In the early 1990s, when he was in the first stages of assembling his now-vast library, Dubai businessman and philanthropist Juma Al Majid visited the National Library of Morocco. He was hoping to make microfiche copies of the institution's rare manuscripts. The UAE's founding father Sheikh Zayed also happened to be there, visiting King Hassan II, and, according to the story I was told at the Juma Al Majid Centre, he asked how he could help Al Majid in his mission.
Al Majid explained what he wanted access to: everything. Following Sheikh Zayed's request, King Hassan II of Morocco complied.
Since that point, the Juma Al Majid Centre for Culture and Heritage has grown to encompass 17,000 original manuscripts and more than a million copies of manuscripts, 400,000 books – many of them personal donations of entire libraries by scholars in the Middle East – and 7,000 journals.
But perhaps as important as what the Juma Al Majid Centre holds is what it enables access to: it is digitising its entire contents, in order to distribute copies of the books and manuscripts to scholars either at the centre or by email. And it has brokered 120 bilateral agreements with libraries around the world, under which it donates specialist equipment for restoring manuscripts to each library. In return, it is allowed to digitise their manuscripts and hold the copies in Dubai.
The idea that information is free, at play in a field of brittle, fibrous paper, is a very 21st century one. “Nobody has a right to say, ‘This book belongs to me.’ It belongs to the human,” Al Majid says. “Put it on the internet. Let people read it in China, in South America, in Russia, in Europe.”
These bilateral agreements mean the centre has become a site for scholars wishing to access a range of manuscripts, most of which have been scattered around the world.
“For those of us who research the pre-modern Islamic world, we’re very dependent on manuscripts,” says Justin Stearns, an associate professor of Arab Crossroads Studies at New York University Abu Dhabi. He researches the interrelation between science and the discourses of law, theology and Sufism in 17th-century Morocco. “The vast majority of things ever written are still on manuscripts. They have not been edited and printed. And the scary thing is, we’re still in the process of cataloguing. In many cases the catalogues of these libraries are not up to date or are faulty.”
Based in Deira, Dubai, the centre is situated close to the airport. Planes buzz low overhead, casting large shadows on the ground. In the digitisation room, copiers are at work at 11 desks, aiming for a target of 2,000 pages a day. Klieg lights illuminate each glass-topped machine, while workers take and return books from the wheeled carts next to them. The room, though stuffy with the heat of bodies and activity, hums with purpose.
In the manuscripts room, kept under lock and key, the centre has made bespoke boxes for each of the papers, which vary in size. Each box is checked around every six months for any fungal or bacterial infection, which can spread from manuscript to manuscript. If they are infected, they are treated by machines that the centre invented, located in an offsite factory, which sterilise manuscripts, restore paper fragments and retouch the writing, working on numerous pages at once.
Al Majid, now 87, has an office on-site where he meets and greets visitors to the library. Al Majid made his fortune in business – through dealerships for Isuzu, Hyundai, Citizen Watches and Samsung home appliances, among others – and set up not only the library, but also the Beit Al Khair Society, which funds social welfare projects and has an education arm.
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Read more:
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He was one of the first philanthropists to set up universities in the UAE, including one specifically for women, so that Emiratis could study while still remaining at home (many parents at the time didn’t want their daughters to travel or live away from home).
Although Al Majid has established one of the largest libraries in the Middle East, he jokes that he is not an educated man. “I don’t even have a primary certificate,” he says. But he is committed to the idea that, as he says, “education is not about money”.
“Who can travel from China to Oxford to see one book? Everyone must work for the book to travel to the researcher and not the researcher to travel for the book.”
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The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
Tuesday's fixtures
Kyrgyzstan v Qatar, 5.45pm
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Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, Leon.
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
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Our legal advisor
Rasmi Ragy is a senior counsel at Charles Russell Speechlys, a law firm headquartered in London with offices in Europe, the Middle East and Hong Kong.
Experience: Prosecutor in Egypt with more than 40 years experience across the GCC.
Education: Ain Shams University, Egypt, in 1978.
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Favourite Book: The Prophet by Gibran Khalil Gibran
Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
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'Texas Chainsaw Massacre'
Rating: 1 out of 4
Running time: 81 minutes
Director: David Blue Garcia
Starring: Sarah Yarkin, Elsie Fisher, Mark Burnham
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
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How to increase your savings
- Have a plan for your savings.
- Decide on your emergency fund target and once that's achieved, assign your savings to another financial goal such as saving for a house or investing for retirement.
- Decide on a financial goal that is important to you and put your savings to work for you.
- It's important to have a purpose for your savings as it helps to keep you motivated to continue while also reducing the temptation to spend your savings.
- Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
What can you do?
Document everything immediately; including dates, times, locations and witnesses
Seek professional advice from a legal expert
You can report an incident to HR or an immediate supervisor
You can use the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation’s dedicated hotline
In criminal cases, you can contact the police for additional support
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
