The emirate also has a thriving private-sector middle class, but it consists almost entirely of foreigners.
While the UAE is relatively liberal among Gulf nations, Sharjah is its most conservative emirate.
If push comes to shove, the emirate surely has the means to satisfy many of them.
The friendly neighbouring emirate of Abu Dhabi, which has been bailing Dubai out, is still flush with petrodollars.
It is another blow for the Emirate where other projects have been subject to difficulties in recent times.
Sharjah is the only emirate in the UAE that stretches along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman.
But bankers who deal with the wealthy emirate say it is taking longer to get deals done of late.
If you are going to own one of these cars, it would be handy to have your own emirate.
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They were arrested in the neighboring emirate of Ras Al-Khaima seven-and-half months ago.
As Dubai's boosters point out, the emirate is well situated midway between Europe and the booming markets of Asia.
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Qatar's winning bid reflects the emirate's talent for using its vast gas-fuelled wealth to win friends and influence people.
Yet, unlike its neighbour, the emirate pursues modernising and tolerant social policies, especially via its first lady, Sheikha Mozah.
Since liberation, the emirate's old city-dwelling elite has sensed a loss of influence to newer arrivals from tribal backgrounds.
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Even such unlikely-sounding events as the emirate's annual Shopping Festival seem to work.
Sharjah's government funds the biennale, as well as the Emirate's well-preserved heritage areas, its authentic bazaars and its 16 museums.
He was sitting beside soccer legend Pele, who was chatting in front of television cameras with a young Emirate boy.
Al-Arabiya, a Saudi-owned news channel based in the Emirate of Dubai has been running the ads frequently for several months.
Luckily for Al Jazeera, its backers include the ruler of Qatar, the tiny Gulf emirate where the network is based.
Many secular-minded Libyans such as Mr Tarhouni have spent much time in the emirate and have benefited from its largesse.
One of the star performers has been Qatar, a tiny rich emirate that sticks out of Saudi Arabia like a sore thumb.
That has boosted the emirate's position in what has become a race among wealthy Gulf states to woo prestigious seats of learning.
He also traveled to the Persian Gulf emirate of Dubai, which has imported tens of thousands of workers to build its burgeoning megalopolis.
Earlier this month, audiences in the emirate flocked to watch Faten al-Helw, a lion-taming Egyptian grandmother, put her big cats through flaming hoops.
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Mohammed Salem al-Zumer was reportedly detained by state security officers in the emirate of Sharjah on Wednesday and taken to an unknown destination.
With just 3.4m residents, only a third of them indigenous citizens, the emirate sits on a claimed 8% of the world's petroleum reserves.
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Some in the emirate seemed tempted to declare victory over their woes, pretend that every balance-sheet was sound, and go back to business as usual.
Twenty-five years before, Britain -- which was made trustee under the Mandate in 1920 -- converted the eastern three-quarters of Palestine into the Emirate of Transjordan.
The Dubai announcement caused the cost of this insurance to rise sharply for the emirate itself, though it has since fallen back a bit (see chart).
Since this emirate isn't hobbled by curfew laws, as are some airports, aircraft can come in at all hours, and the stores stay open to handle them.
Given how much Dubai has spent polishing its image as an international financial centre, it would be suicidal for the emirate to do the same, say analysts.
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