Marhaba Abu Dhabi

The world over people have delighted in writing and receiving postcards. On postcards the artistry of photography, illustration, penmanship, language, and stamps all come together with a myriad of diverse and intriguing results. Marhaba: Abu Dhabi explores the once common practice of sending postcards from Abu Dhabi to the world. 

Marhaba: Abu Dhabi is designed to encourage visitors to discover Abu Dhabi—past and present—through vintage postcards. The postcards reproduced in the book tell a multi-vocal narrative of the past, one that merges photographs of landmark scenery in Abu Dhabi with personal messages and observations written mostly by non-Emirati people traveling through the city during the late 20th century. By viewing photographs of Abu Dhabi taken over the course of its modern evolution on the front sides and reading contemporaneous messages written in Abu Dhabi on the back sides, we can learn a great deal about the history and peoples’ perceptions and experiences in the modern city. Many of the places celebrated on postcards have disappeared since the 1970s, 80s and 90s, yet important layers of Abu Dhabi’s modern heritage still remain.  

The selection of vintage photo postcards are highlights from Dr. Mohammed Al Mansouri’s collection of Emirati postcards dating from the second half of the 20th century. Dr. Al Mansouri, an Emirati resident of Abu Dhabi and architectural historian, has collected postcards of his homeland throughout his life. Dr. Al Mansouri, reflects upon why he collects postcards, “My father was among the first Emirati to work in the Abu Dhabi post office during the 1970s. He received postcards on various occasions. Growing up I was impressed by the photographs on the postcards that came through the mail to our home. Later, when I joined the Department of Architecture in graduate school, I found that postcards are an important historical resource, for they show what are now rare photographs of the UAE taken at the time of the country’s early urban development. Postcards that I have collected preserve images of modern iconic buildings and squares, many of which have disappeared over time. After nearly 50 years of urbanization in the UAE, most of the old architecture has changed and new urban structures and spaces have emerged. These postcards recall distant memories of vanished layers of Emirati urban fabric.”