Khurīyā Murīyā

Khurīyā Murīyā, island group of Oman, in the Arabian Sea, situated 25 miles (40 km) off the country’s southeastern coast. The five islands, which have a total land area of 28 square miles (73 square km), are composed largely of granite and represent the peaks of a submarine ridge. From west to east they are Al-Ḥāsikīyah, Al-Sawdāʾ, Al-Ḥallānīyah, Qarzawīt, and Al-Qiblīyah. Al-Ḥallānīyah, the largest of the islands, is the only one inhabited. All of the islands’ inhabitants left in 1818 because of pirate raids; later the islands fell under the control of Arabs on the mainland and then of the sultan of Oman. In 1854 the sultan ceded them to the British, who included them in their colony of Aden in 1937. The islands were retroceded to Oman in 1967. Their few present-day inhabitants are mostly fishermen who use inflated skins for craft as in ancient times.