Page 36 - Liwa18-E

Ali Mohamed Al Matroshi

In the 1960s, two cultural sports clubs were established: Al Nasser Club and Al Shu’la
Club, each with an attached library to serve its members.

A. Al Nasser Sports Cultural Club Library:
This Library was founded in 1962 under the leadership of His Highness Sheikh
Nasser bin Rashid Al Nu’aimi, currently Deputy Ruler of Ajman, with no permanent
premises in the first seven years. Then a permanent and well-equipped building was
constructed, currently located near the Lulu Center and Ajman Municipality.

Its construction began in 1969, and a delegation of founders was appointed to raise
funds from other Emirates and abroad to complete construction. This created the
conditions to form the nucleus of a public library to serve its members.

The founding members approached the Kuwaiti, Qatari, Saudi and Egyptian Cultural
Missions which had established offices in Dubai at the time, requesting them to supply
the club library with publications. These missions were kind enough to respond
favorably and provided the library with various books, in addition to Egyptian and
Lebanese periodicals, most notably: Al Musawwar, Akher Sa’ah, Al Hawadith, Al ‘Arabi
magazines, etc. The club management was also keen on subscribing to a number of
newly established local newspapers and magazines at the time, such as Al Etihad, Al
Shorouq and Dubai News.

The Ahliyah Bookshop owned by the two brothers, Abdullah Al Rostamani and
Abdul Wahed Al Rostamani, in Souq Murshed in Dubai, was a key book supplier to
Al Nasser Club Library.

As a parallel activity, the library members issued a monthly wall magazine entitled
“Al Resala” (the Mission), which published the club news, some stories, poems and
proverbs. It was handwritten by a group of Ajman educated individuals, including the
late Humaid Ali Saif Al Nu’aimi.

Mr. Hussein Abdul Ghaffar Al-Khaja was in charge of adorning the magazine with
drawings and colors with the help of his two brothers, Mohammed Al-Khaja and
Isaac Al-Khaja. The Al-Nasser Club Library is, truly, the first modern library in the
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Emirate. Mr. Ali Manawar Al-Awadhi was the first volunteer librarian who oversaw
its activities. The library adopted a loose classification system for its collections as it
was difficult to appoint a competent librarian to carry out cataloging and classification
in accordance with the generally accepted international standards.

The library had a circulation register, and as a guarantee, library users paid a deposit
of five Qatar- Dubai riyals at the time. The library was mostly frequented by the club-
members, and generally by educated people who paid regular visits. It was busiest in

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