Rare photos of the lands that became the UAE

DUBAI //In 1959, when Salim Zabbal went out in search of forgotten villages in Kuwait for a new Arab-language magazine, he encountered a group of men who spoke of their "tough life" back home in their sheikhdoms at the other end of the Arabian Gulf.

Within months, Mr Zabbal, who was 33 years old at the time, found himself in Sharjah.

"That was the only emirate then with an airport," he said.

Equipped with a camera, a notebook and pencils, Mr Zabbal, who is from Cairo of Lebanese-Syrian origins, made his way around the relatively unknown sheikhdoms, or Trucial States, of the emirates, and his work played a large role in introducing the lands and people inhabiting them to the rest of the region.

"I wanted to highlight unknown or neglected places in the Arab world, and write everything about the place and its people," said Mr Zabbal, who helped launch the Arab magazine al Arabi in 1958.

Eager to get out of the magazine's offices in Kuwait, Mr Zabbal published more than 13 in-depth features on the emirates. They included exclusive interviews with rulers, as well as interviews with tribesmen and residents of all nationalities whom he met during his many trips to what was to become the UAE.

"Over 80 per cent of what the Arab world knows about the emirates from that time period comes from the diligent and intricate reports of Mr Zabbal," said Dr Hasan al Naboodah, an Emirati historian and the dean of libraries at the UAE University in Al Ain.

"What he wrote reached the rest of the Arab world, and then aid in all forms started to flow in and help in the development of the emirates."

At 85, Mr Zabbal, still agile and travelling, is regularly featured in local newspapers and magazines as a "critical witness" to local history. His work is often displayed in heritage-related exhibitions here and in other Arab countries.

In 2001, in collaboration with the Abu Dhabi Cultural Foundation, Mr Zabbal published his UAE-related works in the 286-page book Kont Shahid (I Was a Witness). The book captures historic moments of the emirates and includes colourful commentary on myriad aspects of the lives of the people whose stories he told.

The book, which is out of print, highlights forgotten traditions such as al tomina, which involves a girl who completes her memorisation of the Quran celebrating by dressing up, touring her neighbourhood and receiving gifts.

"This was a chance for the mothers and their sons to see some of the girls and then propose marriage to them," said Mr Zabbal. "It was all so innocent and lovely."

When he arrived in the emirates on assignment, Mr Zabbal had 10 years of experience under his belt working as a reporter and editor in Egypt. A career he fell into because of his love of the written word and history.

Mr Zabbal spent 22 years working at al Arabi, which with its vivid photos and elaborate features has been compared to National Geographic. During his tenureat the magazine, he wrote about 200 places in the Arab world, prompting the Arab media to label him the "Ibn Battuta of al Arabi". Mr Zabbal made a point of visiting some of the places written about by the famous 14th-century Moroccan explorer Ibn Battuta, introducing them to a new generation of Arabs.

Although he is retired and lives in Canada, Mr Zabbal still plays a crucial role by "reintroducing" the past he has witnessed. Whenever he visits his daughters in UAE, he carries with him a suitcase filled with original clippings and photos related to the Emirates.

Pulling out two sets of black and white photographstakenin 1961, he explained how they capture "important before-and-after moments" in Khorfakkan's history.

"See, here the little boy is coming in with torn and poor clothes, and then in the second photo the same boy gets a pair of new school uniforms donated by Kuwait in time for his first day at school," said Mr Zabbal.

His dream is to establish a centre of documentation and research dedicated to the Arab world and its history, a repository for his passion. In addition to his work involving the UAE, Mr Zabbal's archives include studies on Arabs who moved to the Americas and Canada. One of the particularly interesting ones involves Arabs who travelled on the Titanic, which sank in 1912. His archives are housed in five rooms of his home in Canada.

"I was lucky to be a witness to decades of change everywhere, like here in the UAE, and the rest of the Arab world. I want future Arab generations to share in this witness, and be as lucky as I and know their world."

rghazal@thenational.ae

Favourite memories:

One of Salim Zabbal’s favorite stories was “Men With Red Feet”, for which he was given rare access to Abu Musa island and interviewed the men who worked in the red oxide mines. Photographs show him in 1968 with Sheikh Saqr bin Mohammed Al Qassimi, the deputy ruler of Sharjah, on a boat heading to Abu Musa. Iranian forces began occupying Abu Musa, along with the Greater and Lesser Tunbs islands, in 1971, on the eve of the UAE’s independence.

Mr Zabba’s first visit to Abu Dhabi airport, in the early 1960s, involved a turbulent flight, after which the small plane’s front tyres became mired in mud. Mr Zabbal and the flight’s other passengers had to push the plane to its final landing spot while the airport staff pulled the aircraft with a rope attached to a car.

Another favourite memory from the 1960s was of going underground with members of the local al Ameri tribe as they dug water channels, known as aflaj. The work took years. “With just a hammer and a chisel, these men dug tunnels 50 meters underground that would extend for more than 13 kilometers all the way to the water source,” recalled Mr Zabbal. “I really admired them.”

*Rym Ghazal

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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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In numbers: China in Dubai

The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000

Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000

Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000

Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000

Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent

Skewed figures

In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.

Tips for used car buyers

Choose cars with GCC specifications
Get a service history for cars less than five years old
Don’t go cheap on the inspection
Check for oil leaks
Do a Google search on the standard problems for your car model
Do your due diligence. Get a transfer of ownership done at an official RTA centre
Check the vehicle’s condition. You don’t want to buy a car that’s a good deal but ends up costing you Dh10,000 in repairs every month
Validate warranty and service contracts with the relevant agency and and make sure they are valid when ownership is transferred
If you are planning to sell the car soon, buy one with a good resale value. The two most popular cars in the UAE are black or white in colour and other colours are harder to sell

Tarek Kabrit, chief executive of Seez, and Imad Hammad, chief executive and co-founder of CarSwitch.com

The biog

Year of birth: 1988

Place of birth: Baghdad

Education: PhD student and co-researcher at Greifswald University, Germany

Hobbies: Ping Pong, swimming, reading

The specs

Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel

Power: 579hp

Torque: 859Nm

Transmission: Single-speed automatic

Price: From Dh825,900

On sale: Now

Test

Director: S Sashikanth

Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan

Star rating: 2/5

A MINECRAFT MOVIE

Director: Jared Hess

Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa

Rating: 3/5

Why it pays to compare

A comparison of sending Dh20,000 from the UAE using two different routes at the same time - the first direct from a UAE bank to a bank in Germany, and the second from the same UAE bank via an online platform to Germany - found key differences in cost and speed. The transfers were both initiated on January 30.

Route 1: bank transfer

The UAE bank charged Dh152.25 for the Dh20,000 transfer. On top of that, their exchange rate margin added a difference of around Dh415, compared with the mid-market rate.

Total cost: Dh567.25 - around 2.9 per cent of the total amount

Total received: €4,670.30

Route 2: online platform

The UAE bank’s charge for sending Dh20,000 to a UK dirham-denominated account was Dh2.10. The exchange rate margin cost was Dh60, plus a Dh12 fee.

Total cost: Dh74.10, around 0.4 per cent of the transaction

Total received: €4,756

The UAE bank transfer was far quicker – around two to three working days, while the online platform took around four to five days, but was considerably cheaper. In the online platform transfer, the funds were also exposed to currency risk during the period it took for them to arrive.

The specs

Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder MHEV

Power: 360bhp

Torque: 500Nm

Transmission: eight-speed automatic

Price: from Dh282,870

On sale: now

At a glance

Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year

Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month

Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30

Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse

Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth

Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances

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