Bait Al Naboodah

[2] He gave his name to one of the UAE's great trading families, today employing some 16,000 staff and active across aviation, construction, agriculture and logistics.

He traded his pearls with markets in the UK and France but also, crucially, with India and it was the legendary wealth of the Maharajahs which was to form the mainstay of his business.

This Indian trade also allowed Al Naboodah to buy great columns and doors of teak from India and ship them back to Sharjah to his ever-growing house, which was eventually to reach 10,000 metres in area.

[1] Al Naboodah was an unusually cosmopolitan figure in contemporary Sharjah, maintaining houses in Paris and Mumbai as well as his family home in what was then a relatively small, if affluent, town.

[1] Like many merchants of his class, he was hit hard by the combination of the Great Depression and the growing taste for Japanese cultured pearls and watched demand for his trade dry up almost overnight.