Page 39 - Liwa18-E

Libraries in Ajman from the beginning of the Twentieth Century until the Formation of the Union

d. Library membership was low and did not grow, as the majority of young people
then were more interested in joining sports clubs and engaging in activities that
attracted a large audience from different sectors of society.

• The Library’s Closure:

Less than a year later, the founders of the library saw no point in keeping it open and
incurring further expenses. Thus, they reluctantly decided to close it down. Some of its
founders recovered their books; however, part of its collections were transferred to the
Ali bin Khalfan Al-Shaqush al-Nu’aimi mosque in the eastern neighborhood near the
house of Sheikh Ali bin Humaid bin Said al-Shamsi, where these collections remained
uselessly locked in a small two-door cupboard throughout the 1970s. Nevertheless,
in the early 1980s, a demolition and replacement project for the mosque was carried
out, and the cupboard was removed from the mosque. I was not able to discover the
current whereabouts of this cupboard.

3. School Libraries:

• The library of the Islamic Scientific Institute:

The year 1968 saw the emergence of the first modern school library, the Library of
the Islamic Scientific Institute in Ajman. It came into existence, thanks to a generous
donation from the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the then ruler of the
Emirate of Abu Dhabi, made in deference to the wishes of the late Sheikh Rashid
Bin Humaid Al Nu’aimi, the ruler of Ajman (1928-1981). Sheikh Rashid was known
for his piety and keen interest in disseminating Islamic teachings and raising a new
generation which combined the knowledge of modern sciences with Islamic culture.
Abu Dhabi Government Education Department paid the students of the Institute
stipends to encourage them to study the Islamic Shari’a. Moreover, the said
Department provided the Institute library with various publications. In addition, the
Qatar public library at that time donated a collection of important Islamic books,
especially on the Hanbali fiqh (jurisprudence), which was the approved juristic school
of thought for the Institute’s jurisprudence course.

Following the formation of the Union and the attachment of the institute to the
Federal Ministry of Education, its library acquisitions grew gradually and boasted a
rich content. They included a collection of old and rare publications that I myself had
a chance to examine when I was a student at the Institute in the second half of the
1970s and the early 1980s.

It is interesting to note that the introduction of school libraries in Ajman had to
wait several years after the establishment of the Union because their creation was

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