Dibba

DIBBA LOCATION
Dibbā (Arabic: ‫ ) ِدَبّـَّا‬is a coastal area at the
northern tip of the eastern Arabian peninsula on
the Gulf of Oman. It is politically divided into
three segments: Dibba Al-Fujairah, ruled by the
Emirate of Fujairah, UAE. Dibba Al-Hisn, ruled by
the Emirate of Sharjah, UAE.
 HISTORY OF DIBBA
PRE ISLAMIC PERIOD
• Dibba Al-Hisn has been an important site of maritime trade and
settlement since the pre-Islamic era. Although there is slight
information, mainly from tombs, of settlement during the later
second millennium and early first millennium BCE, contemporary with
such sites as Shimal, Tell Abraq and Rumeilah, and of scattered
occupation during the period of al-Dur and Mileiha, most mention of
Dibba is in the period just prior to and after the coming of Islam.
Under the Sasanians and their Omani clients the Al-Juland, an
important market existed at Dibba. Dibba was sometimes the capital
of Oman. According to Ibn Habib, "merchants from Sindh, India,
China, people of the East and West came to it."
ISLAMIC PERUOD
• (632 - 633 CE) Soon after the death of Muhammad, a rebellion broke out at Dibba,
and a faction of the Azd, led by Laqit bin Malik, nicknamed ‫ ذو التاج‬Thu at-Taj ("The
Crowned"), rejected Islam by refusing to pay the Zakat — the Islamic principle of
giving a percentage of one's income to charity. Since Zakat is one of the five pillars of
Islam, this faction committed an act of Ridda (apostasy), according to Islamic beliefs.
Laqit was killed by an envoy of the caliph Abu Bakr, in accord with one tradition, in
what may have been a relatively small struggle; however, other sources, including Al-
Tabari, say that at least 10,000 rebels were killed in one of the biggest battles of the
Ridda wars (‫) حروب الردة‬. The plain behind the Omani part of Dibba, Dibba Al-Baya, still
contains a large cemetery, which, according to local tradition, represents the fallen
apostates of Dibba (‫ المرتدين‬Al-Murtaddeen).
• During the time of the Abbasid caliph Al Mu'tadid (870 - 892 CE), a great battle was
fought at Dib
COLONIAL PERIOD
• Portuguese occupation (1624 - 1648 CE)

• Dibba Al-Hisn is believed to be the site where the Portuguese during

the Habsburg Dynasty built a fort and a wall around the city.[1] In
August 1648, the Arabs besieged Muscat, Oman, and on October 31,
1648, a treaty was signed between the two opponents. The terms
required the Portuguese to build the fortress of Kuriyat, Dibba Al-Hisn
and Matrah (Oman)
DIBBA MORE ABOUT IT
• Dibba, which is in present-day Fujeirah, was famous as a hub for international trade in the early
Islamic period (approximately the 600s CE). Recent excavations by the Sharjah Archaeology
Authority revealed stunning new evidence that Dibba's importance as a trading centre stretches
back at least 2,000 years. The archaeologists excavated a large tomb containing decorated
ceramics from Persia and Mesopotamia and glass vessels from Rome.
•The skeletons in this tomb provide a great deal of
information on the lives and deaths of the people of Dibba.
Careful analysis of the bones from Dibba indicates that very
serious diseases affected some of the people buried in the
tomb. 
MORE ABOUT DIBBA
• Two skeletons, one from the tomb itself and one of a poorer person buried nearby, show that
tuberculosis may have been present in the population. Tuberculosis is a common disease in
which the lungs are infected with bacteria that causes coughing, internal bleeding, and fevers.
Most people who had tuberculosis died because no treatment was available to fight the
bacteria. The disease is spread primarily from the coughing and sneezing of people living close
to each other. 
•A trading ship would be an ideal environment for tuberculosis to spread, which may
explain its presence in Dibba. The busy port would likely have been home to merchants from
Iraq, south Asia, Egypt, and Yemen. The merchants may have travelled to other places such
as Palestine, Greece, Italy, and perhaps as far as Spain. Tuberculosis can live in the body for
many years, so it could spread very quickly across the entire known world at this time. The
long-distance trade that brought luxury goods to Dibba could have brought disease as well