Page 296 - UAE Truncal States_Neat

Chapter Eight
The External Influences

1 Before the 19th Century

The Portuguese on the Arab coasts
Whereas the conversion to Islam of the entire area was an historical
event which over the centuries remained the most important and
constant factor forming the society of the UAE from its very roots,
there are certain outside influences which were important enough at
the time, but which had nevertheless only limited impact on the
subsequent course of history in these shaikhdoms, as well as on the
people who lived there and on the generations who followed. The
arrival of the Portuguese as the first distant power to dominate
certain parts of the Gulf and Oman completely transformed the
regional power structure from the beginning of the 16th century; but
they were expelled from all the Arab and Persian ports by the middle
of the 17th century, and they left no religious and hardly any cultural
imprint, except for their cannons and the ruined forts of their
garrisons. The political consequences of their intrusion were the
temporary re-uniting of the tribes of Oman under the Ya'aribah
dynasty, and the building up of an Omani East African colonial
empire as they chased the retreating Portuguese to their garrisons at
Mombasa, Kilwah, Pemba and elsewhere.
Before the arrival of the Portuguese in the Gulf, wealthy City States
developed around favourably-situated harbours on or near the
Persian coast such as at Siraf, Qais and Hormuz. These cities,
inhabited mostly by Arab tribes, often under a ruling family of
Omani origin, came to dominate the entrepot trade between India, the
Arab countries and Europe, which passed through Mesopotamia or
the Red Sea. Usually one such trading empire was built upon the

271