I’ve been in Dubai for two days now and it is delightful and overwhelming all at once. After meeting up with family friends for a drink at Barasti (a beach bar beside the Palm Jumeirah) the night I arrived, I started my first day at the Ibn Battuta Mall. Named after the 14th century explorer, the massive mall is divided into six areas called courts.
Each is themed as a different region of the Islamic World where Ibn Battuta traveled: China, India, Persia, Egypt, Tunisia and Andalusia (Moorish Spain). The architecture is very Las Vegas-esque, with a sky-painted ceiling that appears to move if you stare at it long enough. Winding streets and alleys with forced perspective rooftops and second stories complete the illusion. Perhaps predictably, the Arabian regions have a far more authentic feeling.
The China court is the most kitschy; straight Chinatown Hollywood gloss. It seems the further you get from Arabia, the closer you get to Hollywood representations. The stereotypes seem universal—the China here is done the same way China is branded in the U.S. at restaurants, etc.
There is a strong educational focus at the mall, with elaborate displays related to each culture, showcasing early technology in the age of exploration (shipbuilding, early flight, navigation and mathematics, etc.). This exemplifies how commerce blends seamlessly with education, religion and entertainment in Dubai. There is no clear line between shopping, learning playing or praying on this liberalized, Western, secular island. It’s all one big mix.
after spending several hours at Ibn Battuta, i moved on up the coast to Madinat Jumeirah, a themed luxury resort complex of considerable size. The design replicates ‘Classic Arabia’ and provides the feeling of older, more authentic cities such as Cairo, Mecca or Damascus. Because Dubai was a fairly small and unremarkable town until oil was discovered in the 1960s (which began the region’s rapid growth), and also because nearly anything of historical value has been destroyed or displaced by the building craze of the last twenty years, there is very little original, classical Islamic architecture here.
As a result, Dubai is somewhat insecure about its lack of roots. Most, if not all, the major resort developments are themed to provide a history that many feel does not exist. The illusion has become the surrogate. Thematic design providing historical context in the absence of a real past is nothing new. However, an Old Dubai still exists here, in the form of Deira and Bur Dubai, the two oldest neighborhoods that border the creek and comprise pre-oil Dubai. This is the older, more authentic part of town that these newer, thematic resorts are trying to replicate in a very romanticized form.
The older and more authentic parts of Dubai are often shunned by the elite traveler in favor of the themed replica. It’s not that these places are shady or poor, either—by all accounts these neighborhoods are perfectly safe for tourists. But there is a certain packaged, predictability to the themed resorts that the richer tourists seem to crave. In visiting both, I will be able to directly compare the theme to the original source—something that can rarely be done at the same location.
There was a sign at the Ibn Battuta Mall that you could only find in Dubai—the sort of oxymoron that typifies the real and the ersatz living side by side. The proprietor of a small cart offering lanterns and other trinkets proudly proclaimed himself to be selling “Modern Antiques.” And I think that’s the best shorthand for Dubai that I’ve seen so far—seeking to look and feel ancient, yet so proud to embody a futuristic urbanity. Seeking both a future, and a past.