After oil was discovered, Abu Dhabi lost much of its architectural heritage, particularly its mosques. But on the islands, the traditional places of worship, built in the ancient Arab manner without minarets, survived long enough to be preserved and restored. Jonathan Gornall reports.
It began with an invitation to dine with the founder of the nation; it ended with a timely intervention that saved a vital and threatened part of the country’s cultural heritage.
In the late 1980s, Dr Geoffrey King, an expert in Islamic art and archaeology at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, was part of an international team excavating at the ancient town of Julfar in Ras al Khaimah when he was invited to Abu Dhabi to meet Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak, the minister for higher education.
At Julfar, a major trading centre from pre-Islamic times until the 18th century, the archaeologists had discovered evidence of a mosque dating back to the 15th or even 14th century. Dr King recalls that Sheikh Nahyan asked what archaeology could be done in Abu Dhabi.
“I said we know absolutely nothing about the islands off the coast,” Dr King recalled.
Sheikh Zayed, the late founder of the nation, himself concerned with preserving the lessons of the nation’s past for its people of the future, gave approval for the team to excavate those islands, starting on Sir Bani Yas. It was the beginning of a 14-year archaeological survey.
http://newageislam.com/survivors-of-arab-spiritual-past/islamic-culture/d/1833
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12:51 AM
Moderate Islamist here
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