Islamic Heritage Exhibition

We went to yet another exhibition running in conjunction with the games today. This time it was the Islamic Heritage Exhibition located at Al Resala Girls School near West Bay.

We were greeted at the door with Arabic coffee, dates and a traditional type of sweet. Kerry can’t do the Arabic coffee because of the cardamom so she cleverly swapped cups after I had nearly drunk all of mine. We were then guided into a room, which had been set up to look like the facades of the most important mosques with a replica of the Kaaba (the black stone building in the middle of the Sacred Mosque in Makkah) in the middle. We were given very well rehearsed explanations of the mosques, the Quran, as well as the Kaaba itself. As well as this there were little exhibits about some of the nearby countries like Oman, Lebanon, etc, with the odd handicrafts here and there.

We were also taken through some of things that are have a great importance to Islam such as honey , brushing your teeth with a “stick” (from an Iraqi tree that I can’t remember the name of), “cupping” (which to me seem much more like blood letting), and the qualities of Makkah water from the well inside the Sacred Mosque (which we were given a little cup of). All of which had interest value and we even bought some extra “toothbrush” sticks!