In Shindagha I lived nights and days

Dr. Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi

In March 1948, I was sitting in the warehouse (residence) with my father, before noon that day, when my mother came in, looking sad, and said: “Muhammad... my mother Hamda is with me, she wants to say hello.”

My father: "Let her in."

My grandmother Hamda bint Ali Al Rumaithi came to us with her grandson Ghanem bin Nasser Al Marri, whom she calls Al Shaiba, after his grandfather and my grandfather Ghanem bin Salem Al Shamsi.

My grandmother: "Peace be upon you, Muhammad."

My father: "Peace be upon you, welcome Hamda, who is this boy?!"

My grandmother: “This is Ghanem, my daughter Aousha’s son, and I came to you about this boy.”

The story is that Aousha, as you know, was married to Nasser Al-Marri from Deira, and she gave birth to this boy. She couldn't live in Deira. She divorced him and was married to Saif bin Thalith, who took her to his house. The boy stayed with me, and I was the one who raised him. Three days ago, his father came to me wanting to take the boy.

I refused, and yesterday he came to us with an armed man holding a tafak and said: This is from the sheikhs. (Tafak is a Persian word meaning rifle, and rifle is a Persian word derived from the Persian word banduq). He brought someone with a weapon!!! Are you satisfied, Sheikh Mohammed?... Keep them away from me.

My father: "I can't."

My grandmother: “Ugh… This is the first time I’ve heard a sheikh say I can’t!!!”

My father: Laughing... “Hamda, Dubai has its sheikhs who rule it...

We are in Sharjah, and our order is only for Sharjah.

My grandmother cried, and my mother came in.

My grandmother: "This boy keeps me company, I have no one else."

My father: “This is your daughter Maryam. If you agree, she will give you Sultan for a few days, and things will calm down, God willing.”

My mother: "I don't mind."

My grandmother: "Let's go, kids, get up."

My father: “Be patient, Hamda, the car will take you to Dubai.”

My father paid some money to my grandmother Hamda, and gave me some money, while my mother prepared a bag containing my clothes (bag: a Turkish word meaning: bundle).

My father: “Sultan, go to the driver Abdullah Bandari and tell him to bring the car that will take you to Dubai.”

After lunch, my grandmother, Ghanem, and I got into the car and drove to Dubai. When we reached the outskirts of Deira, I saw a castle with legs. Abdullah Bandari said, “This is Umm Al Rayyul Square.”

We reached the taxi stand and made our way to Deira Souq, the first part of which was unroofed and the rest of it was roofed with palm fronds, until we reached the abra platform, which was a wide place where all the abras were on the platform.

We boarded the abra and the abra started rowing in Dubai Creek, heading southeast. That was the widest place in Dubai Creek, and we reached a narrow quay in Bur Dubai, where the abras were stuck together and the place after the quay was narrow. There were the banyans (a group of Indians) who went in and out of the track to the left of the quay. To the right of the quay was the Bur Dubai market.

The Bur Dubai market begins narrowly and is covered with palm fronds, then suddenly opens into a spacious covered market, so vast that shopkeepers would display their wares in front of their stores on tables adorned with a variety of fruits and sweets.

Bur Dubai Market leads to the Fish Market located on the southern bank of Dubai Creek. Then the market ends and we walk across open ground. To our left is a rectangular building from which successive sounds are coming out: tick-tock... tick-tock... tick-tock... I turned to my grandmother and said: “What is that sound?!”

She said: “This is the flour mill. Anyone who wants to grind their grain can bring it here and they will grind it for him.”

To our right was a tall, square building. I said, “What is this?”

My grandmother said, "This is the square of the sheikhs' money."

There is a vast sea before us, and when we reach its edges, I say: Sea... where is the lesson?

My grandmother laughed and Ghanem laughed with her.

My grandmother said: Look at those buildings at the end of the sea, as you say, that's Shindagha, we live there.

I said: How do we cross this sea?!

My grandmother said: This is called the Ghubaybah. If the sea rises, it covers it, and if it falls, it dries up. Look at your brother Ghanem and do the same.

We crossed the sea up to our knees until we reached Shindagha and that big house.

I said: Grandma, is this your house?!

She said: This is the house of Sheikh Mubarak bin Ali Al Shamsi.

We passed behind him into a narrow alley, most of the houses were made of palm fronds, and to our right was a building made of plaster. My grandmother opened a door in that alley and entered, and we entered behind her into a house with a tent, a trellis, and a kitchen, all made of palm fronds.

I said to my grandmother: Is this just your house?!

My grandmother said, “This is my heaven, the scent of your grandfather, may God have mercy on him, is in this place.”

