On Dubai Creek, abras criss-cross the historic waterway. They push back from the quay and chug across the Creek ferrying tourists, business people and residents. It is a familiar scene in old Dubai, largely unchanged in decades.
But during Ramadan, something does change. As iftar approaches, many captains moor their boats on the quayside as they prepare to break their fast.
Some gather in small groups on the boats and break their fast in a quiet and communal way. Others do so on their own.
“It is better together for iftar,” said Toseef, an abra captain from Pakistan who has been in Dubai for eight years. “If you can share it with a friend ... it can be beautiful.”
Not all captains fast and abras ferry passengers across Dubai Creek 24 hours a day. But those who do break the fast with a simple meal of fruit, dates and meat, fish or vegetables with rice. A refreshing drink of juice, water or laban accompanies it.
As iftar approaches, the captains prepare their meal. They slice oranges into small pieces, cut whole watermelons bought from the local market and arrange dates on small plates. Many of the captains who fast come from Sialkot in Punjab, Pakistan.
“If it is busy we can stay on the boats. If it is quiet, we go to our rooms,” said Toseef, whose wife and child live in Sialkot.
When the call for the maghrib prayer, which signals the end of the day's fast, sounds out from the mosques beside the Creek and filters out over the water and across Dubai’s old town, the abras fall quiet.
The captains break their fast during a moment of calm in a busy city. It provides a quiet moment of contemplation during Ramadan, before they resume their work ferrying people across the busy Creek.
“At iftar, everyone is together,” said Mohammad Shahid, from Bangladesh, who has a wife and three children back home. “Everyone is all together.”
It is a busier time in old Dubai this Ramadan, with the holy month close to the peak tourist season. Tourists mill around the souqs that line the Creek, guides take visitors to historic homes and sellers do a brisk trade selling samosas, fried bananas and other treats to customers before iftar. It is all part of the mosaic of a multicultural city.
“My culture is fasting,” said captain Mohammed Tanveer, also from Pakistan, who has lived in Dubai for 12 years. “Others do not fast. This is about respect.”
Toseef said it is just part of life. “Fasting is just what I do.”
Dubai Creek is the historic heart of the city. It was where the great pearling fleets were based. It was where traditional, two-masted sailing vessels known as booms brought back spices from East Africa. And now it attracts tourists and a lively population of residents.
The water taxis were once rowed by boatmen and were the best way to cross the Creek before Al Maktoum Bridge opened in the 1960s. Today the vessels are powered by diesel engines, although authorities have tested autonomous electric abras. But the journey is not that much different from those taken decades ago.
An abra captain, Bilal, had just broken his fast with several others. “A group is good. One is good,” he said. “But no friend, no problem. A single iftar is no problem."
Dubai’s mosques illuminated for Ramadan - in pictures
