Sir Bani Yas has been mentioned in European sources since 1590 when the Venetian jeweller Gasparo Balbi listed 'Sirbeniast' as an island around which pearls were found. It was described in some detail during the 1820s and 1850s by British naval officers surveying the lower Gulf waters, but in the past two decades it has been completely transformed by HH Sheikh Zayed through a programme of tree planting coupled with the introduction of gazelle, oryx, llama, rhea, giraffe, ostrich and various other species of both birds and animals.

The island has been investigated by ADIAS, who have recorded the presence of some 36 archaeological sites. Of these, by far the most important is that of a Nestorian monastery and church dating to the sixth-seventh centuries AD. Stucco decoration includes fragments of Nestorian crosses and vine-and-scroll patterns.

It is tempting to identify the monastic complex on Sir Bani Yas with the one founded by Jonah, a monk who lived during the time of the Nestorian catholicus Barb'ashmin (343-346 AD), on a 'black island' south of Bet Qatraye, i.e. Qatar and eastern Saudi Arabia.