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Dubai real treasure hidden in malls and designer shops
Dubai real treasure are hidden in between malls and designer shops
- PUBLISHED: Fri 5 Sept 2014, 9:30 AM UPDATED: Wed 18 Jan 2023, 9:54 AM
NOOO, Mr Mohammed,” a woman pleads, from inside a Satwa carpet shop. It is 8pm on a Tuesday night, and the woman's voice is rimmed with faux desperation. Her voice gets louder and her protestations more urgent; but you can tell from the faint smile as she talks that this is a good-natured exchange.
I am a silent observer of the easy-going and comedic bartering in this colourful, cosy and unexpected shop.
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As the negotiations zero in on infinitely smaller denominations I look around, and find Al-Madaen Carpet Trading is much more than just carpets.
In the front window a vanishingly small screen set inside a wooden box displays a sign reading: “TV for Sale. Year: 1953”. A similarly-aged record player sits on top, in front of two pairs of Persian shoes, both over 100 years old. Old copper irons and Arabic teapots adorn the shop front, while carpets spill out of a wooden chest ; the treasures are literally hiding in plain sight.
Entrance to the sprawling warehouse at the Antique Museum. - KT photos by Amanda Fisher
But all of this is presently of little interest to the woman engaged with “Mr Mohammed”, her eyes and grip firmly fixed on a musty carpet. “Mr Mohammed” is actually shop owner and carpet maven, Mostafa Pajouheshnia.
Threads of History
Pajouheshnia, who runs his shop with son Pejman, is from a line of carpet makers and started his career in his parents' Iranian carpet workshop at the tender age of seven - 56 years ago.
“In Iran there's more than 1000 villages…most shops have 10 designs from 10 cities. My father has designs that even carpet dealers of 30 years have not seen. He loves to buy carpets from the village themselves,” the younger Pajouheshnia says.
The century-old radio that Al Madaen Carpet Trading owner Mostafa Pajouheshnia listens to the news on every morning
Mostafa Pejouheshnia is renowned for being something of a carpet wizard, especially when it comes to repairs. He brought his young family to Dubai 35 years ago, setting up in Deira 28 years ago, before moving his store to Satwa 10 years ago.
“He has carpets that are 200 years old…he's famous for washing and repairing all types of carpets, any damage or stains,” Pejouheshnia junior explains. “He won't take no for an answer.”
He details how his father revived a Dh220,000 carpet that had numerous holes and a big stain on it that had been there for 25 years. For three months the older man laboured, to fix all the repairs – even basting it with things like yoghurt – before restoring it to almost pristine.
“Sometimes there's a hole in the middle of the carpet and (my father) fixes it so that (the owner) can't even find the hole.”
But his love of antiques isn't limited to carpets. Among the shop's curios is a well-worn radio, that sits by the till. This one, I'm told, is not for sale. It is more than 100 years old, and somehow the elder Pejouheshnia got it to work.
“He listens to the news every day by that radio,” his son muses.
Such is the quality of products on offer, they are exchangeable for up to three years. For this family, the term “secondhand” is derogatory and misleading. Antique objects hold – or increase in – their value, last generations, and tell stories about the past. But they can be hard to come by in Dubai.
A leaf out of the book
AROUND the corner in Jumeirah, House of Prose is another totem pole to the past. Worlds away from Dubai Mall, the shop dwells within the Jumeirah Plaza Centre – one of dozens of similarly forgotten Dubai shopping centres. These are often the places where the real gems lie.
The oldest second-hand book store in Dubai has been here for 17 years – as owner Mike McGinley tells me, at a time when Jumeirah Beach Road was about all there was and 'Jumeirah Janes' were in their heyday.
It was the first of four stores (two Houses of Prose, and two Book and Beans) in the UAE, though the original in Oman predates it by four years.
“Almost every book here is the only book we have, so you see a wall of books that is a wall of different titles. We're different to new book shops…they might have 5 or 6 different titles by Stephen King. I might have 20. (Here) you have a better chance of finding an older book.”
House of Prose owner Mike McGinley (left) and (right) Heritage Touch sales manager Erfan Hussain.
But that's not the only selling point; McGinley favours a kind of self-generating cycle of reading matter. In order to ensure he never runs out of titles, McGinley promises to return half the purchase price of a book to a customer if they bring it back.
“There are no strings attached. You buy the book, it's yours forever, you wanna bring it back in seven years, I'll give you half your money back. You wanna bring it back tomorrow, I'll give you half your money back.”
“And,” he continues wryly, “I always say if you don't want to bring it back, I won't give you half your money back. It's your decision.”
In an age of mass digitisation, McGinley thinks he has nothing to fear from the likes of Kindles and iPads.
