Khaimah, and the British lasted for ten years, and ended with the British forces ferociously shelling the Qawasim bases, thereafter occupying the entire Arabian coast and forcing what the British imperialists euphemistically deemed to be a peace treaty, but which was no more than a complete surrender to British occupation. In October 1821, Ras al-Khaimah was handed back to Sheikh Sultan bin Saqr who annexed it to Sharjah. Sheikh Sultan then appointed his son, Sheikh Ibrahim bin Sultan, to be the vice regent of Ras al-Khaimah. He also ordered his brother, Sheikh Saleh bin Saqr, to build the Sharjah Fort to serve as the headquarters of the government. For the next fortyfive years, Sharjah witnessed historical events of the greatest significance, among which were coups and anti-British, counter-imperialist activities which have been explicated in my book Under the Flag of Occupation. When the head of the Qawasim tribe, Sheikh Sultan bin Saqr al-Qasimi,
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