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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

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