She called out to Ghanem, saying, “Take Sultan to the sea.”

We got off the track and it opened onto an endless beach and a blue sea that stretched to the horizon.

We raced along that beach to the south until we got some distance and Ghanem said to me: This is the house of my uncle Ghanem Al Rumaithi. He is my grandmother Hamda's brother. We went in there and Ghanem told them about me and they welcomed me. I met my uncle... who is my mother's uncle... and his name is Ghanem bin Kharbash. I didn't see any boys in the house, then we returned to my grandmother Hamda's house.

We spent that night in my grandmother’s tent, on the bed of my grandfather Ghanem bin Salem Al Shamsi. Ghanem bin Nasser was to my grandmother’s right and I was to her left. She was happy, and the two of us played until we closed our eyes.

The next day, there was a knock on the door. When we opened the door, we saw Nasser Al-Marri and the man armed with a rifle. We ran to my grandmother and told her. She came and spoke to Nasser Al-Marri kindly, and asked him to bring Ghanem to her every now and then. He agreed, then turned to her and said: Who is this boy?

My grandmother said: “This is Sultan, the son of my daughter Maryam bint Ghanem.”

Nasser Al-Marri said: “We gave it to Younes Ghanem.”

My grandmother looked right and left, looking for something to hit Nasser Al-Marri with. Nasser Al-Marri was laughing and disappeared with his son, followed by the armed man with his rifle. As for my grandmother, she hugged me and cried.

That evening, I told my grandmother that I was going to the end of the track, where I had noticed children playing in the empty square when we arrived at Shindagha. My grandmother gave me permission as long as I didn't stay long.

When I reached the gathering of boys, one group headed south, making their way between the palm frond houses, while the second group headed towards Al-Ghubaiba, where the water had reached its highest level. The boys took a path alongside the wall of Sheikh Mubarak Al Shamsi’s house, where a wall a cubit high had been built, and the earth had been tamped down between them to protect the house from the waters of Al-Ghubaiba.

We crossed that path from the south and headed east, and then north, until we reached a land as high as the protective wall from the waters of Al-Ghubaiba, which protects that land. There was a group of men sitting on rectangular chairs in the shade of Sheikh Mubarak Al Shamsi’s house, and suddenly one of them said: That is a strange boy among them, call him.

I left the boys and headed towards the group of men. I stood in front of a man who was calling me: “Come here... Whose boy are you?”

I replied: I am the son of Muhammad bin Saqr.

He said: “You mean Sheikh Mohammed bin Saqr from Sharjah, and your mother is Maryam bint Sheikh Ghanem?” I said: “Yes.”

He said, "Do you know any of these boys?"

I said: No. He said: “They are going home, towards the sheikhs’ houses. Sit with us... Are you with your grandmother Hamda?”

I said: Yes. He said: “Come here to me every afternoon.”

I excused myself and went back to my grandmother's house.

That night, I lay next to my grandmother on a large bed, and she began to tell me about my grandfather Ghanem’s life, saying: “He used to put his head on this pillow, and he had a long white beard.”

My grandmother used to tell me supernatural things that were told about my grandfather.

I said: "Why is he a magician?!"

My grandmother got angry and scolded me verbally.

I said: "Grandma... no one says such things to me!!"

My grandmother: "You are different from the boys?!"

I slept that night after she talked me gently.

The next morning, my grandmother took me to Sheikh Obaid bin Juma Al Maktoum, who had built a palm frond hut near the beach, where he trained hunting falcons.

That evening, I went to Sheikh Mubarak Al Shamsi's sitting room, in front of his house, in the majalis area, as my grandmother had told me. He welcomed me and made me sit next to him. He continued speaking, saying, "May God curse them. Thirty-eight years ago (1910 AD), the British attacked Dubai and landed soldiers there at night, intending to occupy it. But the people put up a fierce resistance and were not intimidated by the warships that were lined up in front of the country, firing shells day and night, every now and then."

A questioner asked: What happened next?

Sheikh Mubarak bin Ali Al Shamsi said: The English came saying, “We will make peace,” after they had killed the people who were defending their country. Moreover, they forced the people to pay sums of money and a number of rifles.

Sheikh Mubarak Al Shamsi: "Sultan, go home. There's a strong north wind today."

He turned to some of his servants to take me to my grandmother's house.

I liked that hadith by Sheikh Mubarak Al Shamsi, and I kept repeating it to my grandmother.

That night, the sound of the waves rose and faded, and suddenly we heard voices calling from the path in front of my grandmother's house. My grandmother said, "Sultan, go to the door, see who is there."

I opened the door of the courtyard, and two women rushed into the house, saying: Where is your mother?... Where is your mother?

