October 2009 archives
Archive
October 23, 2009 by Cyrus Patell
Al Ain
The Al Mezyad Fort in Al Ain Thursday morning, we headed out to the oasis city of Al Ain, about two hours east of Abu Dhabi, near the border with Oman. There we were met by Brian, an ex-pat who heads up the Emirates Natural History Group, which is interested in both the archeology and [...]Archive
October 22, 2009 by Cyrus Patell
NYUAD Institute Talk
By all accounts, the lecture that I gave for the NYU Abu Dhabi Institute on Wednesday night went well. The title of the talk was “Cosmopolitanism, Multiculturalism, and the Promise of Literature.” Like Joanna’s lecture on the Silk Road, it took place at the Al Mamoura Auditorium in the building that houses the Abu Dhabi [...]Archive
October 21, 2009 by Cyrus Patell
Zayed University
From the Mosque, we proceeded to a meeting with colleagues at Zayed University, which is a school for women that has campuses in Abu Dhabi and in Dubai. The meeting was organized by a colleague from the History Department there, and originally we’d been told we’d be meeting students who attended my Joanna Waley-Cohen’s lecture [...]Archive
October 21, 2009 by Cyrus Patell
Grand Mosque
Grand Zayed Mosque (Interior Courtyard) Wednesday morning began with a visit to the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, which is open to non-Muslim visitors in the morning from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. Gleaming white and dominating its surroundings, it’s meant, I think, to evoke both the grand mosques of the world and the Taj Mahal : [...]Archive
October 21, 2009 by Cyrus Patell
Dubai
After spending an hour-and-a-half at the Museum of Islamic Civilization in Sharjah, we continued on our way back to Abu Dhabi via Dubai. We could see examples of traditional wooden ships–the dhow–docked along the waterfront. Out of the window I caught a glimpse of a grassy area by the corniche in which red flowers had [...]Archive
October 20, 2009 by Cyrus Patell
Sharjah
Sharjah, which is right next to Dubai, is more conservative than its neighbor. No alcohol is served in the emirate, which was named the cultural capital of the Arab world by UNESCO because of its excellent museums. The American University of Sharjah there was founded by the emirate’s ruler, Sheikh Sultan bin Mohamed Al-Qassimi III, [...]Archive
October 20, 2009 by Cyrus Patell
