Through the three defined Iron Ages and the subsequent Hellenistic period, the area remained an important coastal trading entrepôt.[8] As a result of the response of Al Azd tribe to the message of Muhammed, the area became Islamised in the 7th century, a position consolidated by the Ridda Wars and the bloody and definitive Battle of Dibba.[9] The Islamic era saw the area emerge once again as an important centre for trade, centred particularly around the ports of Julfar, Dibba and Khor Fakkan.[10] These, linked to the vast Eastern Arab trading network that centred around the Kingdom of Hormuz, formed an important link in the Arab monopoly of trade between the East and Europe.[11] In the late Islamic era, a number of small trading ports developed alongside the development of bustan agriculture in inland oases such as Liwa, Al Ain and Dhaid and tribal bedouin society co-existed with settled populations in the coastal areas.[citation needed]