Page 180 - Arabian Studies (II)

172 Arabian Studies II

school enrolled 200 students from Sharjah itself and 120 boarding
students from other towns, Ras al-Khaimah, ‘Ajman, Za‘ab, al-
Hamriyyah and Umm al-Qaiwain. Education and accommodation
were both completely free. Students had their lessons in the
traditional way, sitting on the ground. It is clear that, for the old
Qawasim Federation, Sharjah had become the cultural centre, a fact
which gave her a reputation for intellectual eminence on the Coast
lasting throughout this period. The teachers came mainly from Najd,
the centre of the Unitarian teaching.1 The Ahmadiyyah school in
Dubai was financed by another wealthy philanthropist, also a pearl
merchant, Muhammad b. Ahmad b. Dalmuk, who named the school
after his father. Students at this school contributed small fees for
their education, but as distinct from the Taimiyyah school, they sat
at desks during lessons. The teachers came mainly from Lingah and
al-Hasa’ and later from Zubair in Iraq. In Abu Dhabi, another
enlightened and very rich pearl merchant, Khalaf b. ‘Utaibah
founded a school and entrusted the teaching to Shaykh ‘Abd al-Latlf
b. Ibrahim, a member of the A1 Mubarak family, famous as scholars
of the MalikI teachings in al-Hasa’. The scholars of the AI Mubarak
family frequented Abu Dhabi in the late nineteenth century,
welcomed by the eminent Shaikh Zayid b. Khallfah.
In 1911 ‘All al-Mahmud established a new school at Hamriyyah
and made ‘Abd al-Wahhab al-Wuhaib! and his brother ‘Abd al-Samad
responsible for the teaching. The two brothers came from Najd and
had graduated from al-Azhar University in Cairo and studied in the
Seminary school of Muhammad Rashid Rida.
Around 1913 Salih b. Muhammad al-Khulaifl - a Najdl educated
in Egypt and Iraq, where he specialised in mathematics — was
brought to Sharjah by ‘All al-Mahmud as a teacher, but he shortly
moved to Dubai, where the wealthy merchant Salim b. Misabbah
al-Himudah gave him financial assistance to set up a small school,
called al-Salimlyyah, which remained open for about twelve years.
When it closed Salih al-Khulaifl returned to Shaijah to teach in the
new school al-Qasimlyyah.
In 1915, ‘All al-Mahmud asked the eminent scholar Muhammad
‘Abd al-‘Az!z b. Mani‘, who had received his education in Najd and

1. This is the centre upon which Muhammad ‘Abd al-Wahhab focused his
teachings. His followers, known as the ‘Unitarians’ (al-Muwahhidun), were
dubbed Wahhabis by the Ottomans and other enemies of the movement. The
correct term, al-Muwahhidun, will be employed throughout this article instead
of Wahhabis.