21 April, 2008

Shifting Sand to Marrakesh and Floating Islands off Dubai

Question: What common ground could the two subjects in this post title have?

Answer: Sheikh Mohammed's poetry.

The Marrakesh connection
Filmed in Syria, Morocco and the U.A.E., an epic TV serial has been made using Sheikh Mohammed's poems.


Called Siraa Ala Al Rimal (Struggle on the Sands), the $6million production is due to be shown during Ramadan this year.

It's touted to be the biggest-ever Arabic drama and the classic Arabic in which the poetry was written was translated into Arabic Bedouin dialect for the series.

More on the Khaleej Times website.


The Floating Islands
Dutch Docklands has just been commissioned to construct the string of floating islands off Dubai, each of which will each be shaped as an Arabic character or word to quote lines of a Sheikh Mohammed verse.


Announced a few years back, this project is part of the Jebel Ali Palm development, and the verse will read:

Take wisdom from the wise, It takes a man of vision to write on water. Not everyone who rides a horse is a jockey. Great men rise to greater challenges.

According to their website, Dutch Docklands also has plans for floating hotels, cruise ship terminals and beaches - as well as a rotating tower.

Dutch Docklands' article here - watch the embedded video for more on the Dubai plans - including possible floating mosques!

12 comments:

Lirun said...

nice verse

hut said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Keef said...

Interesting. I thought the poetry bit on Jebel Ali Palm was supposed to be one stilts: but hey, if it floats, that would make it a good investment!

nzm said...

Keefie: yeah, that's how it was first promoted as per the last para here, but it looks like things have changed.

Apparently these islands are going to be illuminated from underneath so that the verse can be read at night. Personally I couldn't stand to live surrounded by a neon glow!

As yet, there is no mention about whether the writing will be visible from space...

nzm said...

Lirun: I'm sure that the translation loses a bit of the meaning and emotion.

Arabic is a language which, like Hebrew, describes the emotions of the soul and heart so much more than the awkward English language can, as you'd know from your knowledge of all 3 of those languages as well as your Spanish and French fluency!

i*maginate said...

Hey nzm - I love the appearance of this post - it looks really cool! Spesh the layout, colours and the framing of the pics!

Would love to see the film. Heard about it and waiting.

Anonymous said...

Which channel, when?

Any chance to get this subbed in English for the mean expats who can't understand it? :)

Lirun said...

*blush*

nzm said...

i*maginate: thanks for the comp!

bb: I would imagine that it will be one of the Dubai channels and shown in the evening, but I'm sure it will be announced closer to Ramadan.

As for the English subtitles, it would be wonderful, but don't hold your breath!

i*maginate said...

nzm - you are more than welcome! I was just expressing a genuine opinion.

I would be a regular reader of your blog but any time I hit your blog address, it takes a long time to load. I am not a genie with technical stuff - don't know why it happens. Would love a solution.

x

Tim Noble said...

I didn't realise that it was a message?

Mark said...

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http://dubai-islands.blogspot.com/
Hope to meet you there!

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