UAE TRUCIAL STATES

source :

http://www.lonelyplanet.fr/_htm/destinations/index.php?mode=notice&param1=united_arab_emirates&param2=histoire
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The United Arab Emirates
 (UAE)
 (Arabic: دولة الإمارات العربية المتحدة‎,
 Dawlat al-Imārāt al-‘Arabīyah al-Muttaḥidah,
 short name: The Emirates,
 local short name: Al Emarat الامارات)
 is a federation situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Southwest Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman and Saudi Arabia and sharing sea borders with Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Iran.

 The UAE consists of seven states, 

termed emirates,

 (because they are ruled by Emirs) which are 

Abu Dhabi, 

Dubai, 

Sharjah, 

Ajman, 

Umm al-Quwain, 

Ras al-Khaimah 

and 

Fujairah. 

The capital and second largest city of the United Arab Emirates is Abu Dhabi. It is also the country's center of political, industrial, and cultural activities.
Before 1971, the UAE was known as the Trucial States or Trucial Oman,
 in reference to a 19th-century truce between the United Kingdom and several Arab Sheikhs.
The name Pirate Coast was also used in reference to the area's emirates from the 18th to the early 20th century.

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