I said as I followed them: There in the tent.

The two women entered the tent chanting, "We're lost. This way there's a sea... and this way there's a sea."

One of them said: “We have been calling the house across from your house for a while, but no one answers.”

My grandmother said: "This is Mary's house, don't you hear?"

Then she said: "Sultan... is the courtyard door locked?"

I said: No.

She said, "Go and lock the door."

As I was about to close the door, I was thinking: Is our neighbor Mary deaf? Or does she not want to open her door?

I went back to the tent and lay down on the bed next to my grandmother, while the two women lay down in the middle of the tent, and all I could hear was the sound of the waves.

One of them: "Why... are you wet?"

The second woman: "I swear I didn't wet myself!!!"

First woman: "May God punish you... Opening the door?! You've disgraced us."

I started giggling, putting my hand over my mouth.

My grandmother: “Oh... my... the sea is coming in on us.” (Khadi: premature, deficient in mind).

The second wave of the sea, wets the floor of the tent.

The first woman to her colleague: "Get up... the whole world is an ocean."

Second woman: "We sleep with them on the bed."

My grandmother: “No way... no way. There’s no room above the bed.”

My grandmother opens the tent door and says, “Get up and go to the hut and sleep there.”

The two women left the tent and headed to the hut.

My grandmother closes the tent door and says, "Leave me alone."

I say to my grandmother: You are the one who ordered me to open the door.

My grandmother: “I thought Ghanem was running away from his father. I saw your grandfather’s blessings on us. The wave came and threw them out of the tent. We don’t know what they’re doing… Sleep… Sleep.”

The next morning, I woke up to find my grandmother preparing breakfast for me. I said to her: Where are the women?

My grandmother: "They went out at night."

That morning, I left my grandmother's house and went to the beach, where Sheikh Obaid bin Juma Al Maktoum's gazebo was. He was surrounded by a group of Dubai residents, talking about the country's affairs. I didn't pay much attention to it, as I was distracted by the falcons.

That evening, I went to Sheikh Mubarak Al Shamsi’s session and sat near him. There was a person asking about the pearl days, and Sheikh Mubarak was explaining the condition that had befallen the pearl merchants, saying: There are many reasons:

1- The emergence of Japanese cultured pearls.

2- World War.

3- Oil companies in the Gulf, where most people work in oil companies.

Sheikh Mubarak Al Shamsi: Nineteen years ago, in Dubai alone, sixty ships did not go to sea. Major merchants like Mohammed bin Ahmed bin Dalmouk were affected. He introduced the first car to Dubai during that difficult period, gifting it to Sheikh Saeed bin Maktoum.

I went back to my grandmother's house and found my grandmother sad and with tears streaming down her eyes.

I said, "Grandma, don't cry, I'm with you."

My grandmother said, "I see you disappearing from me, and I am afraid for you."

We spent that night talking about my grandfather.

The next morning, I went to the beach, but I did not find Sheikh Obaid bin Juma Al Maktoum or his group, and the hut was empty of furniture. I said to myself: They must have gone hunting.

I look around as I sit on the beach, to my left, and I see nothing but that beach, empty of people, except for the white crabs, called “shnayib,” as they race to build their towers.

To my right, I saw a ship with a white sail, pulling a “mashwa” (a Swahili word meaning a small boat that takes passengers to the mainland) behind it. Then the ship disappeared behind the beach, and I knew it had entered Dubai Creek.

That evening, I went to Sheikh Mubarak Al Shamsi's session, only to find the chairs empty and the door closed. I thought to myself: He must have left.

I look around at the waters of Al Ghubaiba, and suddenly it has reached the successive houses of Shindagha in Doha, until it reaches Al Murabba. Dubai Creek appears, but the buildings of Bur Dubai block it out. I look back at the waters of Al Ghubaiba, and suddenly I see a person with a boy, heading towards me. I stare more, then shout, “Ghanem... Ghanem,” as I wade through the waters of Al Ghubaiba in my clothes, and we embrace.

On our way to my grandmother's house, I said to Nasser Al-Marri: Thank you, you brought us back a winner.

With my grandmother hugging Ghanem, she couldn't hear what Nasser Al-Marri was saying, "This boy has tired me out. I'm looking for him everywhere."

My grandmother woke up when Nasser Al-Marri said, “It’s better for the boy to stay with you, Hamda. I’m the one who will visit him.”

The three of us entered the tent, and Nasser Al-Marri went on his way. We spent the night, Ghanem on my grandmother's right and me on her left. She was happy and said, "Tomorrow we'll go to Sharjah and hand Sultan over to his family."