A series of books on President His Highness Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan and the history of the Abu Dhabi Ruling Family is being prepared for publication this year. The Centre for Documentation and Research, a division of the Presidential Court, recently commissioned Motivate Publishing to publish the books.

The first in the series will be "Qasr Al Hosn", a history of the Ruling Family from 1793-1966, named after the fort which was their home. Next will come the first of five volumes, "In Zayed's Words", which will document major speeches, interviews and significant quotes of the President from 1966 to 2000, in English and Arabic.

In addition to this, two new volumes of portraits by the late photographer Ronald Codrai, who lived in the region in the 1940s, will be published to mark the first anniversary of Codrai's death in May.

Featuring personalities ranging from sheikhs to townspeople, bedouin and fishermen, "Faces of the Emirates" will be previewed at an exhibition next month. Dr. Abdullah El Reyes, Director General of the Centre for Documentation and Research, said, "This is an exciting new concept of interaction between publisher and public. We hope that by showing these pictures before publication we will be able to learn more about the people and the circumstances in which they were taken.

"Our centre is very pleased to be working so closely with Motivate. We have joined in an unprecedented publishing programme throughout 2001, leading up to the 30th National Day celebrations at the end of the year."

Motivate is also working on three more books with "royal photographer' Noor Ali Rashid in his highly successful "Royal Collection" series, the first of which will be a pictorial biography of Sheikh Zayed. Also in its final stages is a book by legendary explorer and photographer Sir Wilfred Thesiger, entitled "A Vanished World".

Motivate Managing Partner and Group Editor Ian Fairservice said, "The year 2001 is very significant. Many people believe that this really is the beginning of the new millennium and, coinciding as it does with the 30th anniversary of the UAE federation, we've planned what is undoubtedly our most ambitious ever programme of new - predominantly historical books - both in English and Arabic."