Going through the books of His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah, is similar to wandering in a multi-orchard whose trees and fruits due to the great diversity in the fields that His Highness has handled in various fields of knowledge by issuing many important publications. Perhaps many readers have established in their minds the great contribution of His Highness in the field of theater through books that have become heart-touching of books that have multiple topics, including: "Holaku's Return", "Reality.. A True Copy", "Alexander the Great", and "Nimrod," and "The Book of Allah: A Play on The Conflict between Light and Darkness," as well as documented masterpieces of the world theater such as "History on the French Stage". Perhaps all of these books that His Highness assigned to the theater expressed an idea and meaning, and circled in the fields of history and social reality in its clashes with the past and its aspirations for the future. Consequently, they have contributed to making a real theater in all the Arab world that has a mission and a cause.
His Highness, the Ruler of Sharjah, introduced to us with this intellectual and philosophical horizon through his theatrical writings that turned on stage into visual pleasures and performances packed with the values of goodness, love and beauty; the other multiple and complex topics revealed a tremendous ability in treatment and briefing. His Highness presented real and objective works regarding issues of history, heritage and manuscripts, but went further in the field of research based on historical references and facts, as well as with regard to dealing with the Arab reality and issues of renaissance, freedom and advancement.
It also introduced a valuable product in the struggle against colonialism in the Gulf and the entire Arab region, and the ideas and visions that attached the hearts of Arab militants and revolutionaries. These books included rich abstracts that reveal the size of the culture and knowledge enjoyed by His Highness.
Perhaps we stand in front of a rare situation in which the dream of fondling the minds of philosophers from Plato is realized in the presence of an educated ruler that combines the powers of politics and thought working to achieve the dream of utopia. Perhaps the most surprising when looking at the books of His Highness is the easy language, which expresses an exceptional ability to transform all reading and learning experiences into production that embraces the hearts and minds of readers, as well as the creative style and human touch in writing even in the most complex topics. Perhaps in our wandering here, we may not be able to surround all the literature for their abundance, but we try to take each other in a wandering embracing these beautiful and intimate worlds that range from narration, history, thought and dialogue.
Literary Pieces
The purpose of writing is to introduce the idea and meaning, and this has remained the method of His Highness the Ruler of Sharjah in writing, and even literary literature that came after a journey of research, investigation and documentation. Writing is the responsibility of the author so that the reader is not faced with ambiguous facts. In many of his pieces of art, his narrative and literary, we find this trend towards respect for the reader through literature expressing the summary of an experience packed with meanings and ideas.
Reading some of His Highness' literary works, there is an enjoyable and beautiful journey that draws the attention of the reader.
"Bibi Fatima and the King’s Sons" is one of the masterpieces that combined narration and history. In it His Highness presented a different aesthetic vision, so that it became difficult to be classified as usual literary, and in it a great deal of depth and intensity. The novel tells about the history of the Kingdom of Hormuz, starting from the year 1588 to 1622, with the end of the Portuguese occupation and their defeat by the British, and raises many issues. In addition, the five chapters of the novel reveal advanced stages of the escalation of the narrative leaning on successive events, and the worthy note in this novel is the strength of the description of social life in Hormuz in all its aspects. Despite the small size of the fictional work, it is very deep and relies on more than 35 historical sources and documents.
The novel "The Rebel Prince" takes us to the details of a true story that deals with the story of Prince Muhanna bin Nasser bin Hamad Al-Zaabi, who revolted against the control of the Persians on the Arabs living in the Persian coast, and his multiple victories over those who tried to confront him, including Persians, Arabs, Dutch and others. In the novel, His Highness the Ruler of Sharjah also controls documents and references for history, and adds to it the aesthetic and creative dimension through the skill of interesting narration of realistic details. All this adds to the work beauty and strength and addresses an important historical stage in the Arab world.
Concerning the novel “The White Shaikh”, it also belongs to the genre of the historical story, which relies heavily on historical scientific references in which His Highness the Ruler of Sharjah made a great effort by collecting documents and he also visited the town of "Johannes Paul", visited the "Peabody" Museum, and the Essex Documentation Center in "Salim", and searched for the descendants of "Johannes Paul" in "Dhofar", but his highness was able to present the story through a wonderful and interesting narration.
The Head of the Prince Muqrin
Among these recently published narrative books that tell the story of a writer who has the ability to penetrate the depth of things with the power of intellectual, historical, epistemic and narrative engagement, we find the novel “The Head of the Prince Muqrin” that also deals with the events of Arab and Islamic history, and the novel is a documented story that reveals the absences of history and corrects many errors, even though they are related to sporadic incidents between the areas of incidents, i.e. between Herat and Hermes, Bahla in Oman, Julphar, Bahrain, and Al-Hasa that are linked together by a thin thread that is difficult for many researchers to link among them. However, when it is necessary to write the history of these regions, this novel brings many incidents that are littered.
There is also a book, "Philip the Arab, Marcus Julius Phillips", which deals with the life of the Roman Emperor Philip the Arab, who became famous with the strength of his personality and his impact on political life in the Roman Empire. Philip the Arab is "Marcus Julius Philippus", a Roman emperor of Arab origin, born around the year "204 AD" in a village near the city of Busra al-Sham, known in the Roman period as "Philipolis - the city of Philip", and later known as "Shahba". His father's lineage is attributed to the Arabs of the Syrian refugee region who had Roman names after Emperor Caracalla issued his famous decision to grant Roman land to all citizens of the state in the Mediterranean regions without exception, and thus his father bore the name of Polius Marinos and the son's name Marcus Julius Philippus.
