DIBA AL-HISN

Diba also spelled Dibbah, or Daba settlement and port town, on the eastern (Gulf of Oman) coast of the Oman Promontory of the Arabian Peninsula. It is situated on Diba Bay and is surrounded by mountains. The town and its locality are part of two countries: the old port area and territory immediately south belong to the United Arab Emirates (Sharjah and Fujairah emirates), while the territory north of the bay lies in the Sultanate of Oman. An important port of pre-Islamic Arabia, Diba al-Hisn was traditionally renowned as a copper-exporting centre for the interior of Oman. It was a prosperous town at the time of the emergence of Islam and was one of the last important places of resistance to the new religion in the Arabian Peninsula. It was razed by the Muslims in the 7th century. In the 19th century the Qawasim pirate chieftain Sultan ibn Saqr gave the town as a fiefdom to one of his sons; his descendants, at various periods, claimed to be independent sheikhs. Diba al-Hisn, now a small fishing village with adjacent palm groves and vegetable plots, has a central electricity supply and a small hospital. Roads and trails link it with coastal settlements to the south and with the Ras al-Khaimah emirate, across the Oman Promontory. Pop. (latest census) 1,010.