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52 MOSER, René. Welcome to Sharjah. Bienvenue à Sharjah. Paris: Éditions Delroisse, [1973] “the aim is to make sharjah not only a thriving commercial centre but also one of the most attractive cities on the gulf” First edition, first impression. This detailed and attractive photographic record depicts Sharjah at a time of rapid growth and modernization, when the emirate, the third largest in the UAE, was developing hot on the heels of Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Uncommon, with less than 20 entries in WorldCat, including Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi’s alma mater, the University of Exeter. This officially sanctioned work represents a “modest attempt” to introduce the emirate and its ambitions, including an introduction by the director of the Ruler’s Diwan and portrait photographs of President Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan and Sheikh Sultan. Published two years after the UAE gained its independence, Welcome to Sharjah depicts the city at the beginning of a period of lightning urbanization and development: “Buildings have sprung up on land which was open desert only a few years ago” (p. 18). Particular highlights are examples of landmark investment and construction in the emirate, including the
European-style Sheba and Carlton hotels; Sharjah International Airport, the “senior” of the UAE’s three airports at the time; and the planned construction of Port Khalid. This work also presents Sharjah’s more traditional side, harking back to the emirate’s history as the seat of the powerful Al Qasimi dynasty and including photographs of 19th-century fortifications and the traditional souk, Sharjah’s many mosques, and antiquities from Sheikh Sultan’s private collection. Éditions Delroisse was an obscure French publishing house responsible for a number of surprisingly scarce photobooks during the 1970s. This title is one of a series of glossy, well-produced coffee table books, typical of the time, on “exotic” locations such as Djibouti, Nicaragua, and Mauritania. The publisher also produced a number of other titles on the Gulf and Arabian Peninsula, including Yemen, Bahrain, Qatar, and a work on the UAE as a whole. Quarto. Original white morocco-grain leatherette. With pictorial dust jacket. With colour photographs throughout and parallel texts in English, French, and Arabic. A very good copy, spine cocked, top edge a little foxed, light offsetting to endpapers, in like dust jacket, extremities rubbed, spine ends slightly chipped and with laminate to rear cracked. £1,850 [158931] 53 OMAN – DOYEL, William W. and others. Hydrology of the Sultanate of Oman – A Preliminary Assessment. (Report: PAWR 83–1); [together with] PIPIRINGOS, George N.; Saleh bin Issa bin Mohamed Al Mazroi; Suleiman bin Nassor bin Suleiman Al Riyami. Reconnaissance Study of the Saiq and Mahil Formations in the Rustaq – Awabi Area (Report: PAWR 84–10).
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sharjah international book fair
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