Ras Al Khaimah is the northernmost of the seven emirates and the fourth largest by area. It stretches from the Gulf coast through the Hajar mountains to a short frontier with Oman, and it contains Jebel Jais, the highest point in the United Arab Emirates.
Julfar
The emirate's historical importance rests on Julfar, a port settlement near the modern city that flourished from the medieval period. Julfar was a major pearling and trading centre and a source of the ceramics trade across the Indian Ocean; it was already well established by the fourteenth century and remained significant into the seventeenth. Its decline and the rise of the modern town of Ras Al Khaimah are linked to the shifting of the coastline and to regional competition.
The ruling family and the nineteenth century
The Qawasim ruled the northern coast, and Ras Al Khaimah was the centre of their maritime power in the early nineteenth century. A British expedition against the Qawasim force at Ras Al Khaimah in 1819 was followed by the series of maritime truces that gave the coast its colonial-era name, the Trucial Coast. The emirate's ruling Al Qasimi line continues; Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi has been ruler since 2010 and his predecessor, Sheikh Saqr bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, ruled from 1948 to 2010.
Mountains and modern industry
Modern Ras Al Khaimah has built an economy on limestone, ceramics and building materials — it is one of the largest producers of cement and ceramic tiles in the region — together with a substantial free zone and port facilities. The mountains have become a tourism asset: Jebel Jais carries a long zipline, a mountain road and hiking routes, and the Hajar terrain around Wadi Shees and Wadi Bih draws visitors from across the country.