“There's room for all forms of books,” he says, in the well-rehearsed tenor of a man used to defending his trade.
“If you're going to go away on holiday and you have a Kindle full of books, it's certainly a lot easier to carry than a bag full of books…some people don't like Kindles – and some people of course do – but anybody will read a paper book.”
There is another House of Prose in the Dubai Garden Centre, while the Book and Bean stores are in Festival City and Yas Island, inside Ace Hardware.
Who you calling 'dead wood'?
FROM there I venture to an area which could well be the antithesis of glamorous Dubai – Al Quoz. Don't let this fool you. This dusty warehouse village is probably the most promising and overlooked treasure island in the whole city.
Situated behind the Gold and Diamond Park is Heritage Touch. This furniture warehouse may look on first appearance like a poor man's Ikea, with its mock-up bedrooms, but a veritable trove hides inside.
A metal robot sits against a carved marble at the Antique Museum.
Aside from the interesting ethnic designs (mostly new, made to look antique), there is also a designer and dressmaker who makes clothes for the stars of Bollywood (sales manager Erfan Hussain refuses to divulge which ones).
In an adjacent room to the main entrance sit dozens of tables, many with intricate and ornate carved wood, metal and…brass knockers?
This is just one way old doors from places like Afghanistan and Yemen are being revived, Hussain says.
“It's up to you how you want to play with stuff. Doors, usually people use it as a door, but some people use it as a wall hanging.”
The oldest thing in the shop is a 180-year-old door. A nearby table is made from a 90-year-old door from Afghanistan, complete with certification.
Hussain says dealers help source the old materials from people renovating with newer replacements – unaware of what the real value is. 'Oldness' is a quality oft undervalued.
“All the shops (in Dubai) are trying to beat the market with the new stuff, all these modern tables, plastic stuff. Here we're trying to be a bit different from them.”
Jackpot
A FEW streets back, set amid numerous woodworkers and cobblers workshops, and a mosque dotted with workers dozing in the early afternoon sun, my treasure hunting reaches new heights.
Larger-than-life horses, camels, and buddhas, rows of antique gramophones, lamps made out of coconut shells, Yemeni jewellery from two centuries ago; I discover an Aladdin's Cave, packed to the hilt with such wondrous and exotic curios it seems it must have taken centuries to accumulate. Of course, it didn't – the mislabelled Antique Musuem has been around since 1994 and is the product of a carefully orchestrated programme by the Al Fakih Group, to retrieve treasures from around the (developing) world. Or 27 countries, to be specific.
The 'museum', actually a cluttered, heaving 7500 square foot warehouse, has a collection of antiques, handicrafts and souvenirs for sale, combed from 25,000 villages, as Overseas Sales manager Bob Thayyil tells me. One of the products, a beautiful, almost life-size white elephant made from bone, took eight people two years to make.
He says sometimes, in places like Burma, their buyers walk for two days to reach the villages.
“Even no bicycles, no electricity, but crafts are there, 100 per cent gems are there…Their infrastructure is nothing but their people are really talented.”
The Antique Museum started out focused on antiques, but this has become an increasingly small part of the business as tastes change.
“For the last 10 years we are not collecting many antiques because antique buyers are not in the UAE.”
The focus has shifted to souvenirs, like the metal camels and glassware adorned with “I (heart) Dubai”. This accounts for about 20 per cent of the products, and are the only in-store that are machine-made, Thayyil says.
“Al Fakih Group is a social commitment company. We provide for the village people jobs, for 365 days…we provide raw material, design, concept and they utilise (these things).”
The Antique Museum started as just a storage point, supplying goods to souks and duty free shops all over the UAE and beyond, but in 2000 the American Women's Association discovered the treasure trove and it has since been open to residential customers – selling products for about a third of the price as the shops they supply to, thanks to limited overheads.
Al Fakih Group, which started with just three employees, now has 3850 – 90 per cent of whom are international artisans.
These workers may otherwise be without a job, according to Mr Thayyil. He tells me about a pashmina unit the group started in Nepal, giving jobs to polio victims.
“Nobody wanted polio victims (but) weaving is mainly using the hands (not legs) …now there are more than 450 women, more than 70 percent are handicapped…maybe they cannot talk, maybe they cannot hear, maybe their one leg (from) polio is gone. They are using their manpower in many different ways.”
He says these women get paid a 7-day salary for 5.5 days of work, and can use the money they have to send their children to school and provide for their families.
At the end of my hunt, I realise perhaps this is the real treasure: cherishing the skills of people who don't work on computers and finding a renewed value in products of old.
amanda@khaleejtimes.com