A glimpse of the past

The 64 black-and-white and sepia images on display at Deira City Centre's Jewellery Court give an insight into what the individual emirates and its leaders were like long before oil was discovered


Some of the oldest known photographs of the Emirates are currently on display at Deira City Centre's Jewellery Court as part of Heritage Surprises Week. The 64 black-and-white and sepia images, part of a collection housed at the Emirates Centre for Heritage, History and Culture in Dubai, provide a glimpse of what the individual emirates and its leaders were like long before oil was discovered and how the nation has developed since.

One of the least striking but most important is a grainy sepia-white portrait of a hunting posse in Iran. Clearly visible in the midst of the group is a young Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the then Ruler of Dubai, with his father Sheikh Saeed bin Maktoum Al Maktoum and other Maktoum family members. The photographs, said exhibition curator Hussain Al Badi, was taken as an informal portrait in 1927, making it the centre's oldest record.

Other interesting portraits include twin childhood ones of His Highness Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, UAE Minister of Finance and Industry, Head of Department of Health & Medical Services, taken in 1954, when the two rulers could hardly have been more than 10 years old; a 1958 portrait of Sheikh Rashid and his father; others of Sharjah and Fujairah rulers and of the early years of President His Highness Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan's presidency.

Images of the developing cities are also revealing: a 1964 photograph, for example, shows the Dubai State Telephone Company, predecessor of Etisalat, housed in a two-storey warehouse with a solitary beat-up pickup in the 'parking lot'.

The bulk of the pictures, Al Badi said, were sourced from Lebanon, India and other countries that have longstanding ties with the emirates and its ruling families.

India, he explained, was the centre of the pearl trade and many sheikhs who made their way via dhow there to trade for spices and other goods often had their pictures taken there.

The centre's collection includes 5,000 such photographs, old coins, the writings of the sheikhs and historical research on the emirates. Among the nuggets to be found there are explanations of how Dubai's different neighbours were named. The Oud Metha district, which runs from Dubai TV to Wafi City, was named after a sheikha who liked to visit the area to collect wood for oudh. Similarly, Al Barsha reportedly got its name from the fact that the trees in that area always looked like they were dead and dried out.

Al Badi, a historian and author, said the information contained within these pictures provides valuable insight into what really happened in the emirates, verifies many details that would otherwise be lost, and provides a valuable blueprint for restoration work.

"It is as though the pictures can talk," he said, pointing to a 1950s photograph of Sheikh Rashid's old house on the banks of the creek. The house, torn down in 1963, was the font of all development in Dubai.

"Everything in Dubai started from Sheikh Rashid's house because he was devoted to seeing the emirate develop," said Al Badi. "He wanted a school to be started, and because there was no place he gave them a section of his own house to run the school until they had a place of their own. In the same way, the customs, immigration, police and all other government departments began in his house."

Currently, he says, plans are afoot to rebuild Sheikh Rashid's house in exactly the same style, and for that the photographs will be invaluable.