Page 34 - Liwa18-E

Ali Mohamed Al Matroshi

intellectuals in Sharjah, and others were kept in mosques; His sons retained only
some of them.

2. Library of Sheikh Ali bin Humaid bin Saeed Al Shamsi:

• His Upbringing and Education:
Sheikh Ali bin Humaid bin Saeed bin Mohammed bin Saeed Al Shamsi is a
former director of the Office of Waqfs and Islamic Affairs, who lived in Ajman’s
eastern neighborhood.

He was born in 1928 and lived at the beginning of his life with his paternal
grandfather, Saeed bin Mohammed, in Sharjah’s eastern neighborhood. His
mother, Mariam, was the daughter of Sheikh Ali bin Abdullah Al Sa’eedi Al
Shemmari , a Nejdi scholar and jurist who died in 1920.

Sheikh Ali bin Humaid grew up in an educated and religious family. He studied
the Qur’an, reading, writing and arithmetic under the Mutawa’ (cleric) Nasir
bin Muhammad Al Ghamlasi, his mother’s maternal cousin, who sometimes
authorized him to lead students at his school in prayers. He traveled to Saudi
Arabia in the 1950s looking for work, studied there, and was involved in trade
for a while in the city of Dammam.

When the former Imam Mutawa’ Khalfan bin Humaid bin Isa Al Haziyah ,
teacher of the Qur’an in the eastern neighborhood, stepped down, Sheikh Ali
bin Humaid took over the Imamship of Ali bin Khalfan Al Shaqoush’s mosque
in Ajman for some time, in addition to his post as Imam of the Grand Mosque.
Because of his religious and social status, he was appointed in 1979 as Director of
the Office of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs after the retirement of its former Director,
Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohammed Al Sheibah.

He remained in office until 2002.

• His Library:
Since an early age, Sheikh Ali bin Humaid was keen on building his own
collection of Shari’a books. Some of the books of his grandfather, Qadi Sheikh
Ali bin Abdullah Al Sa’idi, were handed down to him, including a number of
manuscripts.

While in Saudi Arabia and during his frequent visits there, he bought a number
of publications, which have grown in number over the years. Gifts from scholars,
clerics and religious institutions, especially in the 1970s and beyond, were a

34