The 'Antiques' Man

Mohammed Nassir Al Zaroni is rich, but not necessarily in terms of dirhams.

But you have to catch the 80-year-old  in his best mood if you are to see his most priceless treasures inside his shop that is more like Aladdin’s cave of wonders.

“I have been collecting unique antiques my whole life, but I didn’t collect what I thought would bring money, but what I liked,” says the owner of the family-run ‘Gulf Antiques’ shop, with three branches in the old Arsa Souq of Sharjah. The 200-year-old Souq is located inside Sharjah’s Heritage Area.

If he is in a bad mood, he won’t allow you to take photos of his rare jewellery collection and watches bearing Saddam Hussein's image (given as presents by the late president to Iraqis he favoured). These are for display only. But if he is in a good mood, he will even play for you some old Arabic songs on his vinyl record player and Cassette player and sing along.

After several failed drives to Sharjah and attempts to get him to play a record on his vinyl record player, I finally got a chance to catch him in the act of listening to an old cassette on a small table cassette player, where one of my favourite singers crooned and echoed through the shop.

“Ahwak, wa atmana law ansak, ansa rohy wayak ..." was playing and roughly translates to "I love you, and I wish I could forget you, and forget my soul with you ..."

I say "roughly" because there are no exact English words to reflect the emotion captured in these lines. There are so many ways to say love in Arabic. "Ahwak" is more than just love; it is related to sadness, the soul and air. These are the first few lines of one of the Arab world's most romantic songs, Ahwak, sung by one of its most famous crooners, Abdel Halim Hafez, who was appropriately dubbed "al andaleeb al asmar" - the tan nightingale.

“You can’t help but smile when you listen to him...and all the old Arabic legends...” he says...

“I am very picky about who ends up buying my treasures. I don’t sell them to just anyone.”

The man known as the “antique man” has over 200 traditional Emirati ‘dallah’ (coffee pots), some as old as 80 years, for 3,000 Dhs. Everything from fossils to coins to currencies from around the world to pottery (even coffee cups) with important historic figures printed on them can be found inside his shop. The late Princess Diana and Prince Charles of the UK are among them, as well as the pan arab leader, the late Egyptian President Gamal Abdul Nasser, and Arab kings and rulers. Mr Al Zaroni started collecting when he worked as a cleaning boy at a British military base in Sharjah at age 15.  

Old army radios and tools, as well as old guns and cannons left behind, soon made it to the back storage room of his father’s grocery store. Slowly, it grew to include rare collections given to him by Bedouins, as well as items he found during his travels in the region.

Some of his antiques are even older than the souq itself, which is over 180 years old, and located in the heart of Sharjah’s Heritage Area.

“I even have controversial items from Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, including medals and posters. You would be surprised what people collect and ask for when they step into my shop,” he says. “If you know what you are looking for, I am sure I have it somewhere here, in some corner of my shop.”

All content and images credited to Rym Tina Al-Ghazal