History

Main article: History of the United Arab Emirates

The land comprising the UAE was under the Umayyads:

Expansion under Muhammad, 622–632

Expansion during the Rashidun Caliphate, 632–661

Expansion during the Umayyad Caliphate, 661–750

Antiquity

A pot discovered in the Iron Age building of Bidaa Bint Saud, Al Ain on display at the Al Ain National
Museum. It is thought to be an incense burner.

The land of the Emirates has been occupied for thousands of years. Stone tools recovered from
Jebel Faya in the emirate of Sharjah reveal a settlement of people from Africa some 127,000
years ago and a stone tool used for butchering animals discovered at Jebel Barakah on the
Arabian coast suggests an even older habitation from 130,000 years ago.[22] There is no proof of
contact with the outside world at that stage, although in time lively trading links developed with
civilisations in Mesopotamia, Iran and the Harappan culture of the Indus Valley. This contact
persisted and became wide-ranging, probably motivated by the trade in copper from the Hajar
Mountains, which commenced around 3,000 BCE.[23] Sumerian sources talk of the UAE as home
to the 'Makkan' or Magan people.[24]

There are six major periods of human settlement with distinctive behaviours in the pre-Islamic
UAE: the Hafit period from 3,200-2,600 BCE; the Umm Al Nar culture spanned from 2,600-
2,000 BCE, the Wadi Suq people dominated from 2,000–1,300 BCE. From 1,200 BC to the
advent of Islam in Eastern Arabia, through three distinctive Iron Ages (Iron Age 1, 1,200–1,000
BC; Iron Age 2, 1,000–600 BC and Iron Age 3 600–300 BC) and the Mleiha period (300 BC
onward), the area was variously occupied by Archaemenid and other forces and saw the
construction of fortified settlements and extensive husbandry thanks to the development of the
falaj irrigation system.

In ancient times, Al Hasa (today's Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia) was part of Al Bahreyn and
adjoined Greater Oman (today's UAE and Oman). From the second century AD, there was a
movement of tribes from Al Bahreyn towards the lower Gulf, together with a migration among
the Azdite Qahtani (or Yamani) and Quda'ah tribal groups from south-west Arabia towards
central Oman.