Women dreaming in Arabia

Muhammad alZekri provides the first ever introduction to public gatherings of Dubaian women, which are held to discuss dream interpretation. Aimed at a wide readership, he points out step-by-step that through the public communicative activities of dream recounting, explaining and discussing, Arabian women of Dubai were and are actively marking their impact on the social reality of Arabia. The book is focused on eighty years of Dubai’s culture of dream interpretation communicated through three consecutive Dubaian generations (Pearling Era Generation, Oilbased Industrialized Generation, and Multi-Media Generation) covering the years from the 1930s to the 2010s. The book carefully portrays women, in their effort to bring the dreamer closer to the intended dream message; a process in which they resort to three stages of generating meaning: the introductory tafsir (explanation), the intermediate ta? wil (interpretation), and advance ta? bir (crossing over). The book explains the nature of dreams, the role of the explainer, and the worldview of the dreamer. It also contains an abridged dream dictionary that lists many dream symbols and their meanings. The heritage of dream interpretation continues to make sense to many of us because it touches upon emotional, personal, communal and social elements. The book highlights the importance of dreams in the modern Islamic world by expanding on how Muslims maintain a network of communication, which interlinks individuals with different knowledge backgrounds, from diverse locations and belonging to various age groups and generations. The author in fact motivates the readers to seek such unique interpretation of their dreams.