Aḏ-Ḏayd

Al Dhaid occupies the mouth of Wadi Siji on the gravel plain east of Sharjah, where water from the Hajar Mountains reaches the desert. Seasonal floods, wells, aflaj, and local water rights fed extensive date palms, gardens, and orchards. The oasis also commanded the road from Sharjah through Masafi, with tracks toward the coast and the inland settlements of Madam and Falaj al-Mualla.

The oasis depended on careful sharing of scarce water. Its gardens produced dates and supported a population dispersed among several tribal sections. Larger houses had mud-brick towers, and the fort shown by later British records had two round and two square corner towers. Local officials collected tithes in dates and fees for water, tying the settlement’s revenues directly to irrigation and the maintenance of its water channels.

Sharjah’s government dates Al Dhaid Fort to about 1750. It formed part of the Qawasim ruler’s inland authority, while the oasis lay between the maritime centres of Sharjah and Ras al-Khaimah and the routes through the Hajar Mountains. Control of water, date gardens, local water rights, and passage through Wadi Siji made Al Dhaid valuable out of proportion to its small built-up area. By the early nineteenth century it was an established inland settlement, with pastoral tribesmen, cultivators, and a fortified administrative centre linked to the coastal Qawasim state.