Sunset Salutation

Members of Sarjah police prepare a cannon in one of the streets 12 January, to be fired at sunset to inform Moslems that it is time to break their fast after a long day of not eating, drinking and smoking.

Rabih Moghrabi / AFP

Firing a cannon to signal the end of fasting at sunset is a Ramadan tradition whose origins are lost in the mists of time.

Some accounts date it to the Mamluk sultan Khoush Qadam in the 15th century in the Gregorian calendar, while others trace it earlier to the Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt.

Whichever is correct, it seems most likely that the tradition originated in Cairo and spread across the Arab world. Cannons first made their appearance in Sharjah in the 19th century, where the emirate had a good stock of weapons, many left behind by the Portuguese.

It was adopted in Dubai in the first half of the 20th century. By 1987, when this photograph was taken, more modern guns were in use, under the supervision of trained police officers. About a dozen cannons are used in the emirate of Sharjah, while in Dubai large crowds gather at four locations to wait for the blast that signals sundown – and the start of iftar.

* James Langton