A Sheikh's Funeral

It was huge news in the UAE and around the world when Sheikh Ahmed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the brother of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the ruler of Abu Dhabi and President of the UAE, disappeared after a glider he was riding in crashed into a lake in Morocco. It took four days of searching before his body was found, and the funeral was held the next day on March 31, as is the Muslim custom. A three-day period of official mourning followed, with all flags at half mast. More surprising to me, all radio stations in the UAE suspended their normal programming, playing classical music instead of the normal fare, with newscasts focusing on the sheikh's funeral, and many concerts and other events were postponed.

Since there are many sheikhs in the UAE, it is not clear who would qualify for this high level of official mourning. Sheikh Ahmed bin Zayed, still young at 41, was not in the line of succession--his half-brother Mohammed bin Zayed is the crown prince of Abu Dhabi and presumably the next in line for president of the UAE--but Sheikh Ahmed was very powerful in his role as the managing director of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, which may be the world's largest sovereign wealth fund. He was considered modest, polite, a great humanitarian, and elusive, and despite many tributes and the huge outpouring of sympathy and grief among the local citizens, very few details of his personal life have emerged. In marked contrast to the excessive attention paid to minor details of the lives of celebrities, politicians and royals in other parts of the world, the lives of the sheikhs remain a mystery to most of us. No doubt they prefer it that way!