ABSTRACT
The city state of Sharjah is the result of a complex interaction of environmental, economic, political, and cultural factors across successive periods of time which shaped its particular physical form and social composition. Sharjah became one of the cities in the Middle East most eager to follow the western model of modernization and urban development. Surviving evidence from Sharjah's early development shows that the city consisted of several types of architectural and urban elements. The most notable houses had clear Persian and Indian influences, and in general the built fabric was of a somewhat primitive' nature, called arish. In 1938, the process of modernizing Sharjah's infrastructure was given a further financial boost when the local government handed out contracts for British oil companies to explore the area for oil reserves. The next key trend towards suburban and peripheral development was triggered by a new master-plan in 1980 that imposed an even more absolutist traffic map onto the city.
