Kalba
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Kalba كلباء |
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| Kalba | ||
Mangrove swamp in Khor Kalba
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 Kalba
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| Coordinates: 25°04′27″N 56°21′19″E / 25.07417°N 56.35528°E | ||
| Country | United Arab Emirates | |
| Emirate | Al-Sharjah | |
| Government | ||
| • Emir | Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi | |
| Time zone | UAE standard time (UTC+4) | |
Kalba (Arabic: كلباء Kalbāʾ) is a town in the United Arab Emirates. It is an exclave of the emirate of Sharjah lying on the Gulf of Oman coast north of Oman and south of the emirate of Fujairah. Khor Kalba (Kalba Creek), an important nature reserve and mangrove swamp, is located south of the town by the Omani border. The town was captured by the Portuguese Empire in the 16th century and was referred to as Ghallah. It was attacked, sacked and put to the torch by the Sultan of Muscat's forces in March 1811 as part of the ongoing British/Omani campaigns against the maritime forces of the Al Qassimi. It was a Trucial State from 1936 to 1951 before being reincorporated into Sharjah.
Khor Kalba is currently closed to the public and is being developed as an eco-tourism resort by the Sharjah Investment and Development Authority (Shurooq). A number of conservationists and ecologists have expressed concern regarding the project.
Kalba was still being referred to as Ghallah at the time of Lorimer's 1906 survey of the Persian Gulf and Oman, when it was apparently home to ten boats trading with ports in the Persian Gulf and India.
Majid bin Sultan bin Saqr Al Qasimi was granted the Shamaliyah region, including Kalba, as a fiefdom by his brother, Salim bin Sultan Al Qasimi, Ruler of Sharjah. Kalba was subsequently ruled jointly by his two sons Hamad bin Majid and Ahmad bin Majid.
Hamad's son Said Bin Hamad succeeded him in 1902 at the time when the ruler of neighbouring Fujairah, Hamad bin Abdallah Al Sharqi, managed to establish independence. Said bin Hamad lived in Ajman, leaving the administration of Kalba in the hands of a slave named Barut. By the 1920s, he took up residency in Kalba again and in 1936 was recognised by the British as a Trucial Ruler as an incentive to grant landing rights to an emergency air-strip as a backup to the Imperial Airways runway and fort at Al Mahatta in the city of Sharjah.
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Wikipedia