DONE BY: BASMA BALFAQEEH
&
SHEREENA AL SAYEGH
INTRODUCTION
Rags to riches is a story written by Mohammed Al Fahim. It’s
a story about how people lived their lives a long time ago.
Topics we will talk about :
•
The simple lives of the Bedouins
•
The food they ate
•
The shopping they did
SIMPLE LIVES' OF THE
BEDOUINS
How it began:
 In 1946 Abu Dhabi’s population nearly reached to 6
thousand people
 Mid 1950’s population dropped because of the collapse of
pearl industry
 Also many citizens emigrated to Al Ain, Liwa and other
parts of the gulf
How they lived:
 Tribes kept to their own camps which were separated from
other tribes
 Harsh weather made people hesitant to live in Abu Dhabi
 Women and children moved either to Al Ain or Liwa. While
men were pearl diving.
 Barely anyone stayed in Abu Dhabi because of lack of
fresh water, high humidity and poor living conditions.
 People wore the same clothes in winter as in summer.
 Winter time the whole family huddled in one corner to stay
warm throughout the night.
 In summer they used to sleep outside for cold breeze.
How they transported:
 Long distance trips were made on the back of a camel
 Dubai, Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah were reached by a
boat
 It took approximately 7 days to travel between Abu Dhabi
and Al Ain or Liwa.
 Took 3-4 days to reach Dubai
 Usually people travelled in a caravan of 20 - 30 camels for
security and companionship
 Until late 1950’s no one owned a car, except a few ruling
family members
Their houses:
 Made out of palm fronds, wealthier families lived in
clay houses and Sheikh lived in a palace
 Houses were grouped together for security,
companionship and warmth during the cooler
months
 People built houses away from the sea to protect
them from the cold wind and high humidity in
summer
 Mats were used as flooring in the tents and huts
 Woven mats were used for sitting, sleeping and
insulating the tents. Also they were formed into
roofs for the huts.
SHOPPING
 The souk had 2 rows of shops facing each other, about 30
shops in total
 The size of each shop was about nine square meters
 Some shops were made of mud and some out of palm fronds
 Most sold the same goods; usually sold rice, flour, sugar and
coffee also textiles
 They used to tailor at home since they didn’t have ready
made clothes
 There were no merchandise that interests children, such as:
toys, sweets and biscuits
 1963 some shopkeepers brought sweets, biscuits, dried
powder orange juice and marbles for playing
 Various shops started selling lemonade in bottles
FOOD
 Cooking was done over a wood fire, which was a chore to
women
 Finding fuel for the fire wasn’t easy to find being in the
desert
 Gathered any drift wood they found from the sea shore
 They added the wood to flammable material gathered from
the few date palms in the area
 Also brought wood from the Bedouins
 Mostly ate rice, fish, yogurt and dates
 Rice was imported from India through Dubai
 Dates were imported from Bahrain
 They didn’t eat meat since they needed the animals for the
milk
 They never ate fish for dinner because it will rot
 Al Ain and Liwa never ate fresh fish, they ate it dry
 Men and women ate separately
 Liquid refreshments consisted of tea and Arabic coffee
 If needed they borrowed food from neighbors if a visitor
came
Word
Definition
Sentence
Bandits
Robbers
Sara heard there is a lot of
bandits in Italy.
Eke
Make
friends eke the world go
round
Fodder
Food
humans can’t live without
fodder
Foe
Enemy
never be mean to your
enemies
Dwellers
Residents
Deplorable
To be violent
the zoo keeper was
deplorable with the
elephants
Arduous
Hard
jenny studied arduously for
her math exam
Combustible
Flammable
those palm tree leaf houses
are easily flammable
Prefabricated
Produced
the candy was produced in
2011
Leisure
Rest
Fatima wanted to leisure in
the Maldives for her holiday
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