Rare porcelain from China recently unearthed in Ras Al Khaimah is set to form part of a new exhibition in Beijing.
The blue and white shards date from the Yuan Dynasty of 1271 to 1368 and highlight the extent of China’s trade with the region through the Middle Ages.
The artefacts were discovered following excavations which began in 2017 and were jointly carried out by the Palace Museum in Beijing and Ras Al Khaimah’s Antiquities and Museums Department.
After centuries buried underground, the porcelain will return to China on loan for an exhibition on Indian Ocean trade routes, according to officials.
“There are only about 300 complete pieces of this type of porcelain in existence in the world,” said professor Wang Guangyao, a research fellow at the Department of Objects and Decorative Arts at the Palace Museum.
“There is little documentary evidence but the evidence we have found here in Ras Al Khaimah suggests very extensive and high level trade between China and here in the past.”
The fertile port city of Julfar was the medieval predecessor to Ras Al Khaimah and one of the two most important cites in the Gulf during the Middle Ages.
At the height of its power it was home to up to 70,000 inhabitants during the 14th and 16th Centuries. Even in 1150, however, the Arab geographer al-Idrisi referred to Julfar as a long-established pearling centre.
Sheikh Saud bin Saqr, the Ruler of Ras Al Khaimah, recently met with Chinese archaeologists to discuss their work in the emirate.
“These findings point to great cultural exchanges between our ancestors and the Chinese hundreds of years ago,” he said.
“We already know Ras Al Khaimah, or Julfar as it was then known, was a key trading post for the Gulf, India and Africa and this discovery confirms our understanding that we traded with people from as far afield as China.”
Profile
Company name: Jaib
Started: January 2018
Co-founders: Fouad Jeryes and Sinan Taifour
Based: Jordan
Sector: FinTech
Total transactions: over $800,000 since January, 2018
Investors in Jaib's mother company Alpha Apps: Aramex and 500 Startups
Company profile
Name: Back to Games and Boardgame Space
Started: Back to Games (2015); Boardgame Space (Mark Azzam became co-founder in 2017)
Founder: Back to Games (Mr Azzam); Boardgame Space (Mr Azzam and Feras Al Bastaki)
Based: Dubai and Abu Dhabi
Industry: Back to Games (retail); Boardgame Space (wholesale and distribution)
Funding: Back to Games: self-funded by Mr Azzam with Dh1.3 million; Mr Azzam invested Dh250,000 in Boardgame Space
Growth: Back to Games: from 300 products in 2015 to 7,000 in 2019; Boardgame Space: from 34 games in 2017 to 3,500 in 2019
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At a glance - Zayed Sustainability Prize 2020
Launched: 2008
Categories: Health, energy, water, food, global high schools
Prize: Dh2.2 million (Dh360,000 for global high schools category)
Winners’ announcement: Monday, January 13
Impact in numbers
335 million people positively impacted by projects
430,000 jobs created
10 million people given access to clean and affordable drinking water
50 million homes powered by renewable energy
6.5 billion litres of water saved
26 million school children given solar lighting
More on Quran memorisation:
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The biog
Name: Gul Raziq
From: Charsadda, Pakistan
Family: Wife and six children
Favourite holes at Al Ghazal: 15 and 8
Golf Handicap: 6
Childhood sport: cricket
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.