User:Alexandermcnabb

This user is a participant in
WikiProject United Arab Emirates.

Very high unreviewed pages backlog: 10556 articles, as of 12:00, 15 May 2024 (UTC), according to DatBot

I spend much of my productive time here at New Page Patrol and try and participate at AfD as much as I can as my way of saying sorry for the things I send there from NPP.

When I'm not doing that, I write articles and try to build coverage of the Emirates. A resident here since 1993, I'm particularly interested in UAE history, archaeology and Emirati things in general - particularly in Dubai and the Northern Emirates. I've spent much of the past 38 years travelling around the Middle East

I'm useless at source editing and am frequently to be found at the site of train crashes trying to look innocent and sidle away.

I consult on publishing, media, communications and international relations by day and write novels and history books and stuff by night. I am involved in space-related communications too, but am most certainly not allowed to touch any red buttons.

I've so far created (in no particular order):

Hyacinth incident • The Flying Saucer, Sharjah • Taryam Omran Taryam • Abdullah Omran Taryam • Ibrahim Bin Mohammed Al Midfa • Al Bait Hotel • Ajman Fort • Al Bithnah Fort • Labsah • Tayyibah • Habus • Kalba Fort • Perpetual Maritime Truce • Dhaid Fort • Air Outpost • Wadi Shie • Elphinstone Inlet • Fili Fort • Abdulrahman bin Muhammad Al Shamsi • Yusuf bin Ahmed Kanoo • Kalba Ice Factory • Al Suhub Rest House • Siniyah Island

and some other stuff, too.

Oh, and Mimar Hayruddin, who isn't from or in any way remotely connected to the Emirates but who needed doing...

Funny, really, that nobody had bothered before...

A note on Arabic transliteration

One of the joys of my life in writing Wikipedia articles about the Emirates is the wonderful world of Arabic transliteration. Place names in the Emirates can be pretty wild if you're a stickler for spelling - for instance, the Ras Al Khaimah village of Habhab is signposted as just that - but the first building you see as you enter the village is the Hebheb Police Station. Mileiha, Malayha, Mleiha and Maleyah are all the same place, it just depends on what English vowels you decide on when you're translating. Now you add 'al', Arabic for 'the'. So is it Jebel Al Hafeet or Jebel Hafeet? (Let us for one second agree to pass on the idea of Jabal, Jabel or even Gebel - jebel being 'mountain').

Now let's add some spice. Ar Rufaysah, al-Rufaisa and An-Rufaisah are the same place. I always choose 'Al' as a prefix if it's the known form - for instance, Umm Al Nar rather than Umm an-Nar, simply because that's easier for Latin alphabet users to use, understand and - more importantly, search. But Al Bithnah Fort should really, really be Bithnah Fort.

For added fun, throw in some old Brits trying to spell Arabic their way, and you have Joasmee (for

Qawasim or Al Qasimi), Abothabee (Abu Dhabi, as you ask) and Dubayy (for Dubai) let alone Ash Shariqah (which is how Sharjah used to be spelt). These spellings have often persisted decades beyond their time, thanks at least in part to Wikipedia. So you'll sometimes find yourself battling someone with a copy of Lorimer or, worse, Miles who insists they have a source that spells Buraimi

as Buraymee.

I - personally - hate transliteration marks because they add no value in English and confuse search. So wherever possible I find the most definitive (street signs, for instance) spelling and use that. Sometimes that just gets a bit mad, to be honest, for instance Awhala Fort in the village of Awhala is a place that is also rendered - on street signs in the area - as Ohala, Wahala and Ouhala.

Sometimes, you just have to make a call...

A note on me

My consulting work over the past three decades and more has involved varying roles with a wide range of Middle Eastern media companies as well as both public and private sector players in the region, including work for a number of international and regional tech blue chips, Fortune 500 companies, mobile operators, telcos and the governments of both Jordan and the UAE. I edit here in my own name and on my own cognisance and do not, and never have had, any scope of work, KPI or any other professional or paid interest involving editing Wikipedia on behalf of any client.

If you came here to find out how to use my identity to browbeat or threaten me, I'd refer you to the rather glorious

Arkell v Pressdram

.