A Dubai resident who arrived in the UAE in 1968 has turned part of his Mirdif home into a small museum. Shaukat Ali Rana has preserved old passports, travel permits, utility bills, photographs and everyday objects from before the country's formation. His collection tells the UAE's history through the ordinary things people used, carried and kept.

The details

Shaukat Ali Rana has transformed part of his family home in Mirdif into a personal museum documenting nearly six decades of life in the UAE.

He arrived in Dubai as a young boy in 1968, when the emirates were still the Trucial States and travel between them could require special permits.

Over the years, he collected photographs, passports, official documents, old currency, utility bills, cameras, radios and household objects.

Among the items are travel permits, a 1958 trade licence connected to the family business and a television purchased in 1968.

Mr Rana began organising the material into a chronological exhibition during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The display now occupies several parts of his home, including spaces adapted to accommodate the growing collection.

His three sons hope to continue preserving the archive for future generations.

The collection offers an unusually personal record of the UAE's transformation, showing how residents lived, travelled, communicated and worked before modern infrastructure became part of everyday life.

Visits can be arranged in advance through the family's Instagram account, according to the reporting.