The Qawasim tribe from which dynasty originates are
Huwala, their ancestors migrating and keeping connections between the Arabian Peninsula and Persia, in particular maintaining their rulership over the town of
Lengeh on the coast of
Hormozgan province. The Qawasim tribe itself is of Hashemite origin, descending from
Husayn ibn Ali, through their eponymous ancestor Al Qasim bin Idris bin
Ja’far al-Zaki. During the 18th century, the
Arabian Peninsula witnessed a revolutionary socio-political and religious transformation under the reformers of the
Muwahhidun (Unitarian) movement led by
Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab, often referred as
Wahhabis. Embracing his ideals, the Qawasim robustly championed the doctrines of the
Muwahhidun in the Gulf region and became a close ally of the
Emirate of Diriyah. By the early 19th century, the Qawasim emerged as a maritime power based both in Ras Al Khaimah on the southern shore of the
Persian Gulf and
Qishm,
Bandar Abbas and
Lingeh on the northern shore.
Maritime power The Qawasim was a powerful naval force and sought to end the rising European colonial infiltration on their trade and commercial routes. The British-allied
Omani Empire had been the traditional enemy of the Qawasim over issues related to border disputes, religious differences and naval dominance in the Gulf. Qawasim control of trade in the Persian Gulf area led to wars with Oman and eventually with Oman's ally, Britain, and to the Qawasim (Joasmees to the British) being labelled by the British as pirates. This led to the identification of the southern shore of the Persian Gulf as the 'Pirate Coast', although following the
General Maritime Treaty of 1820 and the 1853 Perpetual Maritime Peace, the various coastal emirates in the area became known as the
Trucial States. at the hill top. In 1819 it was the last Al-Qasimi stronghold to fall in the
Persian Gulf campaign of 1819. The fall of Dhayah was to pave the way for the signing of the
General Maritime Treaty of 1820. Beginning from 1804, there was a spike in Qawasim naval attacks on local trading ships. Following decades of incidents where native shipping had fallen foul of the aggressive Al Qasimi, a first British expeditionary force embarked for Ras Al Khaimah in 1809, the
Persian Gulf campaign of 1809. This campaign led to the signing of a peace treaty between the British and Hussan Bin Rahmah, the Al Qasimi leader. This treaty broke down in 1815 and, in 1819, the British mounted a second, altogether more
successful, punitive campaign against the Qawasim in
Ras Al Khaimah under
William Keir Grant. The case against the Qawasim has been contested by the historian, author and current Ruler of Sharjah,
Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi in his book
The Myth of Arab Piracy in the Gulf, in which he argues that the charges amount to a 'casus belli' by the
East India Company, which sought to limit or eliminate the 'informal' Arab trade with India, and presents a number of internal communications between the Bombay Government and its officials, which shed doubt on many of the key charges made by British historian
J.G. Lorimer in his seminal history of the affair. At the time, the Chief Secretary of the Government of Bombay, F. Warden, presented a minute which laid blame for the piracy on the
Wahhabi influence on the Al Qasimi and the interference of the
East India Company in native affairs. Warden also successfully argued against a proposal to install the Sultan of Muscat as Ruler of the whole peninsula. Warden's arguments and proposals likely influenced the shape of the eventual treaty concluded with the Sheikhs of the Gulf coast. That 1820 treaty asserted, 'There shall be a cessation of plunder and piracy by land and sea on the part of the Arabs, who are parties to this contract, for ever.' It then goes on to define piracy as being any attack that is not an action of 'acknowledged war'. The 'pacificated Arabs' agreed, on land and sea, to carry a flag being a red rectangle contained within a white border of equal width to the contained rectangle, 'with or without letters on it, at their option'. This flag was to be a symbol of peace with the British government and each other. The treaty having been signed by Keir Grant and all of the Trucial Rulers, the Government in Bombay made clear that while it was happy with Grant's management of the military expedition, it was most dissatisfied with his leniency over the coastal tribes and desired, 'if it were not too late, to introduce some conditions of greater stringency'. Grant's response was spirited, pointing out that to have enforced extreme measures would have meant pursuing the chiefs into the interior rather than accepting their voluntary submission. This would have contravened Grant's instructions. In the end, Bombay allowed the treaty to stand. Alongside their stronghold in the Persian Gulf & Gulf of Oman the Qawasem were active both militarily and economically in the
Gulf of Aden and as far west as the
Mocha on the
Red Sea. They had numerous commercial ties with the
Somalis, leading vessels from Ras Al Khaimah and the
Persian Gulf to regularly attend trade fairs in the large ports of
Berbera and
Zeila. In the 1830s the
Isaaq Sultan Farah Guled and Haji Ali penned a letter to
Sultan bin Saqr Al Qasimi of
Ras Al Khaimah requesting military assistance and joint religious war against the British. == The Al Qasimi rulers ==