Julfār

Julfar was a trading town on the southern shore of the Persian Gulf, near the Strait of Hormuz. Its medieval quarters at Mataf and Nudud occupied sandbanks sheltering a lagoon, with palm gardens inland. The port was a source of pearls and a gateway for northern Oman, connected by sea to merchants from the Middle East, Africa, India and farther east.

Settlement shifted to the coast after the earlier harbour at Kush silted up. Excavations at Mataf and Nudud have revealed early houses of palm fronds, followed by mudbrick and stone buildings, narrow lanes, courtyard houses, a mosque and a fort. During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries Julfar flourished under Hormuzi rule, producing valuable taxes and pearls. Local pottery travelled widely through the Gulf and Indian Ocean, while imported Chinese ceramics reached the town. The lagoon eventually silted up as well; by the middle of the sixteenth century Ras al-Khaimah had become Julfar's main port. The later history of Julfar under Portuguese influence centred on that settlement, which became a seat of the Qawasim family in the seventeenth century.