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 Ras al-Khaimah, capital of the west coast’s most northerly emirate, has a long history. Four kilometres north of modern Ras al-Khaimah is the site of medieval Julfar, a major centre of international trade. This shift in the focus of urban settlement was no new phenomenon. The actual location of Julfar had moved at least once before in its history. An original (older) site, now called Kush was occupied at various times between the second and early fourteenth century AD.
The site on the coast that is now referred to as Julfar was occupied between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries AD. Julfar was the birthplace of Ibn Majid, unquestionably one of the most celebrated of the Arab navigators of the Middle Ages. The Portuguese built a fort at Julfar, depicted in several Portuguese manuscripts. Julfar is also mentioned in numerous Dutch and English sources as a thriving port. By the second half of the eighteenth century, however, the centre of activity had shifted to the site of modern Ras al-Khaimah, home to the Qawasim (or Qasimis) whose descendants today still rule Sharjah and Ras al-Khaimah.
Drawing on centuries of maritime experience, the Qawasim by the beginning of the nineteenth century had built up a fleet of over 60 large vessels, and could put nearly 20,000 sailors to sea. They gradually established control not only of large sections of the Arabian Gulf and Batinah coast from Sharjah to Kalba, but also of the opposite shore. Their strength posed a serious challenge to the British, then emerging as the dominant power in the Indian Ocean, Finally in 1819 the British sent a strong naval and land force from Bombay to Ras al-Khaimah, destroying the Qawasim fleet, burning the town itself and laying siege to the forts in the area, thereby consolidating British influence in the Gulf.
Ras al-Khaimah suffered a period of decline in the following years, however this has now been reversed and the modern city, divided in two by a creek or khor has flourished since the foundation of the federation.
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