Prized old RAK village under threat

Anna Zacharias

• Last Updated: October 22. 2009 5:53PM UAE / October 22. 2009 1:53PM GMT

Jazirat al Hamra is an ancient Ras al Khaimah town built of sand, bricks and coral, and it is prized by archaeologists as a rare example of pre-oil Emirati living. However, development and labourers seeking cheap housing are threatening the village’s historic integrity.

RAS AL KHAIMAH // “First it was good, first it was fine. Then people came and now it’s all garbage.”

Rashed Abdulla waves his arms at the ruins of Jazirat al Hamra, a coastal village south of Ras al Khaimah that was abandoned 40 years ago.

Jazirat al Hamra, which translates as the Red Island, has been inhabited since at least the 16th century.

To archaeologists, the village is a treasure, believed to be the only village of its kind and size with such a variety of buildings from the pre-oil decades of the 20th century.

For Emiratis, the village is more than its bricks. It is an emblem of their history and identity.

For more than 30 years, the village was deserted. In 1968 and the years following unification, the families of Jazirat al Hamra left the village for the comforts of modern life in Ras al Khaimah and Abu Dhabi. Many moved to modern villas a few hundred metres away.

For decades the village sat empty, entered sporadically by family members of those who left long ago, or the occasional tourist.

The village’s abandonment was what saved it. For four decades, its buildings remained more or less intact. Visitors could walk along its crumbling walls and sandy alleyways and experience life in the UAE before the discovery of oil. Jazirat al Hamra found its preservation in isolation.

But three years ago, things began to change.

Development at the nearby industrial zone brought in workers who needed low-cost housing. Companies began renting villas in Jazirat al Hamra, putting 20 or 30 workers into a house once shared by a family of pearl divers or fishermen.

At first, there were only a few labourers in the village. Families were reluctant to rent their old homes and many feared to live there because the village is believed to be haunted by powerful djinn, or spirit beings. But in the past six months, the south end of the village has been transformed, essentially, into a labour camp.

Businesses are moving into the village. The neon lights of laundries and grocery stores have brought life back to its dark corners. Imposing lorries and taxis are parked outside villas that drivers now call home.

As the demand for cheap accommodation increases, Jazirat al Hamra risks being lost. Now, under a master plan approved by Sheikh Saud bin Saqr, Crown Prince and Deputy Ruler of Ras al Khaimah, the village is to be preserved for future generations.

Buildings of coral, carried across the Gulf from the Tunb islands, predate the 1950s. Villas made of sand bricks, with seashells still stuck in their walls, generally date to the 1950s and 1960s. Mosques, schools and homes made with breeze bricks are from a time when oil first flowed in the Gulf, allowing residents the novelty of building with cement.

Many buildings are crumbling but with care and attention, archaeologists believe they could survive and provide a unique example of life in pre-oil Arabia.

Yet with each month that passes, the preservation of this sandcastle village comes under greater threat. New residents are moving deeper into the village, towards older houses. With them comes garbage and damage from daily living.

Rashed Abdulla is one of many homeowners from Jazirat al Hamra who has decided to rent his old home. Thirty-eight years ago, he moved his family to a new village a few hundred metres north.

Mr Abdulla believes he is about 68 years old. He went to sea on pearling ships when he was 15. He was born in the heart of Jazirat al Hamra, inside a sand-brick room with a crescent-and-star motif over its door, a common emblem in a village whose sailors were guided by night skies.

The home remains but Mr Abdulla won’t enter his old bedroom. He is old and hesitant to walk over the garbage, weeds and the tumbled brick wall that buries his old family courtyard.

“God protect Jazirat al Hamra,” he says, waving his arms at the crumbling walls of his father’s home, “God protect this garbage!”

When renovations are finished, he will rent the three-bedroom villa to labourers for Dh20,000 (US$5,400) a year.

Ibrahim Tanju, 44, a lorry driver from Kerala, India, was one of the first to move into the village three years ago when RAK’s industrial area began to develop. “Nobody lived here at that time,” said Mr Tanju. “Now there are groceries and laundries and the rent is very cheap. In RAK, it is so much money. People live here, first of all, because it costs little money. Secondly, because it’s near the ceramics company.”

“It’s better than a caravan,” said Mr Tanju, who shares his three-bedroom house with 20 other men.

The family of Salem bin Abdulla, 14, are probably the last Emiratis who live in Jazirat al Hamra. His father has two wives. Salem and his younger sisters divide their time between their house in the new town and their mother’s house in the old village, which she could not bear to leave.

“This is my house,” said Salem. “Where will I go from here? We are living here for so many years.”

There is also great pressure to develop the village, which rests on lucrative coastal land.

Last year the beach of Jazirat al Hamra, once used by fishermen and dhow makers, was covered in boulders and reclaimed for Dana, a commercial and residential project to extend seven kilometres into the sea. Work on Dana has been stalled but development around the village continues.

South of the village is the ongoing expansion of Al Hamra Village and Marina in preparation for the America’s Cup competition. North of the village, a fake mountain and giant igloos are growing into a Dh800 million water park.

The nearby Mina al Arab, valued at an estimated Dh10 billion, is expected to have its first set of villas complete later this year.

Outside Al Hamraa Restaurant, men meet every day before sunset prayers. Often, the topic of discussion is the fate of their old village.

For T bin Hamad al Zaabi, 27, the village is worth more than its land.

“It is a part of me,” he said. “I was born here.”

Mr al Zaabi still takes his friends for tours of his old home and hopes that it will be used as a heritage site in the future.

“It’s famous here in the UAE. People come from Abu Dhabi, from Sharjah to see RAK and old buildings,” said Mr al Zaabi.

“Some went to Abu Dhabi 30 years before and they return now to remember who they are.”

This week, Ahmed Zain and Ahmed Arshi were awarded Dh20,000 at the Emirates Film competition for their documentary, “Red Island in the Eyes of Filmmakers”, which highlights the importance of the area to the UAE arts community.

Mr Arshi believes the village holds huge potential for the regional film industry, but he warns the magic of the village is about to disappear.

Film crews rent property for Dh1,000 a week and Mr Arshi believes that Jazirat al Hamra’s charm can attract filmmakers from across the Gulf who will provide homeowners with regular income and maintain the town’s historical integrity.

“It is still protected,” said Youssef al Ashkar, the director of town planning and survey administration. “We are not allowing any building licenc es there.”

In the film, threats to the preservation of Jazirat al Hamra’s beautiful character are met by artists with heartfelt sorrow.

“The news about the demolishing of the Red Island is a very cruel one,” says Nawaf al Janahi, a Emirati actor and director.

“We are erasing the things that link us to the scent of our traditions.”

azacharias@thenational.ae