Biography and self-narration
In this regard, we take the reader to a field in which His Highness the Ruler of Sharjah excelled, which is the field of biography and self-narration, which is a creative race that has its place in literature, and through it His Highness takes us through exquisite and fragrant biographies and enchanting worlds in which we see these beautiful intimacy with the place, people and facts. These books, which contain elegant and poetic aromatic, include the book «Tale of A City», which is not like any biography as His Highness uses his pen here to monitor historical and aesthetic features of the city of Sharjah. The book reflects that the great love that His Highness holds for it, as he spent the most beautiful and charming moments of life in its places. The book also reflects multiple issues with profound depth and ability in the analysis, especially with regard to the struggle of regional powers, and Sharjah's role in resisting the British presence in the Arab Gulf. The author also talks about the beginnings of development in Sharjah, and deals in depth with the Palestinian issue.
In the book of "My Early Life (Sard Al That)", His Highness combines history, thought, literature and narration. It is striking in the book that the introduction written by His Highness, including the passage in which he says: «I wrote this book to document the history of my family and my country for twenty-nine years.» His Highness takes us through the pages of the book to the world of memories and the wonderful details related to the place and its memory with a perfumed narration with these spiritual aesthetics that inspire meditation and deep thinking. In that biography, the nation is strongly present by the great founding efforts and the pre-establishment moments of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. It is a pre-oil tale, and it is the story of determination, persistence and uniqueness. Through the book, the reader turns to those places and times to restore the fragrant history and tales, and learn about the meanings of belonging and identity. In the book, His Highness the Ruler of Sharjah narrates the details of his journey in life before assuming the reins of government and also tells the story of the Sharjah march, and the book opens to accurate details through the narration that touches the hearts.
Historical literature
In the historical books of His Highness the Ruler of Sharjah, we do not only mention his great passion for history, but also the accuracy of documentation and research in order to compose a material that generations trust. We also note the multiple sources of His Highness in his historical masterpieces and the power to capture life details and employ information in a way that shakes the popular memory and heritage, to make from all those details a historical topic in a creative way in which the historian and the writer bring together in a unique harmony that is rare to find. His Highness’s historical writing targets a number of goals, including reversing Arab and Islamic culture and the immortal heritage, as well as correcting many aspects that were obscured by the hand of counterfeiting or what was overlooked in history books as he did in the book “Nudhum Al Fareid in the Legacy of ibn Mājid". In this literary masterpieces, His Highness completes his research effort in correcting Arab and Islamic history, especially with regard to the biography of the Arab sailor Ahmed bin Majid. In this book, His Highness reveals a historical fact that was absent when he denied the hypothesis that Ahmed bin Majid was the one who brought Vasco Degama to India, where His Highness made it clear that Ibn Majid at that time had grown old and was sick, and he was not even able to sail. It is true that there is a man from Gypsy in India who was charged with taking Digama to India. This affirms the high research credibility that His Highness enjoys, and so did in his book “The Rule of Qaraqosh…Investigation of history’s judgements” that reveals a lot of falsehood that surrounded Qaraqosh’s personality, and works to rid the minds of the caricature stereotype that was associated with Qaraqosh that the Arab tongues wrongly traded and many narrators mention him in maliciously fabricated writings although there are two pictures of Qaraqosh, an honest historical picture, and a fictional image depicted by a number of his competitors. It is strange that the true historical picture has been obliterated and forgotten, and the fictional one has remained and become immortal, so that Qaraqosh only mentioned side by side with mentioning these strange tales and these strange rulings that were falsely attributed to him.
Strict Approach
Through this narration, the strict approach followed by His Highness is evident in the historical narration. Along these lines, all his books in history came from among them "Under the Flag of Occupation", "A Momentous Journey", "I Condemn", "Power Struggles and Trade in the Gulf (1620-1820 AD)", "Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra (Tadmor)", and "The Correspondence of Sultans of Zanzibar», and ”Al Qawasim and the British Aggression (1797-1820 AD)", and other valuable historical literature in which His Highness proved the fact that history is not written with whims and strengths.
Great Historical Events
The special view on the life of His Highness, the Ruler of Sharjah, allows readers to learn about the great historical events that the region witnessed since the forties of the last century until the seventies, and it also raises their curiosity to know more important turns that the Emirate of Sharjah in particular, and the Gulf and the Arab world in general, including the national Arab expansion and rapid cultural and educational development in the emirate.
Perhaps the characteristic that brought the book close to the readers is that great honesty and transparency in the glamorous narration and the ability to explore the place and make it present in the restoration of the past and its wonderful details.
Literature in Poetry
Poetry also had a great place among the concerns of His Highness the Ruler of Sharjah through a number of books that document whereby he records the poems of Sheikh Sultan bin Saqr bin Khalid Al Qasimi. The publication in this series also highlights the poetry experience of his grandfather, and sheds light on his poetic production, which was absent from many interested in the history of poetry in the Emirates. On the other hand, it raises an important question about the amount of poetic production of UAE poets throughout its history in the past centuries: eloquent or Nabati.
These works include the book ““Al-Tayeb in Al-Tashabib”: Poems of Sheikh Sultan Bin Saqr Al-Qasimi” The book lists eight poems of the late writer Sheikh Sultan bin Saqr Al Qasimi, who used to be eloquent, well-expressed and Arab originality. There is a book «Poetry debates between Sheikh Sultan Bin Saqr Al Qasimi and his friend, Sheikh Muhammad bin Abdul-Aziz Al Siddiqui".
Source: Al-Khaleej Newspaper