Julfar

Julfar was an Islamic-era port, trading entrepôt and settlement, which formed a key element in the Arab trading networks that straddled East and West throughout the Islamic period until they were smashed by the Portuguese in the 16th century.

It was a predecessor settlement to Ras Al Khaimah, today in the United Arab Emirates, and, although often conflated with the 17th-century emergence of the modern city of Ras Al Khaimah, represents a distinct era of human settlement and development from that of the modern city. Julfar's rise, eflorescence and fall took place between 1300 and 1650 CE.

Foundation and early years

Julfar's predecessor settlement was the fortified port of Kush, established in the 5th century and finally abandoned in the 13th century. Once enjoying protected maritime access thanks to its lagoon, the waterway to Kush silted up leading to the establishment of Julfar on the coast. This process of abandonment was gradual and Kush remained a key administrative and commercial centre even as Julfar was established.

The medieval port of Julfar was settled at Mataf and Nudud between the 13th and 17th centuries AD. The two centres are situated on two sandbanks protecting a lagoon southwest of the palm gardens (Mataf to the north, Nudud to the south). Archaeological excavations recorded ''areesh'' structures built from palm fronds in the lowest levels, before mud brick and stone buildings appeared by the end of the 14th century. It is now considered likely that Nudud was settled before Mataf, before being briefly abandoned in the 14th century and then re-occupied with the subsequent expansion of Mataf.

The foundation of Julfar has been dated to the early-mid 14th century, as a small and basic settlement of palm frond huts that subsequently expanded during the 15th and 16th centuries into a town of considerable importance. The early population fished and likely pearled, but also farmed the interior, benefiting from the same access to land and sea that had characterised Julfar's predecessor, Kush. Sequences of occupation at Julfar include finds of early Chinese porcelain dated to the 14th century, post holes and ovens and then the development of mud brick buildings and defined streets, courtyard houses and evidence of dense occupation as the town developed into the 15th century.

Julfar was protected on its three landward sides by a city wall, some 1.5 metres thick. The whole area of plantation to the hinterland of the town - something like 85% of the arable land available to the town – was protected by the Wadi Sur, a 7 km wall between the shore and the mountains interspersed with watchtowers at regular intervals and terminating at the 11th-century Shimal Fort (also known locally as 'Sheba's Palace'). The 5-metre high and 2-metre thick Wadi Sur wall and its 2.5-metre deep and 3.5-metre wide ditch were likely constructed in the 14th century.

Associated with the emergence of Julfar as a trading centre, but also evidenced at Kush and other inland sites, Julfar ware pottery is a coarse ceramic manufactured at a number of sites inland of Julfar. It has been widely found in the Gulf and Western Indian Ocean, a testament to strong regional trade.

Development

Significant excavations of a mosque at Julfar have taken place, supporting a view of several phases of the town's development, from its establishment in the 14th century through periods of growth into the 16th century, when the mosque underwent a number of expansions as a mud brick building and then an extensive reconstruction in stone and mortar. Finds support the peak of Julfar's growth and development to sit between the early 15th and early 16th centuries, with the emergence of considerable – and apparently planned – urban development. At this stage, Julfar was a well-defined urban settlement of some scale with a large mosque, a fort, a town wall and a dense network of streets packed with mudbrick, stone and coral houses. These buildings are believed to have housed a 16th-century population of anything up to 70,000 people and to have stretched 5 kilometres along the coast north of Mataf, with the town stretching as far north as Rams

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