For the last few months, a new landmark has come to define one of my regular Abu Dhabi journeys, and as it has come to dominate the patch of waste ground between the new Mina link and the old Mina Road, my anxiety levels have risen steadily with it.
An enormous glass and steel alp more than 30 storeys tall, the new residential tower looms over the low bulk of the Indian Social and Cultural Centre, the fire station and the pet souk near Mina Zayed, extending the rampart of buildings that define Abu Dhabi’s Corniche.
When residents finally move in, they’ll benefit from panoramic views of Mina’s dhow harbour on one side and the towers of Al Maryah Island on the other, but the object of my attention is more likely to be viewed as a blot on the local landscape.
Nestled in the surrounding powdery dust that now represents a prime real estate opportunity, sits a cluster of single storey, concrete dwellings.
To the drivers who park their cars in the land that surrounds them, the buildings must appear abandoned, but for the family that regards them as home nothing could be further from the truth.
This is the site of Bayt Al Jenaibi, a humble compound that arguably qualifies as one of the oldest inhabited homes in the capital. Originally built as housing for the employees of the energy plant that once stood on the site, the Bainoonah Power Company, the buildings date back to at least 1969, which is when Salima Ali Al Farsi’s husband first moved in.
Al Farsi joined him two years later, around the time of the country’s unification, and has lived in the house ever since, staying only during the day more recently because she has had a perfectly good modern home in the suburbs of Al Shamkha since 2008.
When I had the privilege of meeting Al Farsi in 2014, the proud mother of seven children insisted on making the 90-kilometre round-trip to return to Bayt Al Jenaibi on a daily basis, relying on one of her daughters to deliver her each morning and on another to take her home each night.
Few buildings speak to the Emirati experience of modernisation and urbanisation quite as eloquently as Bayt Al Jenaibi, and the fact that the house still stands, despite repeated threats of demolition, is testament to the love Al Farsi feels for it. She was 19 when she left her home in Sur, Oman, and came to live in the house with her husband, and despite the presence of her husband's parents and his sisters, it was the first house she was able to call her own.
“I love the freedom here, the sound of the birds, the quietness, the air in this house, the smell of this house,” she told me on my first visit. “Life here is precious for me. My children were born here, they grew up here, my family still gather here. I’ve tried to live somewhere else but I cannot. When I am here, I feel more relaxed.”
Convinced that the arrival of the new tower would have finally forced Al Farsi to abandon her home, I arrived outside the house this week and forced my way through a cordon of parked cars to the decaying door of the compound. Was there any chance that the matriarch would still be at home? Receiving no answer, I decided to call the number I still keep in my phone three years after our solitary meeting, and soon heard a gentle Arabic voice I immediately remembered. Unable to communicate, I was passed to an English-speaking family member who confirmed the news I had been longing to hear.
After 46 long years, Bayt Al Jenaibi is still Al Farsi's home. In its own way, Bayt Al Jenaibi is as much a monument as any of Abu Dhabi's forts and palaces, and I feel privileged to have witnessed the cherished family life that filled its precincts.
For the sake of Salima Ali Al Farsi’s peace of mind, and for something more precious than mere nostalgia, the city needs to do whatever it can to record and preserve this remarkable survivor, a material memory of an Emirati family and a way of life that, against all the odds, is still cherished and well-lived.
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Read more from Nick:
Welcome to the neighbourhood – a catalyst for Abu Dhabi’s urban renaissance
Examining the past should be an uncomfortable experience
Abu Dhabi’s 8th Street is a perfect example of informal urbanism
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Top 10 in the F1 drivers' standings
1. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari 202 points
2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes-GP 188
3. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes-GP 169
4. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull Racing 117
5. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari 116
6. Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing 67
7. Sergio Perez, Force India 56
8. Esteban Ocon, Force India 45
9. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso 35
10. Nico Hulkenberg, Renault 26
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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
The%20specs
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The specs
Engine: 0.8-litre four cylinder
Power: 70bhp
Torque: 66Nm
Transmission: four-speed manual
Price: $1,075 new in 1967, now valued at $40,000
On sale: Models from 1966 to 1970
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
Results
Male 51kg Round 1
Dias Karmanov (KAZ) beat Mabrook Rasea (YEM) by points 2-1.
Male 54kg Round 1
Yelaman Sayassatov (KAZ) beat Chen Huang (TPE) TKO Round 1; Huynh Hoang Phi (VIE) beat Fahad Anakkayi (IND) RSC Round 2; Qais Al Jamal (JOR) beat Man Long Ng (MAC) by points 3-0; Ayad Albadr (IRQ) beat Yashar Yazdani (IRI) by points 2-1.
Male 57kg Round 1
Natthawat Suzikong (THA) beat Abdallah Ondash (LBN) by points 3-0; Almaz Sarsembekov (KAZ) beat Ahmed Al Jubainawi (IRQ) by points 2-1; Hamed Almatari (YEM) beat Nasser Al Rugheeb (KUW) by points 3-0; Zakaria El Jamari (UAE) beat Yu Xi Chen (TPE) by points 3-0.
Men 86kg Round 1
Ahmad Bahman (UAE) beat Mohammad Al Khatib (PAL) by points 2-1
Men 63.5kg Round 1
Noureddin Samir (UAE) beat Polash Chakma (BAN) RSC Round 1.
Female 45kg quarter finals
Narges Mohammadpour (IRI) beat Yuen Wai Chan (HKG) by points.
Female 48kg quarter finals
Szi Ki Wong (HKG) beat Dimple Vaishnav (IND) RSC round 2; Thanawan Thongduang (THA) beat Nastaran Soori (IRI) by points; Shabnam Hussain Zada (AFG) beat Tzu Ching Lin (TPE) by points.
Female 57kg quarter finals
Nguyen Thi Nguyet (VIE) beat Anisha Shetty (IND) by points 2-1; Areeya Sahot (THA) beat Dana Al Mayyal (KUW) RSC Round 1; Sara Idriss (LBN) beat Ching Yee Tsang (HKG) by points 3-0.
