Not everything cooked up in an Emirati kitchen is served on a plate.
Back in the 1970s, the young Halima and Mariam Al Naqbi from Khor Fakkan would dye textiles using home ingredients. Every day for at least an hour, they would dye raw materials.
“We love colour,” says Halima, wearing a traditional dress of vibrant purple, red and gold under her abaya. The love for colour and how to dye all evolved from her ancestors, she says.
In the past, say the sisters, people imported plain white textiles from India, Iran and other neighbouring countries. Then there came a point when people got bored with wearing the same colour.
It was not long before Emiratis came up with effective ways of using natural materials on most types of textiles, including silk and cotton, explains Mariam.
This year at the third annual Qasr Al Hosn Festival, Mariam and Halima are opening a window to the past by demonstrating how people made a livelihood from dyeing textiles.
“I have participated in all the Qasr Al Hosn Festivals. I enjoyed textile dyeing and still do it to this day,” says Halima, a mother of 12.
The sisters can be found in the Abu Dhabi Island zone of the festival, which is further divided into subsections, each of which explores traditional crafts – from textiles to cosmetic treatments.
These are demonstrated live by elders, to “reawaken the social spirit of the Emirate’s ancient times”, as described in the festival’s programme.
Halima, 63, and Mariam, 50, are exactly the type of people that the Qasr Al Hosn Festival aims to promote.
Like many Emiratis, the sisters are also storytellers. Halima sits comfortably at her booth and her charismatic personality draws in visitors of all ages and nationalities.
With a heartfelt laugh, she explains the tradition of painting textiles using turmeric, pomegranates, blue indigo, saffron, henna, and the leaves of almond trees, al waras and al yas plants.
“Most natural ingredients we used in the past might not be familiar to the new generation,” says Halima.
Only two pieces of equipment are needed for home dyeing: a cooking pan and a wooden stick.
“This is called indigo, darling,” she says, reaching for the powder. To dye materials she fills the cooking pan with water and indigo until both become extremely hot.
Next, she pours the mixture in another pan to refine it. Finally, she places the raw material in the pan and stirs with a wooden spoon.
“We dip the white cloth in the pan for a few days till it fully extracts the colour,” says Halima. “When you wash the cloth, the colour doesn’t fade.
“Even in our era, colours were gender-specific. Women would wear dark colours while men, light.
“Men only had three colours to choose from, white, light turmeric and indigo. They only had four kanduras.”
Two were white. One of them was solely for Friday prayers and the other, for weddings and work.
The choice of colour reflected a man’s personality, Halima says.
“If he wore light indigo, it meant he was OK,” she says, gesturing with a thumbs-up.
“It was a big shame for men to wear pink. The tradition didn’t allow it.”
“What happened if men wore pink in the past?” asked one visitor.
After much chuckling, she finally reveals: “It meant he lacked manhood.”
Dying textiles is something the sisters hold dear to their hearts and they have passed the skill down to their children.
“Our ancestors might not have been educated, but they were wise, and life taught them many lessons,” says Halima. “I am also not educated, but life was my teacher.”
Sitting a few stalls away from her is Umm Essa from Al Gharbia. She is taking part in the Local Botanical Benefits section, where mixing herbs, oils and spices illustrates the foundation of many Emirati traditions.
Umm Essa’s speciality is traditional beauty regimes. And while most people might guess that she is in her 50s, she is actually 70.
“I never used make-up,” she says, with a smile from behind her burqa. “I only put natural kohl around my eyes, and I always moisturise my face and hair using natural herbs and oils.”
Whatever the mother of six has been using throughout her life seems to be working. The only wrinkles visible on her face are slight laughter lines around her eyes, set against high firm cheekbones and glowing skin.
Her long, healthy hair, in one thick braid to her waist, is covered under her shayla.
“A woman’s hair is like a green field – if you don’t water it properly and nurture it, it will dry up and die,” says Umm Essa.
For those willing to test her herbs, she will mix a special recipe for hair or face. She displays rows of different sized bookiya, or small aluminium containers with a padlock-like latch, and metal bowls filled with herbs and spices next to bottles of oils.
“Depending on the skin type, you can use this as a lotion,” says Umm Essa, pointing to crushed mahlab seeds, mixed with al waras and olive or sesame oil, as well as rose water.
