Al Mahatta Fort
Al Mahatta ('The station' in Arabic) Fort is located in central Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. The fort was built by the Ruler of Sharjah in 1932 to afford protection for passengers and staff of Imperial Airways. Sharjah was an overnight stop between Baghdad and Jodphur on the Imperial Airways Eastern Route from Croydon to Brisbane. The fort today houses an aviation museum.
History
The Imperial Airways route was originally established on the Northern Shore of the Persian Gulf but the agreement to use the route made with the Persian Government lapsed in 1932 and a Southern route was sought. An agreement was made on 22 June 1932 with the Ruler of Sharjah, Sultan bin Saqr Al Qasimi, which secured him a monthly rental of 800 Rupees for landing rights and fees and a personal subsidy of 500 Rupees.[1] He agreed to build a rest-house for crew and passengers which was fortified against "possible but unlikely raids by bedouin" according to the 1937 documentary film Air Outpost, which featured Sharjah's airport.[2]
The ruler also supplied a number of armed men as guards.
The route was originally flown by Handley Page HP42s, with two weekly flights landing in Sharjah on Sunday and Wednesday evenings on the outbound flight and Wednesday and Saturday evenings on the return flight.
A backup landing strip was established in Kalba in August 1936, resulting in Kalba's ruler, Said Bin Hamad Al Qasimi being recognised by the British as a Trucial Ruler.
By 1938, Sharjah was no longer an overnight stop on the route although the Imperial Airways flying boat service from Sydney to London included an overnight stop in Dubai.
The airport was used extensively during World War Two by the RAF and a new agreement was made with the Ruler of Sharjah establishing an RAF base, which remained in use through to British withdrawal from the UAE in 1971. No longer in use by Imperial Airways (or its successor BOAC), in 1951, it became the home of the Trucial Oman Scouts.[3] The fort building became the Seaface Hotel, then from 1973 was used as a police station before falling into disrepair before its restoration in the late 1990s to open as a museum in 2000.
The airstrip remained in constant use until the development of the current Sharjah International Airport in 1977.
Air Outpost
Produced in 1937 by documentary maker Paul Rotha for Strand Films, Air Outpost set out to tell the story of "24 hours at the airport and city of Sharjah, on the Persian Gulf". The film, featuring a score by British composer William Alywn, forms a rare and important historical document of Sharjah and the airport and fort at Mahatta which were at the time, according to the film, "A mile away from the Arab city of Sharjah." and which are now in its centre.
Although dated 1937, the film itself was actually shot in November 1936, Rotha having picked Sharjah for his film as he had traveled the Imperial Airways route a month after its inauguration before the Mahatta Fort had been built, consequently sleeping in tents.[4]
References
- Use dmy dates from September 2015
- Pages with broken file links
- United Arab Emirates articles missing geocoordinate data
- City museums
- History museums in the United Arab Emirates
- National museums of the United Arab Emirates
- Forts in the United Arab Emirates
- History of Sharjah
- History of the United Arab Emirates
