ABU DHABI // UAE officials have visited Mecca and Medina to inspect accommodation where thousands of haj pilgrims from the Emirates are expected to stay.
The head of the UAE Haj Mission, Mohammed Obeid al Mazrouei, and other officials met the Saudi committee that oversees the Haj preparations. The committee must ensure the accommodation is suitable for people to live in for the duration of the pilgrimage.
"The UAE official haj mission was set up by the UAE Government to render the best services to pilgrims, as well as to smooth out any obstacles impeding the work of pilgrimage campaigns ahead of the start of the season," Mr Mazrouei said during his field inspections, the state news agency, WAM, reported.
He said 153 accredited haj operators had leased 235 buildings in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, in co-ordination with the Saudi Arabian haj authorities, of which 228 buildings met hygiene standards set by the UAE's General Authority for Islamic Affairs.
Mohamed Rida, an agent at the travel agency Al Noreen for haj and umrah, said the inspections gave travel agents much-needed certainty.
"We personally cannot be expected, each one of us as a separate travel agency, to visit Mecca every year to find accommodation and oversee it and make sure it will be what we promise our customers," he said. "They [the UAE Haj Mission] take over a lot of responsibility for us and by informing us what is suitable and what is not, we can take if from there."
The mission's officials also inspected makeshift camps in the tent city of Mina where pilgrims symbolically denounce evil by throwing pebbles at the three concrete pillars known as Jamarat. Last year, more than three million pilgrims performed the ritual. A similar number is expected this year.
Approximately 6,000 people from the UAE (5,000 Emiratis and about 1,000 expatriates) will perform haj this year, according to an announcement in July by Hamad Al Mualla, Director of the Haj and Umrah Department, affiliate to the General Authority for Islamic Affairs.
This is a significant reduction from last year's quota of 17,000, comprising 10,000 Emiratis and 7,000 expatriates. The UAE quota was reduced by the Ministry of Haj in Saudi Arabia, which said it was to ensure better control of the masses expected in Mecca.
For a list of UAE haj operators accredited by the Ministry of Haj in Saudi Arabia, visit www.hajinformation.com/main/n71u01.htm.
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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
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