Although the settlement of Al Fasht (also known as Al Fisht), which forms part of the area now known as Al Heera, was bombarded by the
British as part of the
Persian Gulf Campaign of 1819, Al Heera is first directly mentioned in British records of 1830: "The people of Heera, a
Joasmee dependency, commit a piracy upon a
Bundar Abbas boat. Sheikh Sultan bin Suggur of his own accord compels full restitution of the property and punishes the perpetrators." In 1840, the then-ruler of the town, Sheikh Humeid bin Obeid bin Saeed, invaded the neighbouring emirate of
Ajman, and was eventually ousted by a joint force from Sharjah and Dubai, which went on to burn Al Heera in retaliation. Some 80 years later, the head of the Al Bu Shamis, Sheikh Abdulrahman Al Shamsi, briefly deposed
Humaid bin Abdulaziz Al Nuaimi, the ruler of Ajman on 15 June 1920, by taking
Ajman Fort. He was convinced to leave the fort after six days by the British Residency Agent in Sharjah. After spending time in Ru'us Al Jibal (in
Oman) and
Al Khan (Southern Sharjah), Abdulrahman was allowed to return to Al Heera by the ruler of Sharjah in 1921 in a settlement at least partly enforced by the presence of the British ship under Captain John Pearson. Khaled bin Ahmad took this as a challenge and once again moved against Al Heera, but Abdulrahman appealed to the British Residency Agent who negotiated a peace and put two of his own men to guard the fort at Al Heera. By now, the people of Sharjah had had enough and called on Sultan to rule them. On 1 November 1924, Sultan bin Saqr, backed by a force raised by Abdulrahman, was welcomed into Sharjah and deposed Khalid in a brief, 11-day conflict. Abdulrahman's son-in-law was now Ruler of Sharjah and would come to depend on him almost completely. Abdulrahman was suspected of an attempt on the life of the British Residency Agent in October 1925, causing a major clash between the British government and the Rulers of the
Trucial States, specifically
Ras Al Khaimah, whose ruler refused to give Abdulrahman up to the British in 1926, but eventually complied. Abdulrahman was sent onto Bombay and then to a four-year exile in Yemen, although he returned after three years with Sultan guaranteeing his good behaviour to the British. Al Heera was caught up in an outbreak of
smallpox that took place throughout the Trucial Coast in 1936, with British reports of infections and deaths consistently enumerating these in Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Ras Al Khaimah, Umm Al Quwain and Al Heera – a recognition of the status of the township at that time among the settlements of the coast. Abdulrahman ruled Al Heera until his death on 10 August 1942, when the township reverted to rule by Sharjah. == Trucial Oman Scouts ==