The Maglis of Sheikh Nayhan Mubarak al Nayhan

From 4:30-5:30 today we attended the formal maglis of the Minister for Higher Education, cousin to the President of the UAE. It was a highly traditional “See-and-Be-Seen” event. The formality of the audience was astounding and made us feel a bit like peasants pulled in from the field to see how the other half lived. We also felt a bit superior in manners even as we utterly inferior in rank. In addition to the Fulbright Hays delegation (us), it seemed that there was a higher ranking Australian delegation there as well. They were comprised of the Australian minister for education (I guess), the Australian ambassador to the UAE, and various assorted Australian delegates. Aside from the Americans and the Australians, there were assorted Emiratis who seemed to come and go, some wearing the traditional white robe, and others in western business suits.

The room was a huge rectangular room spectacularly furnished. The windows were elegantly appointed in heavy green striped curtains caught back with gold ropes. There were curvy orange and yellow modernistic chandeliers that look like they were in the style of that Italian guy who makes the blown glass hanging art. You know, like the one covered in dust at the Cincinnati Art Museum. The floor was the biggest “Persian” carpet I have ever seen in my life. I didn’t know they came 100 feet by 50 feet. The front of the room had the traditional portraits of the royal family, and the paintings seem to have been done about 10 years ago. The present Sheikh was the one in the middle, and he was painted in his sunglasses. In from of these paintings were five chairs in which dignitaries sat. The Australian minister of education sat in one, and the direction of AMIDEAST, our lady, sat in another. Two more Emiratis sat in the other two on the left side of the Minister.

We, as visitors, sat on the long couch like benches that lined both sides of the room. These “benches” were upholstered in a tasteful taupe striped fabric that had gold thread woven into the stripes. These benches were quite wide, so I could not lean back to touch the back of the couch without looking like I was trying to take a nap. I perched on the edge as the only option.
The entrance set the stage. Ordinarily, women do not attend these events, and as we entered the Minister’s building, there were quite the phalanx of Emirati men who looked slightly weirded out to see this parade of women. Luckily, as we ran this faintly surprised gauntlet, were very modestly dressed: no knees, no elbows, no collar bones showing. We entered this huge, formal, gold embossed room and sat down in a little row on the couch-benches. Each time a high ranking person entered the room, we all stood. The high ranking official would walk around the room, shaking hands with every single person there. All the older men deigned to shake our girl-hands, but some of the younger guys politely declined to touch girl-hands. After one’s hand was shaken (or not), one would sit down until the next dignitary came in. The dignitaries would greet other dignitaries by touching noses. I’m not making this up. Sometimes they did the French style cheek-kissing, but mostly it was nose touching with a handshake.

While all this greeting was going on there were two young men who poured coffee for the guests. There must have been at least 50 people sitting on the couch-benches. The coffee guy would pour about 1/8” of coffee into a little cup and hand it to a guest. It was very hot and very cardamomy. After one finished one’s coffee sip, one handed the cup back to the coffee guy, and he would then fill it for the next person. This group of 50 people shared about 10 cups. It was okay to just raise one’s hand to indicate “Thank you, enough. I do not want more coffee.”

And thus we passed the hour. We chatted amongst ourselves, the Emiratis chatted among themselves. New Important People would arrive and greet. More coffee would go around. Sometimes the Minister addressed somebody, but mostly he talked to the Australian minster, who scandalized us, who had taken the dress code very seriously, by wearing a skirt well above the knee, a shirt well below the collar bones, and crossing her feet such that she showed the soles of her shoes to the entire gathering. It was hard to tell if the Emiratis were as scandalized as we were, but we noted that the head of AMIDEAST absolutely observed all the protocols that this person did not observe, and the Sheikh publically lauded her for being a most excellent colleague.

After an hour of “Seeing and Being Seen”, the minister agreed to take a photo with us. We went out on the steps of his building and had a formal photo. Maybe we might get a copy! Then we were dismissed.

Wow. We were not clear on what happened, who was there, or what may or may not have been accomplished, but it was all done with great pomp and circumstance. Ah, and there was no music: just the gentle buzz or conversation between Important People entering and leaving. So, that was our audience with the Sheikh Nayhan Mubarak al Nayhan, cousin to the President of the UAE, Minister of Higher Education, and, actually, really nice person with the bushiest moustache I have ever seen.