Al Ahmadiya School

In front of you is Al Ahmadiya School, regarded as Dubai’s first formal school. Several generations of Deira boys studied here, among them Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed, future ruler of the emirate.

1A school paid for with pearls

It was founded in 1912 by Sheikh Ahmed bin Dalmouk, one of the great pearl merchants of the Gulf. He died before it was finished, and his son Mohammed completed the building and named it after his father. The pupils, all boys, sat on palm-leaf mats around the teacher to learn the Quran, Arabic, calligraphy and arithmetic. At first it was free; Dalmouk himself paid the teachers, brought in from Arabia and, from 1920, from Iraq. The collapse of the pearl trade in the 1930s forced lessons to stop. In 1963 the school moved to a new building, and the old one was restored and opened as a museum of education in 2000.

2The midday donkey

And now, the legend. In the Arabian Peninsula, the middle of the day is the time of the gayla, the afternoon nap. To stop children going out to play under a sun that could kill, families told the story of Hmarat Al Gayla, «the midday donkey».

According to tradition, she is a creature with a woman’s body and a donkey’s legs who chases children who wander off alone at nap time.

It was a tale meant to protect: a useful fear that kept little ones in the shade.

3What to look for

• The coral-stone base, the building material of old Deira.
• The round pierced-gypsum windows on the façade.
• Heritage House next door, with its wind tower.