The "Oasis of Carpet" exhibition in Dubai displays an extended historical era. Some of its carpet exhibits date back to the 17th century AD, a piece containing one and a half kilometers of gold in its strings, and a 96-square-meter piece, between large areas, and another one meter long.

Many details about the "Oasis of Carpet", recorded by "Emirates Today" during its tour, it is 1.8 million dirhams the value of a carpet, the Oasis also displays a carpet of 100 dirhams, the prices are variable, as well as tastes, to suit all groups of society, in addition to an important wing within the wings of the Oasis tells the development Life in the Emirates with woven pattern on carpets.

Dubai Customs celebrates this year the silver jubilee of the exhibition, which takes place at Marina Port Rashid, during the period from the fifth of January to February 16, under the slogan "25 years of excellence", in conjunction with the activities of the Dubai Shopping Festival, which was opened by the Chairman The CEO of Dubai Ports World is President of the Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation, Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem.

Emirati environment

«Emirates Today» toured a pavilion that displays in the fabric of carpets the development of life in the Emirates, through materials used in artwork and its implications, such as kimber ropes, carpets, fabrics, shapes and sizes, and ideas, at the entrance to the pavilion a rug is displayed in a manner that simulates the Burj Khalifa, and there is Also, a number of carpets were designed inside the country with national hands, and were woven and formed in Afghanistan.

It is written on the identification board at the entrance to the pavilion: “Our hands converged and were intertwined with the warmth of the same family, we flew around the ropes, our names, dreams, and our smiles dangled from them. Ropes are a guide to a first memory that bears the voices of our fathers and grandfathers, bearing the voice of the family meeting.”

As for the materials used, a number of materials were chosen for this work that express directly the Emirati environment and bear connotations. The kimbar ropes “symbolize the Emirati society in the past years, where most of the houses had tightened their pillars and ceilings with them, and also at sea was the total dependence of sails, and many of the Other details about the ropes of Alkmabar, and thus the rope is the protagonist of man in his life throughout history, so that he will not be able to refer to it as a sign of strength and soil.

The carpets took an intimate and likable place in the Emirati house, because of its use to sit on the floor, where the family members were sitting together, and were interfering.

Carpets and heritage

The Vice President of Heritage for Carpets, Afshin Vnabrina, said: “The UAE respects the heritage in its various artistic forms, including the ones that we display on a number of carpet pieces, and within these pieces is a piece containing one and a half kilos of gold, valued at one million and 800 thousand dirhams, and worked on Made by four people during six years of continuous work. ”

Fenerbina presented another carpet that was manufactured 270 years ago, and still maintains the quality of manual work, from the calm colors of time and the elegance of industry, with prominent traditional inscriptions that tell various historical stories.

500 documented pieces

Chief Executive Officer of StyleSpert Trading Sharif Hammouda, who displayed a number of carpet pieces collected from various places as rare pieces, sees that work in carpets contains art more than being a trade, and among the pieces that he displays in the carpet oasis is a handcrafted piece For 170 years, it was designed under the name of «the tree of the world», in addition to an art piece dating back to the 18th century, and another rare piece containing prominent examples of all types of deer in the world, from the Arabian gazelle to the European and the Asian. Hammouda also displays in the carpet oasis 500 pieces that are documented in history and found in many books.

And the tour does not stop when cutting traditional carpets, or that have witnessed historical eras, but extended to the places where the automated carpets are displayed 100%, where there is a carpet that can be used to pray for 100 dirhams, and the most expensive carpet in the oasis of carpets was 3500 dirhams.

Global trade

The head of the Carpet Oasis Committee at Dubai Customs, Farida Fadel said: “The Carpet Oasis originated in 1996, coinciding with the Dubai Shopping Festival, and this year we celebrate the silver jubilee of the establishment of the oasis in a new place which is (Marina Port Rashid), and the place was chosen as an ancient port, As we linked the port to its heritage and carpet trade, as it is also an old trade in the country, the carpet trade represents one billion dirhams annually within the Dubai economy, and through the exhibition we support traders and manufacturers from all countries of the world ».

Farida Fadel: “One billion dirhams worth of carpet trade annually in Dubai.”

Sherif Hammouda: “We show (The Tree of the World) in the Carpets Oasis.” Photography: Mustafa Qasimi