Dibba

Dibba (Arabic: دبا; Portuguese: Doba), sometimes spelled Diba or Daba, is a coastal region at the northeastern tip of the United Arab Emirates(UAE)/Oman peninsula on the Gulf of Oman. It is politically divided into three parts:

• Dibba Al-Fujairah (دبا الفجيرة), ruled by the Emirate of Fujairah, UAE
• Dibba Al-Hisn (دبا الحصن), ruled by the Emirate of Sharjah, UAE
• Dibba Al-Baya (دبا البيعة), ruled by the Governorate of Musandam, Oman

Etymology

Scholars have suggested two possible origins for the name Dibba:

• It may have been named at a time when it was invaded by hordes of locusts, which in Literary Arabic are called daba.

• The name may refer to the bloodshed during the Ridda wars; blood in Arabic is dama, and that word may have evolved over time to daba. Today the town is called Daba by its natives and in Oman; but in most of the United Arab Emirates, it is called Dibba.

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 BC, 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.^[1] According to Ibn Habib "merchants from Sindh, India, China, people of the East and West came to it."

Soon after the death of the prophet Muhammad a rebellion broke out at Dibba and a faction of the Azd, led by Laqit bin Malik Dhu at-Taj, rejected Islam. According to one tradition Laqit was killed by an envoy of the caliph Abu Bakr in what may have been a relatively small struggle, while other sources including Al-Tabari say that at least 10,000 rebels were killed in one of the biggest battles of the Ridda wars. The plain behind Dibba still contains a large cemetery which according to local tradition represents the fallen apostates of Dibba.

During the time of the Abbasid caliph Al-Mu'tadid (AD 870–892) a great battle was fought at Dibba during the conquest of Oman by the Abbasid governor of Iraq and Bahrain, Muhammad bin Nur. Thereafter references to Dibba in historical literature are scarce, until we come to the Portuguese who built a fortress there. Dibba (Debe) appears in the list of southeast Arabian placenames preserved by the Venetian jeweler Gasparo Balbi in AD 1580 and depictions of its Portuguese fort can be found in several sources, such as Cortesao's Portugalliae monumenta cartographica.

Around 1620–1621 the Italian traveller Pietro Della Valle, while staying with the Sultan of Bandar Abbas, met the son of the ruler of Dibba. From this he learned that Dibba had formerly been subject to the kingdom of Hormuz, but was at that time loyal to the Safavids. In 1623 Safavids sent troops to Dibba, Khor Fakkan and other ports on the southeast coast of Arabia in order to prepare for a Portuguese counter-attack, following their expulsion from Hormuz (Jarun). The Portuguese, under Rui Freire, were so successful that the people of Dibba turned on their Safavid overlords putting them all to death, whereupon a Portuguese garrison of 50 men was installed at Dibba. More Portuguese forces had to be sent to Dibba in 1627 as a result of an Arab revolt. Two years later the Portuguese proposed moving part of the Mandaean population of southern Iraq to Dibba under pressure from neighbouring Arab tribes . Although Dibba was offered to the Mandaeans they were wise enough to see that the Portuguese force there would be insufficient to guarantee their security and, while a few Mandaeans tested the waters by moving to Muscat, most returned to Basra in AD 1630.

In 1645 the Portuguese still held Dibba but the Dutch, searching for potential sites for new commercial activities, sent the warship Zeemeeuw ('Seagull') to explore the Musandam peninsula between Khasab, on the Persian Gulf side, and Dibba on the east coast. Claes Speelman, the captain of the Zeemeeuw, made drawings in his logbook, including what is certainly the earliest depiction of Dibba in a European source. Within a year or two the Portuguese were forced out of Dibba and held only Khasab and Muscat, which they finally lost in 1650.

Eleven years later Jacob Vogel's description of the east coast of the Oman peninsula, prepared for the Dutch East India Company in 1666, contained the following: "Dabba (which we were unable to visit because of calm and counter currents) is a place (according to the interpreter assigned to us) with about 300 small houses constructed from branches of date trees ... During the days of the Portuguese, there were here 4 fortresses of which the biggest one is still standing. This place also has a valley with a lot of date trees under which there are water wells, where one can get fresh water. At the Northern side of Dabba there is a small fresh water river where the fishermen live.".^[2]

The 1900s witnessed land disputes over Dibba.^[3]

Geology

The Dibba Fault is an active fault, which means that it had a displacement or seismic activity during the geologically recent period, and is one of the two faults that run through the UAE. The fault crosses into Oman near the from the north and runs southward to the centre of the Arabian Peninsula. Gulf News reported that people in Dibba have felt at least 150 tremors during 2003 and 2004 which indicates that there is a major earthquake waiting to happen in the area. ^[4] Dibba also felt the 2005 Qeshm earthquake.

The Mesozoic and the Cenozoic accretionary wedge is truncated on the western side by the right lateral fault, the Zendan Fault – Oman Line. West of the transform are the Zagros Mountains of southern Iran, the Musandam peninsula and the Oman Mountains, and the Arabian platform and the Dibba Fault. The Dibba Fault separates the ophiolites in the Oman Mountains from the Mesozoic carbonates in the Musandam Peninsula.^[5]

On March 31, 2009, Gulfnews reported that the UAE's National Centre of Metrology and Seismology (NCMS) recorded two earth tremors, measuring magnitudes of 2.9 and 3.5 on the Richter scale, which shook the Gulf of Aden and the north of Dibba at 6.21am and 9.35am. The tremors were lightly felt in some areas of the northern emirates.^[6]

