Dhiyab bin Isa Al Nahyan

Dhiyab bin Isa Al Nahyan

Sheikh Dhiyab bin Isa bin Nahayan (Arabic: ذياب بن عيسى بن نهيان آل نهيان‎) was the Sheikh of Abu Dhabi (1761–1793) and the founder of the Al Abu Falah dynasty, which still rules Abu Dhabi today.

Dhiyab bin Isa, leader of the Bani Yas tribal confederation, sent a hunting party from Liwa in 1761 which tracked a gazelle to a brackish spring on the island. The gazelle became the symbol of Abu Dhabi, and gave it its name (literally Father of the Gazelle). In 1793, Dhiyab ordered his son Shakbut to move to the island. He did and then built a village and a fort there.