Just a few minutes from the bustle and skyscrapers of Dubai, Sharjah offers a very different journey: one through the culture, history and traditions of the Emirates. Named Cultural Capital of the Arab World by UNESCO, it is the city of museums, Islamic art, restored souks and lovingly preserved heritage. There is no race for records or theme parks here, but rather minarets, alleys lined with coral-stone houses, collections of manuscripts and calligraphy, and a slower, more authentic atmosphere.
Sharjah is also the most conservative and traditional emirate on the coast: it is 'dry' (no alcohol is sold anywhere), the atmosphere is more modest and life revolves around family, faith and culture. For curious travellers, that is part of its charm: Sharjah lets you understand where the country comes from, what life was like for pearl divers and Bedouin merchants, and what Islamic art and civilisation mean, far from the commercial glitter of its famous neighbour.
This guide helps you explore cultural Sharjah with a practical approach: which museums and souks to see (many of them very cheap or free), how to get around, how to dress and behave in the most traditional emirate, what to bear in mind in a place without alcohol, how to escape to the Mleiha desert and how to make the most of being so close to Dubai. If you want to add soul and context to your trip through the Emirates, Sharjah is the missing piece.
Sharjah is one of the oldest settlements in the region: the area has been inhabited for thousands of years, and inland, at Mleiha, there are Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age sites as well as pre-Islamic tombs. Like the rest of the coast, for centuries it lived from fishing, maritime trade and pearl diving. In the 18th century the Al Qasimi dynasty (the Qawasim) took control of Sharjah and much of the coast, and became one of the maritime powers of the Persian Gulf, with a fleet feared by the British, who labelled it the 'Pirate Coast'. After clashes and treaties with the British Empire in the 19th century, Sharjah became part of the Trucial States under British protection; in fact, it was one of the first to have contact with the British (with an air base and a seaplane stopover in the 1930s). The collapse of the pearl trade in the 1930s impoverished it, as it did the whole region, until in 1971 it joined the federation of the United Arab Emirates. Without Abu Dhabi's abundant oil or Dubai's commercial drive, Sharjah found its identity in culture, education and heritage, and was named Cultural Capital of the Arab World by UNESCO in 1998. That story, from the seafaring Qawasim to today's cultural capital, is told on our history page.
Read the full history ↓The five smaller emirates: cultural Sharjah, tiny Ajman, serene Umm al Quwain, mountainous Ras al Khaimah, heir to Julfar, and Fujairah looking out over the Gulf of Oman.
Read the history of The northern emirates →If you book from here we earn a commission and you pay no more. Prices and availability come from Civitatis.
No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Sharjah's history goes back much further than its modern buildings suggest. Inland, in the Mleiha area, archaeologists have uncovered traces of human presence going back thousands of years: Stone Age tools, Bronze and Iron Age tombs, and an entire pre-Islamic settlement that, in the last centuries BC, traded with the Greco-Roman world, Persia and southern Arabia. Coins, a monumental mausoleum and even remains pointing to a thriving caravan and farming life in the middle of the desert have been found here.
That long history ties Sharjah to the great trade routes that crossed Arabia and the Gulf. The region was a crossing point between the interior of the peninsula, the coast and the sea routes linking Mesopotamia, Persia, India and East Africa. Water was scarce but present, and together with the strategic location it kept this area continuously inhabited for millennia.
Like the rest of the coast of what would become the Emirates, historic Sharjah lived mainly from the sea: fishing, maritime trade and, above all, pearl diving, which for centuries was the region's main source of wealth. Every summer the dhows set out for the oyster beds, and the economy and daily life of coastal communities depended on pearls. Traditional Sharjah, the town of merchants and divers that is recreated today in its historic centre, was built on that seafaring, pearling world.
The main player in Sharjah's modern history is the Al Qasimi dynasty, known in the plural as the Qawasim. From the 18th century, this family took control of Sharjah and much of the lower Gulf coast, including Ras al Khaimah, and built a considerable maritime power. The Qawasim had a powerful fleet and dominated trade and shipping in the area, extending their influence across both shores of the Gulf, including the Persian coast.
