Dibba Al-Hisn

Dibba Al-Hisn is a pene-exclave of the emirate of Al-Sharjah, one of the seven United Arab Emirates. It is bordered by the Gulf of Oman from the East, Dibba Al-Baya from the North, and Dibba Al-Fujairah from the South. It is also geographically part of the Dibba region. It is the smallest in size among the Dibbas. It is mostly known for the its fish market and the ancient fortress, from which it got its name. Also, it is known for its high density of population relative to the other Dibbas.

History

Pre-Islamic Period

Dibba

Dibba (Arabic: دبا; Portuguese: Doba), sometimes spelled Diba or Daba, is a coastal region at the northern tip of the eastern Arabian peninsula on the Gulf of Oman. It is politically divided into three segments:

History

This large natural harbour on the east coast of the northern Emirates has been an important site of maritime trade and settlement since the pre-Islamic era. There is some slight evidence, mainly from tombs, of settlement during the later 2nd millennium and the early first millennium BCE, contemporary with such sites as Shimal, Tell Abraq and Rumeilah. There is also scattered occupation during the period of al-Dur and Mileiha but it is in the period just prior to, and after, the coming of Islam that we hear most about Dibba. Under the Sasanians, and their Omani clients the Al-Julanda, an important market existed at Dibba and that it was sometimes the capital of Oman. According to Ibn Habib "merchants from Sindh, India, China, people of the East and West came to it."