Manama is a township in the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia ( The Middle East). It is located at t ...

(UAE), one of two

exclaves An enclave is a territory (or a small territory apart of a larger one) that is entirely surrounded by the territory of one other state or entity. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is sometimes used improperly to deno ...

of the

emirate of Ajman The Emirate of Ajman ( ar, إمارة عجمان; ) (Gulf Arabic: إمارة عيمان emāratʿymān) is one of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates. It joined the United Arab Emirates federation on December 2, 1971. It has an ar ...

(the other is

Masfout Masfout is a village that forms part of the eponymous exclave of Masfout in Ajman, one of the seven emirates forming the United Arab Emirates. It is surrounded by Ras Al Khaimah, the Dubai exclave of Hatta and Oman ( Mahdha Wilayat of Al Buraimi ...

). Its land area is mainly given over to agricultural usage. It is known to stamp collectors as a number of editions of colourful stamps were issued from there in the late 1960s. At the census of 2017 the city had a population 5,823 on an area of 25.73 km², which corresponds to a population density of 226.3 per km².

History

Manama was, at the turn of the 20th century, a village of seven or eight houses of the

Sharqiyin The Sharqiyin ( ar, الشرقيون, singular Al Sharqi ar, الشرقي) is a tribe of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Sharqiyin were long the dominant tribe along the East coast of the Trucial States (and the second most numerous in t ...

tribe. It grew in importance when, following the crash of the pearling industry in the late 1920s, the Ruler of Ajman, Sheikh Rashid Al Nuaimi, identified Manama as an area with the potential to be developed as Ajman's 'bread basket' and invested in planting a number of crops, including papaya and lemon trees. Manama was also the source of two particularly fine varieties of wild honey with ''sidr'' and ''simr'' trees providing two seasonal flows of honey from wild Asiatic honey bees. The gathering of honey was also formalised, this and the growing agricultural base in Manama providing work for the impoverished men of coastal Ajman into the 1930s.

Philately

In 1963, Britain ceded responsibility for the

Trucial States The Trucial States ( '), also known as the Trucial Coast ( '), the Trucial Sheikhdoms ( '), Trucial Arabia or Trucial Oman, was the name the British government gave to a group of tribal confederations in southeastern Arabia whose leaders had s ...

' postal systems. An American philatelic entrepreneur, Finbar Kenny, saw the opportunity to create a number of editions of stamps aimed at the lucrative collector's market and in 1964 concluded a deal with cash-strapped Ajman to take the franchise for the production of stamps for the government. Kenny had made something of a specialty out of signing these deals, also signing with the Ruler of

Fujairah Fujairah City ( ar, الفجيرة) is the capital of the emirate of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates. It is the seventh-largest city in UAE, located on the Gulf of Oman (part of the Indian Ocean). It is the only Emirati capital city on the ...

in 1964 – and getting involved in a bribery case in the USA over his dealings with the government of the

Cook Islands ) , image_map = Cook Islands on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , capital = Avarua , coordinates = , largest_city = Avarua , official_languages = , lan ...

These stamps, colourfully illustrated and unrelated to the actual emirate of Ajman (editions included 'Space Research' and 'Tokyo Olympic Games') became known together with stamps produced by other Trucial States at the time, as '

dunes A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, fl ...

'. Their proliferation eventually devalued them. Among these editions, following the opening of a post office in Manama on July 5, 1966, were nine editions published from 'Manama, Dependency of Ajman'.

References

Populated places in the Emirate of Ajman Enclaves and exclaves {{UnitedArabEmirates-geo-stub