Khuriya Muriya Islands

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The Khuriya Muriya Islands or Kuria Muria Islands (Arabic: جزر خوريا موريا; transliterated: Jazāʾir Khurīyā Murīyā or Khūryān Mūryān – in antiquity the islands were called the Zenobii Islands or Zenobiou Islands (Greek: Ζηνοβίου νησία; Latin: Zenobii Insulae) or Doliche (Greek: Δολίχη); Location: 17°30′N 56°00′E are an external territory in the Khuriya Muriya Bay (the classical Latin: Sinus Sachalites, Greek: Σαχαλίτης κόλπος) of the Arabian Sea 40 km off the southeastern coast of the sultanate of Oman, consisting of five islands, forming the Al-Hallaniyah Province of the Governorate of Dhofar, with a total area of 73 km², notably (from west to east) Al-Hasikiyah, As-Sawda', Al-Hallaniyah (the largest, 56 km²), Qarzawit, and Al-Qibliyah.

The islands are mentioned by several early writers. Ptolemy (vi. 7. § 47) numbers them as seven small islands lying in the Sinus Sachalites, towards (from India) the entrance of the "Persian Gulf" (likely the modern Gulf of Aden). (Cf. Arrian Per. M. Eryth. p. 19.)

In 1854 the hami (sultan) of Muscat (later Muscat and Oman, now Oman), ceded the islands to Britain and in 1868 they were attached to the Aden Settlement (in Yemen). As a British possession until 1967, they were first administered by the British Governor of Aden till 1953, next by the British High Commissioner there, and, from 1963, by the British Chief Political Resident of the Persian Gulf (based in Bahrain) until 1967, when the islands were returned to the Muscat and Oman sultanate, which was itself under British protection until 1971.