Al Hamriyah

Al Hamriyah
Al Hamriyah
Coordinates:
Country	United Arab Emirates
Emirate	Sharjah
Elevation	0 m (0 ft)

Al Hamriyah is the name of a coastal settlement of Sharjah on the northern perimeter of Ajman in the United Arab Emirates. It is notable for its lagoon popular with pleasure boaters and jet skiers as well as local fishermen who moor here, as well as storing and repairing both rope and wire mesh fishing nets.

The village is not to be confused with the Hamriyah Port and Free Zone, which lie immediately to the south of it.

It is traditionally home to families belonging to the Darawishah section of the Al Bu Shamis Na'im, linked through this relationship to the area of Sharjah bounding immediately to the south of Ajman, Al Heera. These would be associated with the modern Emirati family name Al Shamsi.

History

Going un-noted in early 19th-century British coastal surveys, Al Hamriyah struggled for independence in the late 19th century as a result of alleged negligence by the rulers of Sharjah, which held suzerainty over Al Hamriyah, in protecting the pearling families of the town from absconding debtors - a duty of the ruler who imposed a 'wali' over Al Hamriyah.

Although it was never formally recognised by the British as a Trucial emirate (it came close in 1903, the British only failing to recognise Hamriyah's Sheikh Saif bin Abdulrahman out of deference to Sharjah's ruler, Saqr bin Khalid Al Qasimi), Hamriyah was granted its independence by the Ruler of Sharjah, Sheikh Khalid bin Saqr Al Qasimi, on 9 August 1923. Khalid bin Saqr's letter of that date granting independence to Sheikh Abdulrahman bin Saif of Hamriyah renounced all claims by Sharjah to taxes or revenues from Hamriyah.

Sheikh Khalid bin Saqr Al Qasimi of Sharjah was deposed the next year and his successor, Sheikh Sultan bin Saqr Al Qasimi, did not honour his undertaking to Hamriyah. The British, however, were minded to recognise Hamriyah as an emirate and were only stopped from so doing by the death of Sheikh Abdulrahman bin Saif by the hand of his nephew, Saif bin Abdullah, in April 1931. A period of coup and counter-coup followed (eventually ending in the accession of Sheikh Abdulrahman bin Saif's son, Humaid bin Abdulrahman) and although independence for Hamriyah was discussed again in 1937 when oil concessions were being negotiated throughout the Trucial States, it came to nothing and Hamriyah remained part of Sharjah.