That power clashed head-on with the interests of the British Empire, which controlled the routes to India and would not tolerate maritime rivals in the Gulf. The British accused the Qawasim of piracy (a charge local historians dispute, arguing that it was largely commercial competition) and named the area the 'Pirate Coast'. In the early 19th century, the British navy launched military campaigns against the Qawasim bases, culminating in 1819-1820 with the destruction of their fleet and the signing of treaties that ended their naval dominance.
Those maritime treaties, renewed throughout the 19th century, brought Sharjah and the other coastal emirates into the system of the 'Trucial States', under British protection and with Britain in charge of their foreign relations. Sharjah, once one of the region's powers, was reduced to a small emirate under tutelage, but it kept its Al Qasimi dynasty, which still rules the emirate today.
During the Trucial era, Sharjah played a prominent role in the British presence in the Gulf. In fact, it was one of the region's main centres: for a time, the British political representative for the whole coast was based here, and in the 1930s Sharjah hosted a key stop on the British Empire's air route to India, with an airfield and a fort-hotel where planes and flying boats refuelled. It was one of the first places on the coast to have an airport and contact with modern aviation.
But the economy still depended on pearls, and that is where disaster struck. In the 1920s and 1930s, the development of Japanese cultured pearls, combined with the worldwide Great Depression, sank the price of natural Gulf pearls and ruined the industry Sharjah lived on. The emirate, like the whole region, fell into deep poverty. Trade declined, many people emigrated, and the town was left scraping by for decades.
Unlike its neighbour Abu Dhabi, Sharjah was not lucky enough to discover large oil reserves; its output would always be modest compared with the capital's emirate. So when the age of oil and modernisation arrived, Sharjah started out with fewer resources than Abu Dhabi or business-minded Dubai. Far from sinking it, that fact would end up defining its identity: unable to compete on oil wealth or business, Sharjah looked for another way to stand out.
When the United Kingdom announced its withdrawal from the Persian Gulf in the late 1960s, Sharjah, like the other Trucial emirates, had to decide its future. On 2 December 1971, it joined the federation of the United Arab Emirates, together with Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Ajman, Umm al Quwain and Fujairah (Ras al Khaimah joined in early 1972). Sharjah became the third emirate of the federation, with its ruling Al Qasimi family keeping local power.
The federation's early years were not easy for Sharjah. In 1972 the emirate went through a dramatic episode: an attempted coup in which the former ruler, deposed years earlier, tried to take back power by force and died in the assault on the palace. Afterwards Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi took over, a cultured, university-educated man who would rule the emirate for decades and leave a deep mark on its direction.
Sheikh Sultan, a historian and author of books, gave Sharjah a character all its own within the Emirates. Convinced that a people's true heritage is its culture, history and education, he steered the emirate towards those values, in deliberate contrast with Dubai's more commercial, showy path and Abu Dhabi's more opulent one. Sharjah invested in museums, universities, heritage restoration and the promotion of art and the Arabic language. That is how it found its unique place in the federation.
Sharjah's bet on culture paid off and earned it international recognition: in 1998 UNESCO named it Cultural Capital of the Arab World, and in 2019 it was designated World Book Capital. These titles confirmed the identity the emirate had built over decades: within the Emirates, it is the beacon of culture, history, art and education, as opposed to the commercial glamour of its neighbours.
Today Sharjah is a city of museums (the superb Museum of Islamic Civilization, plus art, history, maritime and science museums), of restored souks, of a historic centre brought back to life by the Heart of Sharjah project, and of top-level cultural events such as the Sharjah Biennial, one of the most respected contemporary art events in the Middle East, organised by the Sharjah Art Foundation. It is also home to universities and to an intense cultural life in Arabic.
Sharjah also keeps a more conservative and traditional character than the rest of the coast: it is a 'dry' emirate, with no alcohol, a more modest, family atmosphere, and strong ties to faith and custom. For travellers, that combination (well-kept heritage, excellent museums, authentic souks, a desert with thousands of years of history at Mleiha and a genuine atmosphere) makes Sharjah the best place to understand where the Emirates come from. While Dubai looks to the future and Abu Dhabi shows off its wealth, Sharjah looks after the memory. And in a country that reinvented itself at full speed, that memory is worth its weight in gold.
