Ḥadībū

Hadibu lies on the northern shore of Socotra, on a plain between an open bay and the spurs of the island's high mountains. Date palms grow around the settlement, and the old centre of Suq lies a little to its east. Across the sea, the Mahra sultans ruled from Qishn on the Arabian mainland, and their authority extended to the island.

In 1507 a Portuguese fleet under Tristão da Cunha and Afonso de Albuquerque captured Suq from the Banu Afrar, the ruling family of Qishn. The garrison struggled with shortages and failed to win local support. Four years later the Portuguese dismantled their fort, allowing the Banu Afrar to return. Socotra continued to provide a watering place for Portuguese ships during the sixteenth century; when an English sailor visited Hadibu in 1607, he found a son of the Mahri sultan established there.