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188 The Origins of the United Arab Emirates

transient, thus gradually weakening his hold on Kalba. Shaykh
Hamad bin Sa‘id, his nephew, who was still very young, did not
have the potential for strong leadership,31 and a power vacuum
was created.
It was therefore inevitable that during the 1940s Fujairah would
return to the foreground of political affairs in the Shimayliyyah.
Following his death, Hamad bin ‘Abdallah was succeeded by his
son Sayf, who following his own death, in 1938, was succeeded
by his brother Muhammad, who it was that restored the Sharqiyy
fortunes in the Shimayliyyah. By 1950 he had proved able to
win over most of the villages in the area, including Gharayfah,
Dibba, Ghurfah, Bidyah, Sikamkam, Masafi and Qarya. Kalba,
following the death of Khalid bin Ahmad, had become almost
powerless, and as an independent shaykhdom received its death
blow in 1951, when Hamad bin Sa‘id was murdered. The fact
that the landing ground established there had outlived its usefulness
meant that the shaykhdom had lost the prime reason for its existence,
and it was therefore rcincorporated into Sharjah. The strength
of Fujairah, by contrast, had grown to such an extent that in
1952 the British Government recognised Muhammad bin Hamad
as ruler of the seventh Trucial State, a position he held until
his death in 1975, after which his son Hamad succeeded.
Territorial disputes with Sharjah followed, which, in view of the
many political upheavals that the Shimayliyyah had undergone
since the turn of the century, was only to be expected. Kalba
and Khawr Fakkan, though they might have come under Fujairah
influence, had so long been established as Qasimi towns that they
became enclaves of Sharjah within Fujairah, as they still arc. The
enclave formed by Khawr Fakkan and its surrounding areas cuts
into the Fujairah coastline and divides it into two; and the Kalba
enclave lies further south.
But the town that today both Fujairah and Sharjah claim is
Dibba, which lies on the border with the Musandam section of
Oman. During the 1930s, the shaykh of the southern part of Dibba
was Rashid bin Ahmad al-Qasimi, brother of Khalid bin Ahmad
of Kalba. He was totally unable to restrain the Shihuh of the
northern part of the town from attacking Qasimi people and property,
so, when Sa‘id bin Taymur became sultan of Muscat in 1932,
Rashid went to Muscat and obtained the new sultan’s protection.
Sultan bin Saqr protested to Fowlc soon afterwards that south
Dibba belonged to Sharjah and not to Muscat.35 Matters were
further complicated by the fact that Rashid, not content with the
sultan’s protection, had written to the shaykh of Sharjah in May
1934 swearing allegiance to him.36 The Residency at Bushirc deliber­
ated at length on the issue, and in November 1934 Fowle expressed