Page 115 - UAE Truncal States

Chapter Three

al bay by impressing them. The young Ahmad bin Rashid therefore
began his tenure in 1926 by assuming the role of mediator between
the Shaikh of Kalba and I he Naqbiyfn, some of whom resided in
Dibah although most of them were subjects of Kalba.24 For a lime
Rashid seems to have been able to establish a reasonable relationship
with his counterpart, the headman of the Shihuh al Bai'ah, Salih bin
Muhammad;25 they concluded a treaty in 1926. After Salih’s death in
1932 the new headman in Bai'ah, Zayid bin Sinan of the Kumzar,20
could not restrain the beduin Shihuh, and allegations of Shihuh
raiding and interference when they visited the suq of Dibah were
frequent.
The most that Rashid bin Ahmad could do was to request direct
action against the Shihuh by the Sultan in Muscat. Therefore he went
personally to Muscat on the occasion of the accession to rule of
Sultan SaTd bin Taimur in October 1932, staled his problems, asked
for the Sultan’s help (or formal protection) and later went as far as
hoisting the Sultan’s flag on his fort in the hope of gelling help from
that direction. As an unexpected side-aspect of his request for
protection from incursions by the Shihuh. Rashid bin Ahmad
received a letter from the Sultan on the occasion of the introduction
of a new Omani wali at Khasab27 in 1934, saying: “my object is that
you should be obedient to him” (meaning the wali of Khasab, who
was responsible for the whole of Muscat’s possessions on the
Musandam Peninsula) “and submissive to his orders . . .”28 The
Ruler of Sharjah clearly saw that he was about to lose Dibah to
Muscat altogether, and communicated these matters to the Political
Resident in Bushire. Later, the British Government obliged the Ruler
of Sharjah by corresponding with the Sultan of Muscat, slating that
Dibah was part of Sharjah territory.29
Since the recognition of the Sharqiyln territory of Fujairah as an
independent State in 1952, the Sharjah dependency of Dibah looks
on the map like a tiny button in between large tracts of Omani and
Fujairah territory, the latter starting a mere mile or two south and
west of the fort of Dibah. The two other Sharjah dependencies on the
east coast, Khaur Fakkan and Kalba. are 32 kilometres and 68
kilometres respectively south of Dibah. But until passes were blasted
through several rocky headlands, Dibah was in any case connected
to these southern coastal tracts only by sea; the other communication
route to Dibah was down the steep Wadi Taybah from Masafi,
which was opened for Landrovers at about the same time as the
coastal route in 1968.
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