Umm Essa is happy to share her beauty secrets. “The indigo dye, when rubbed, adds a shiny, pearly hue to the skin,” she says.
But what she really likes to do, and has been brought over to the festival to demonstrate, is braiding.
Known as aajfa style, this consists of between 10 and 15 braids tied with ribbons, often cut out from a shayla. The braids are then tied tightly around the back of the head.
There is also the aajla version, which is just two braids. The hair is often decorated with dangling chains of gold and precious gems.
“You put ground curcumin [a colouring extracted from turmeric] mixed in with ground-up saffron and coconut oil on the roots and the hair, and leave it like that for as long as you can,” says Umm Essa.
“You can also add sesame oil – it is good for both hair and skin.”
She rubs bits of amber on her hands to demonstrate its strong smell, and says: “We use this as perfume.”
Oud and sandalwood are other ingredients used in traditional perfumes and incense, and were often brewed and mixed at home in the past.
“There you go – you look like a beautiful bride,” says Umm Essa, after finishing an aajfa braid for one of The National’s reporters.
The effect is striking if the visitor does not mind walking around for the rest of the festival with oily yet glowing hair, plus an orange tinge to the hair and side of the face, since part of the ritual includes putting the oily yellow mix along the tip of the chin and the forehead.
Help is needed to remove the tied-up braids, with a pair of scissors to cut through the ribbons.
Later, it takes two to three rinses with shampoo to wash it out, followed by a conditioner. But the shine and strength added to roots after just one session is noticeable.
“I am just worried about unknotting this,” says a visitor, who has gone through the treatment.
“I might need scissors, because it looks a bit complicated to untie otherwise.”
“We braid our hair and keep it for a week,” says Umm Essa. “When we unknot the braid, our hair is shiny and smooth.
“We didn’t have proper shampoo in the past, so we would use al sidr, where we dry the leaves and grind them into a powder, and then add water and use the paste as a shampoo.”
For covering up grey hair and strengthening hair in general, Umm Essa recommends henna. “But make sure it is the real thing – organic – as those you buy in a supermarket are not good.”
Having different henna designs drawn on your hands and demonstrations of how different mixes of burning herbs create different incenses, or dukhoon, are also part of the botanical experience at the festival.
Along with the elders, there are young Emiratis working as ambassadors and guides to help with any language barrier.
“When you take care of yourself with natural ingredients, there is no need for make-up and surgeries,” Umm Essa says, with a laugh. “You can age gracefully, just like nature does.”
• Qasr Al Hosn Festival runs until Saturday.
aalhameli@thenational.ae
rghazal@thenational.ae
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A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
THE BIO
Born: Mukalla, Yemen, 1979
Education: UAE University, Al Ain
Family: Married with two daughters: Asayel, 7, and Sara, 6
Favourite piece of music: Horse Dance by Naseer Shamma
Favourite book: Science and geology
Favourite place to travel to: Washington DC
Best advice you’ve ever been given: If you have a dream, you have to believe it, then you will see it.
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
Biography
Favourite book: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Holiday choice: Anything Disney-related
Proudest achievement: Receiving a presidential award for foreign services.
Family: Wife and three children.
Like motto: You always get what you ask for, the universe listens.
The six points:
1. Ministers should be in the field, instead of always at conferences
2. Foreign diplomacy must be left to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation
3. Emiratisation is a top priority that will have a renewed push behind it
4. The UAE's economy must continue to thrive and grow
5. Complaints from the public must be addressed, not avoided
6. Have hope for the future, what is yet to come is bigger and better than before
South Africa squad
Faf du Plessis (captain), Hashim Amla, Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock (wicketkeeper), Theunis de Bruyn, AB de Villiers, Dean Elgar, Heinrich Klaasen (wicketkeeper), Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Morne Morkel, Wiaan Mulder, Lungi Ngidi, Vernon Philander and Kagiso Rabada.
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
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On sale: Now
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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
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Engine: four-litre V6 and 3.5-litre V6 twin-turbo
Transmission: six-speed and 10-speed
Power: 271 and 409 horsepower
Torque: 385 and 650Nm
Price: from Dh229,900 to Dh355,000
Lampedusa: Gateway to Europe
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RESULTS
Tottenham 1
Jan Vertonghen 13'
Norwich 1
Josip Drmic 78'
2-3 on penalties
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