Manama is a township in the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

(UAE), one of two

exclaves An enclave is a territory that is entirely surrounded by the territory of only one other state or entity. An enclave can be an independent territory or part of a larger one. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is s ...

of the

emirate of Ajman The Emirate of Ajman (; ) ( Gulf Arabic: إمارة عيمان emāratʿymān) is one of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates. It joined the United Arab Emirates federation on December 2, 1971. It has an area of 259 square kilometers ...

(the other is Masfout). Its land area is mainly given over to agricultural usage. It is known to stamp collectors as a number of editions of colourful stamps were issued from there in the late 1960s. At the census of 2017 the city had a population 5,823 on an area of 25.73 km², which corresponds to a population density of 226.3 per km².

History

Manama was, at the turn of the 20th century, a village of seven or eight houses of the Sharqiyin tribe. It grew in importance when, following the crash of the pearling industry in the late 1920s, the Ruler of Ajman, Sheikh Rashid Al Nuaimi, identified Manama as an area with the potential to be developed as Ajman's 'bread basket' and invested in planting a number of crops, including papaya and lemon trees. Manama was also the source of two particularly fine varieties of wild honey with ''sidr'' and ''simr'' trees providing two seasonal flows of honey from wild Asiatic honey bees. The gathering of honey was also formalised, this and the growing agricultural base in Manama providing work for the impoverished men of coastal Ajman into the 1930s.

Philately

In 1963, Britain ceded responsibility for the

Trucial States The Trucial States, also known as the Trucial Coast, the Trucial Sheikhdoms, or Trucial Oman, was a group of tribal confederations to the south of the Persian Gulf (southeastern Arabia) whose leaders had signed protective treaties, or truce ...

' postal systems. An American philatelic entrepreneur, Finbar Kenny, saw the opportunity to create a number of editions of stamps aimed at the lucrative collector's market and in 1964 concluded a deal with cash-strapped Ajman to take the franchise for the production of stamps for the government. Kenny had made something of a specialty out of signing these deals, also signing with the Ruler of

Fujairah Fujairah City () is the capital of the emirate of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates. It is the List of cities in the United Arab Emirates, seventh-largest city in UAE, located on the Gulf of Oman (part of the Indian Ocean). It is the only Em ...

in 1964 – and getting involved in a bribery case in the USA over his dealings with the government of the

Cook Islands The Cook Islands is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of 15 islands whose total land area is approximately . The Cook Islands' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covers of ocean. Avarua is its ...

These stamps, colourfully illustrated and unrelated to the actual emirate of Ajman (editions included 'Space Research' and 'Tokyo Olympic Games') became known together with stamps produced by other Trucial States at the time, as '

dunes A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, flat ...

'. Their proliferation eventually devalued them. Among these editions, following the opening of a post office in Manama on July 5, 1966, were nine editions published from 'Manama, Dependency of Ajman'.

References

Populated places in the Emirate of Ajman Enclaves and exclaves {{UnitedArabEmirates-geo-stub