Bridging the Gulf
Sharjah is a glittering city that has gathered its past, and all
the people and all the ideas that have made it what it is today
As I drive into Sharjah from the airport, spiry residential
complexes loom on either side of the highway. The buildings are all dun
coloured with turquoise blue windows, as if hewing to a strange code for
architectural uniformity.
As the city approaches, the harshness of concrete is leavened by
exquisite government buildings and mosques reinforcing the Arabic aesthetic
while serving as a strong reminder that this is the heart of the Middle East.
“All public buildings in Sharjah have been designed by the present Shaikh who
is a qualified architect,“ Abbas, my Pakistani driver explains.
The third largest emirate in the seven-member constellation of
the UAE after Abu Dhabi and Dubai, Sharjah is a political con struct that came
into existence on December 2, 1971, when the British bowed out of the region. Though
the city continues to live in the shadow of its two more glamorous peers, its
rich natural re sources and strategic location -along the Arabian Sea and the
Gulf of Oman -have fuelled its frenetic economic development. By 1932, the
emirate already had the first international airport in the Arabian Gulf. The
discovery of oil in 1973, and natural oil drilling in 1976, spurred further
progress.
In 1998, Sharjah was designated by the UNESCO as the Cultural
Capital of the Arab World, a title it has embraced as a tool to market itself.
Vibrant souks, art galleries, heritage sites, museums, spiffy eateries,
world-class hotels and buzzing new projects have resulted in an intriguing
juxtaposition of the old and the new, the artisanal and the manufactured, the real
and the simulated.
This eclecticism is also what gives Sharjah a distinct cultural
identity. The Sharjah Museum of Cultural Civilisation -housed in a splendid old
souk on the Majarrah waterfront, where dhows moor among luxury yachts -toplines
the most significant collection of Islamic art in the world.Among its
gobsmacking repertoire of over 5,000 artefacts are precision-made astronomical
instruments, calligraphy, jewellery, handwritten Koran, letters from Prophet
Muhammad and collectibles from Mecca.
The City of Museums
Sharjah also boasts over 20 museums, including one dedicated to
just calligraphy. The Art Museum -a capacious building near the Corniche
-showcases one of the largest art exhibitions in the Gulf region. “Many of
these works were bought personally by the current ruler Sultan bin Muhammad
Al-Qasimi,“ a staffer tells me as I inspect masterpieces of renowned Arab
artists.
Al-Qasimi, who took over Sharjah's reins in 1972 after his older
brother's assassination in an attempted coup, is an effervescent patron of the
arts. A playwright and writer of over 20 books, he has built heritage
structures, a university and a port. In 1993, he launched the Sharjah Biennale
has injected the oxygen of cultural and politicaldiscourse in the conservative
region.While the other emirati rulers focused on infrastructure -scram bling to
build the world's tallest, biggest and flashiest -AlQasimi invested in culture,
which he deems as “essential to the spirit“.
Much of that artistic vision underpins Sharjah's creative
development today. The Sharjah Art Foundation, the Sharjah Art Museum and the
Maraya Art Centre balance an Islamic society's traditional values with a
spirited quest for art. Contemporary art thrives at the Sharjah Art Foundation,
the brainchild of the ruler's daughter Sheikha Hoor Al-Qasimi. Located in the
heart of old Sharjah, the venue comprises a medley of early 19th century
buildings made of bricks hewed from coral as well as unadorned, expansive
spaces filled with art works from across the globe.
There's palpable excitement among locals about the upcoming
Heart of Sharjah, a historical preservation and restoration project that aims
to revive the emirate's old heritage structures as well as build new ones. The
ambitious tourist and trade destination, to be inaugurated in 2025, comprises
commercial, cultural and residential projects as well as hotels, archaeological
sites, museums and commercial spaces. In restoring the traditional heritage
areas of Sharjah and linking them together, this will be the Gulf's most
mammoth heritage project to date.
