Bait Al Hurma: Stories of Parallel Worlds and Mysterious Secrets

This volume of fantasy fiction revolves around the Foundation’s venue Bait Al Hurma, an old coral reef in Al Mureijah that served as a muse for a series of writing workshops. Five writers used the building’s symbolic value to speculate on its interlayered histories, meanings and portals. The writers who contributed to this anthology include Muhammad Issa Jaqdul, Saleha Obaid Hassan, Nadia Al-Najjar, Manal Ali bin Amr and Abdul Rahman Al-Hamiry. Illustrator Wafa Ibrahim responded to the original Arabic writings and their translated English counterparts to create visuals that infuse traditional symbols of Emirati culture, flora and fauna with elements from local mythical stories.

The publication is the second in a series of commissioned literary works inspired by historical buildings in Sharjah. In 2022, SAF collaborated with several creative writers to produce The Flying Saucer: Experimental Texts in Science Fiction, which contains science-fictional stories inspired by the Flying Saucer Building, one of the most well-known landmarks in the Emirate.