Marine life

In 2008 an algal bloom affected the sea around Dibba and reached the tourist hot-spots of 'Aqqah and Al-Faqeet, which contain several high-end resorts.^[7] 95 per cent of corals in the Dibba Marine Protected Zone were destroyed and the fish population dwindled to a minimum. Rita Bento, a marine biologist working with the Emirates Diving Association (EDA), said she saw only three fish during an hour-long dive in an area where previously hundreds were seen. ^[8]

Natural disasters

In June 2007, Dibba was affected by Cyclone Gonu, which caused damage to buildings and homes.^[9]

Archaeology

There is evidence of extensive ancient settlement^[10] and Dibba was an international market on the coast of Oman frequented by merchants from India and China sailing through the Arabian Sea. Indian and Chinese merchant activity has also been discovered in Dibba, and in Chinese sources as well.^[11]

In the early 1950s Bibby appealed to his wartime acquaintance, P. V. Glob, professor of Prehistory at Aarhus University, and together they organized the first modern archaeological expedition to the Persian Gulf region, including Dibba.^[12]

The towns

Dibba Al-Fujairah

Main article: Dibba Al-Fujairah

Dibba Al-Fujairah on the east coast is one of the largest towns in Fujairah. It contains several small villages located between the mountains and the seacoast. In winter people from all over the Emirates travel to Dibba to camp in the mountains and in summer they enjoy water sports and the sandy beaches. Beaches in Dibba are considered among the best of the UAE and have many luxury hotels.

Dibba Al-Hisn

Main article: Dibba Al-Hisn

Dibba Al-Hisn is bordered by the Gulf of Oman to the east, Dibba Al-Baya to the north, and Dibba Al-Fujairah to the south. It is the smallest in size among the other "Dibbas" and is notable mostly for its fish market and a fortress, after which the town is named. Its population density is greater than the other towns. There have been land disputes between Dibba Al-Hisn and Dibba Al-Baya, which were resolved in the 1990s.

Dibba Al-Hisn is believed to be the site where the Portuguese built a fort and a wall around the city during the Iberian Union.^[13]

Dibba Al-Baya

Main article: Dibba Al-Baya

Dibba Al-Baya is the most northerly of the three "Dibbas" and acts as a gateway to the Musandam peninsula.

Notable people

• Al Muhallab ibn Abi Suffrah, an Azdi Arab and an eminent military commander born in Dibba, whose name appeared on the first-edition of the United Arab Emirates dirham coins shortly after the people of the country accepted Islam.

• Laqit bin Malik: A false prophet and an Azdi Arab in Dibba also known as the "Crowned One (Dhul'-Taj)" who rose against the local Muslim Julanda rulers. The army led by Hudayfa and supported by Ikrimah ibn Abi-Jahl and 'Arfaja arrived at Al Ain / Buraimi where they wrote to local tribes to convince them to abandon the revolt. They then marched against and defeated Laqit in battle at Dibba, where reports of combined casualties of 10,000 are mentioned. Hudayfah then remained in Oman as governor restoring peace with the local tribes and bringing them back to the fold of Islam while the remaining troops to Mahra in southern Arabia to Ash Shihr in Yemen.^[14]

In popular culture

"We will go to Dibba, and we will see how summer feels like" is a saying popular in the UAE and Oman. It is used to express the ability of proving a point or test if a fact is true or not, since Dibba allegedly enjoys a cooler weather in the summer than the rest of the UAE.^{[citation needed]}

References

1. ^ United Arab Emirates: A New Perspective By Ibrahim Abed, Peter Hellyer. ISBN 1900724472, 9781900724470
2. ^ http://www.uaeinteract.com/history/e_walk/con_3/con3_48.asp
3. ^ http://www.archiveeditions.co.uk/titledetails.asp?tid=34
4. ^ "Scientists seek disaster management plans". Gulfnews. 21. http://archive.gulfnews.com/indepth/tsunami/more_stories/148660.html. Retrieved 25 January 2011. 
5. ^ The tectonic and climatic evolution of the Arabian Sea Region, by Peter D. Clift, Geological Society of London, D. Kroon, C. Gaedicke, J. Craig
6. ^ "Tremors felt in northern emirates". Gulfnews. 31. http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/general/tremors-felt-in-northern-emirates-1.61990. Retrieved 25 January 2011. 
7. ^ "'Red tide' forces tourists to ditch Dibba coast". Gulfnews. 7. http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/environment/red-tide-forces-tourists-to-ditch-dibba-coast-1.62832. Retrieved 25 January 2011. 
8. ^ "Red tide has killed 95% of corals, biologist says". 3. http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/environment/red-tide-has-killed-95-of-corals-biologist-says-1.49924. Retrieved 25 January 2011. 
9. ^ http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?section=theuae&xfile=data/theuae/2007/june/theuae_june129.xml
10. ^ Malcom C. Pick: The United Arab Emirates: A Venture in Unity. ISBN 0865311889, 9780865311886
11. ^ Wael B. Hallaq: The Origins and Evolution of Islamic Law, page 13. Cambridge University Press, 2005. ISBN 0521803322, 9780521803328
12. ^ Lynn Meskell: Archaeology Under Fire: Nationalism, Politics and Heritage in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East, page 191–192. Routledge, 1998. ISBN 0415196558, 9780415196550
13. ^ "DRAWINGS OF PORTUGUESE FORTS IN THE PERSIAN GULF DOBA". http://www.colonialvoyage.com/persfortdoba.html. Retrieved 25 January 2011. 
14. ^ Peter Hellyer, Ibrahim Al-Abed, Ibrahim Al Abed, The United Arab Emirates, A New Perspective, London, Trident Press Ltd., 2001, p. 81-84. ISBN 1-900724-47-2.

Coordinates: 25°37′N 56°16′E / 25.617°N 56.267°E / 25.617; 56.267