Islamic Heritage
Integral to the city's DNA is the preservation of Islamic
heritage. Over 600 mosques pepper Sharjah's landscape like confetti, the most
enthralling being Al Noor on Khalid Lagoon. “Noor means light in Arabic and
during evenings, the mosque lights up like a lighthouse. It can hold up to
2,200 people and was the first mosque in Sharjah to allow the expatriate
community in,“ my guide Shaada from Turkmenistan tells me as I perambulate the
shrine's stony ramparts accented by soaring spires and sweeping curves.
An iftar dinner is in progress on its gargantuan compounds.
Hundreds of men (no women though) are squatting on floors so clean and shiny
you could eat off them. The muezzin's throaty call is resonating in the air as
volunteers swiftly parcel out boxes of food. As I flip open mine, the delicious
smell of chicken biryani wafts towards me. A yoghurt drink, a packet of dates
and a water bottle nestle next to the rice in the container. The mosque feeds
about 2,000 people every day during Ramadan regardless of religion, caste or
creed. Such pluralism is what imparts strength to Sharjah's social fabric, a
city of 1.4 million people out of which 1.2 million are immigrants. Mostly from
India and Pakistan, these industrious men and women came in hordes to the city
to seek better economic opportunities in the 1970s. Such is their presence that
at the airport, I first thought I'd landed on the wrong continent as a sea of
saris and turbans greeted me rather than dishdashs and chadors! Unfortunately
for the immigrants, the prized UAE citizenship remains largely elusive, simply
because there's no established system to apply for it. Perhaps an underlying
insecurity -that the emirate could suffer a loss of national identity were it
to issue citizenship to immigrants -explains this unwritten fiat.
Recreational Spaces
Sharjah is a dry state with strict Sharia laws which extend to
the hospitality sector. However, tourism here is family oriented, all museums
are child-friendly, atmospheric eateries offer cuisines from over 80 countries
and a welter of amusement parks and recreational spaces provide succour from
the drab of the everyday.
The city's souks offer a slice of traditional Arab life. Most of
them are located at the Khalid Lagoon and the creek and consist of kiosks and
stores and stalls. Commercial insanity reigns at the blue-tiled Central Souk
-one of the biggest in the UAE -which houses over 600 shops selling everything
from Iranian carpets to handicrafts from Afghanistan and Turkey to pashminas
from Kashmir and silver jewellery from Oman and Yemen. The Gold Centre on the
first floor has an eye-popping collection of ornaments crafted from the yellow
metal, some necklaces so massive that they cover half the mannequins' figures.
At Al Noor Island, art and nature coalesce to form one
enchanting landscape. A butterfly house, a literature pavilion, sculptures by
celebrated Austrian artist Edgar Tezak, futuristic light installations,
paintings as well as ornamental gardens sprouting exotic plants from around the
world, including towering cactuses from South America, are all joined together
by a 3,500 m walkway.
The Al Majaz Waterfront on Khalid Lagoon is another delightful
oasis featuring the Maraya Art Park where IraqiAmerican artist Wafaa Bilal's
domed sculpture The Hierarchy of Being assumes centrality. There's also a
lakefront garden, boat rides and a miniature golf course as well as a mosque
and restaurants serving everything from Lebanese and Mexican to Turkish, Arabic
and Indian food.
After watching a spectacular laser show at the waterfront, we
head to Zahr El-Laymun restaurant for an inspired Lebanese meal. Hot and cold
mezze, moutabbal (mashed eggplant with tahini and pomegranate seeds), dawali
(grape leaves stuffed with rice and tomatoes), kafta (kebabs), fattet (chickpea
puree with pine nuts), oven-fresh breads and a light-as-air baklava tickle our
taste buds.
We wrap up our day at Al Qasba, an entertainment hub located
along a 1-km-long manmade canal that hosts pedestrian bridges, a 250-seat
theatre as well as Eye of The Emir ates ferris wheel. We huddle into the
capsule of the ferris wheel that hoists us up to a dizzying 50 metres for a
night view of Sharjah. As I look down from that height, heart in mouth, guess
what I discover? A glittering city that has gathered its past, and all the
people and all the ideas that have made it what it is today, and integrated
this into its vision for the future.
Neeta Lal
Jul 02 2017 : The Economic Times (Mumbai)
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