Sharjah: Have you ever wondered what it must have been like here when pearling was a way of life, oil was yet to be discovered and the UAE - as we know it - didn’t exist?
A 75-year-old diary of a teacher at what is believed to be Sharjah’s first ever school could now help unravel that era’s amazing history like never before, says its Emirati owner Ahmad Ali Mohammad, 44.
Bought by chance
A bibliophile who boasts a collection of over 5,000 books, the Sharjah businessman says he bought two books of Hadiths and the roughly 11 by 8 inches, 100-page A5 diary at an auction over 25 years ago. Yet it was only this year that he actually stumbled upon the logs once maintained by a certain Hassan Abu Rahma in the 1930s who was a teacher at Al Eslah – now a museum in the heart of Sharjah.
“I had bought this diary without really knowing what was in it and tucked it away with the other two books in a special custom-made box, and had forgotten all about it. I got my hands on it again by chance recently while cleaning my library,” says Mohammad, recalling the pleasant surprise he got upon opening the diary for the first time. “Going through the notebook was like flipping through pages of a history much less known.”
From lessons in Arabic Abu Rahma planned to teach his pupils to a detailed hisab or a list of what people owed him in kinds, the diary offers more than a fascinating insight into the lives and times of people of that era including Abu Rahma himself, says Mohammad.
“The dirham wasn’t established as a currency then and much of Abu Rahma’s daily balance sheets were in terms of basic food items like rice. So it was not just a diary of a school teacher but also the ledger and the grocery book of a family man,” adds the father of two who regrets not knowing much else about Abu Rahma’s family.
National treasure
However, Mohammad says he will not part with the diary even if a member of the Abu Rahma family came along to claim it. “It’s a national treasure. I have taken good care of it for over two and a half decades, and can only sell it for the right price,” says the business graduate from the UK who says the diary’s most amazing page is a 15 line poem dedicated to the then ruler of the region and written in the Hijri year 1360 (around the year 1941).
“His usage of the Arabic language shows he was also a fabulous poet and lyricist,” says Mohammad, a fan of the literary works of a variety of authors, novelists, playwrights and poets including His Highness Dr Shaikh Sultan Bin Mohammad Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, and William Shakespeare.
“I have so many books that I am yet to read but I am sure nothing has the backstory like this piece of gem,” says the resident of the Mughaidir suburb, delicately putting it back in its safe haven. Soiled, moth-eaten and yellowed at places but well preserved overall, you could tell it will surely be a while before the amazing chronicle of a Sharjah little known today comes out of its box again.
