A visit to the new library in Dubai, its treasures and exclusions

The sumptuous emirate of Dubai does not stop injecting resources for colossal works in culture, entertainment, fashion, commerce and tourism. In this, the most similar materialization to an Emerald City, the city of a skyline with nothing else around was left behind. The urban sprawl is thickening towards territories still dominated by the desert. At these earthy ends, new five-lane avenues open up and the subway lines extend. The promise of a paradisiacal clean sky in a city with few pedestrians, which favors the use of the car, has also been left behind.

It is precisely at the end of one of the two Dubai metro lines, at the Creek station, the last one in operation to date —because they continue to expand at the rate that new skeletons of skyscrapers rise on still uninhabited territory—, where the Last June 16, another ambitious work of cultural infrastructure in the United Arab Emirates was officially inaugurated, the Mohammed bin Rashid Library, named after the Sheikh of Dubai and Prime Minister of the country.

One billion dirhams (about 270 million dollars between 2016 and 2022) was the cost of this work with an area of ​​54 thousand square meters and seven levels in which nine collections are distributed, including the general library, the exclusively publications Emirates, young adults, cartography and the newspaper library.

On the opening day, after almost six years of construction, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid said that this building will be “the new cultural beacon of the region.” Initially, it is presumed, it is home to more than a million printed and digital books in various languages, mainly Arabic and English, and more than six million research files that make up the largest catalog of publications in the Middle East.

Getting there on foot, a strenuous adventure

The building and the surrounding garden are impressive. It is an oasis in a territory in an embryonic stage of development. Getting to the library on foot—or by bike, if you have a subscription—is, at least so far, a strenuous experience. The nearest metro station is located about 500 meters from the cultural complex and you have to walk them under the sun on the path through a wasteland occupied by skeletons of boats that sailed the Khawr Dubayy river that passes next to the complex, and with a temperature that at noon, in autumn, it is around 34° Celsius. The photos that are generally disseminated of the property are taken from the side of the bay. On that side, neatness reigns. But not on the side of the path that connects the subway to the library.

Another story is arriving by car in this beautiful environment with water sources, vegetation and shade for each parking space. The work was built, it is presumed, in such a way that it makes the most of natural lighting and insulates the interior to keep the temperature controlled and thus reduces water consumption by 50 percent.

The Mohammed bin Rashid Library is free. You only have to make an online reservation, nothing complex, to access its different collections and its exhibitions. It is equipped with the latest artificial intelligence and augmented reality technology.

The length of the skirt does matter

A woman of approximately 50 years old enters a space before the ground floor of the library. From here two men control public access. The woman wears a dress with a length that reaches above her knees. She accompanies him with dress sandals. It is a naturally suitable outfit for the outside weather.

Before successfully entering the promising library, one of the aides tells her the procedure, but immediately points a finger at her: “excuse me, but that dress is too short, you can’t go in with it”. And the woman, bewildered, rushes to answer: “but it’s what I’m wearing, it’s not even too short”, and she receives the man’s silence and a restrictive posture in response. She won’t let him pass.

With predominantly vehicular access and restrictions on women’s attire, the question arises: for whom, then, is much of the cultural infrastructure boasted in this emirate prepared?

The treasures of the library

With the bitter pill related above, what desire is left to detail the invaluable collection of editorial jewels that are housed at a controlled temperature on the seventh floor of the Mohammed bin Rashid Library?

An exhibition that the visitor can admire is called “Library Treasures” and was made up of donations from Emirati collectors. A collection of incunabula and very first editions of emblematic works of universal literature, cartography and medicine, including the first illustrated edition of the “Divine Comedy” by Dante Alighieri, printed in Venice in 1491; the quoted Ibarra version of Don Quixote, from 1780; the second edition of William Shakespeare’s “Histories, Comedies and Tragedies”, printed in 1632, and Ptolemy’s “Epytoma in almagestum Ptolemaei”, translated into Latin by Georg von Peuerbach and printed in Venice in 1496.

The above just to mention a handful of dozens and dozens of works kept by this library, unfortunately restrictive.

The Mohammed bin Rashid Library in numbers:

• 270 million dollars was the cost of the work between 2016-2022
• 54,000 square meters of extension make up the complex
• 1 million books inhabit the library
• 6 million research files
• 73,000 musical scores

Other jewels that the library protects:

• “Die Grundlage der allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie” (Fundamentals of the General Theory of Relativity), (1916, first edition), by Albert Einstein.
• Chapter 23 of the manuscript “Lotus sutra” (one of the most revered Buddhist sutras), written by Hoke Kyo in Kyoto in 1636.
• First edition of “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection” by Charles Darwin, printed in 1859.
• A gold pen case inlaid with emeralds, rubies and diamonds, made in Central India in the 16th century.
• The “Caesareum Astronomicum”, by Peter Appian, 1540 (book of astronomy and cosmology dedicated to Emperor Charles V).

Counterpoint

A book about the feminist struggle in the Middle East:

Among the shelves of the Young Adults section it is possible to find the autobiographical graphic novel “Persepolis”, by the Iranian cartoonist Marjane Satrapi, about the constrained life of a young Iranian woman in a country ruled by an Islamic fundamentalist regime, in the midst of the Islamic Revolution of the 20th century, which forces her to leave her country and adapt to the not very welcoming Western world. In 2007, a film adaptation of the novel was released, which won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and received an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Film.

ricardo.quiroga@eleconomista.mx