Unique stories of passports from the 1950s, UAE people are telling about the time capsule.

Whenever you find some years old paper in your house, say you find an old letter or a document, then looking at that paper gives a different experience, we go into the box of memories and get a chance to see history. We get a glimpse of how people used to write and what they used to feel at that time.

Recently, years-old passports have been preserved in the UAE. These years-old passports give a chance to travel through the window of history. In the UAE city of Ras Al Khaimah, passports from the 1950s have been preserved. These passports tell how the history of the Gulf country gradually changed.

Passports from 1950 bring history to the fore.

These historical documents date back to the time when passports were introduced in 1950. Prior to this era, before passports were introduced, people traveled across Gulf countries without passports and without any document checks. However, the discovery of oil in neighboring countries like Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain gave a new shape to the region, creating new employment opportunities and hence the need for passports.

UAE was united in 1971, before that all these places were ruled by Sheikhs. Trucial States are seven Sheikhdoms, Abu Dhabi; Ajman, Dubai, Ras Al-Khaimah, Sharjah, Fujairah and Umm Al-Quwain. Passport was issued in Trucial States from the year 1957. Then passport was also issued in Ras Al Khaimah. At this time passport became a symbol of regional connectivity and development.

different colours of passport

The three colours of passports of that time represent different times and history.

1. Light red passports - passports issued during the Trucial States
2. Green passports - Administrative period passports
3. Dark Red Passport - Passport issued before UAE was united
4. Blue colored passports – These passports were given to tourists.
6. UAE Passport

Hair color and eyes played an important role

Senior document expert Mohammad Alkhawaja said, these passports are more important than just travel documents, they are a time capsule. These passports contain personal stories. The conservation of these 67-year-old passports began in the year 2011. Old passports had Unique Personal Identifiers, which is different from the ways of identifying people in modern times.

These used to describe the colour of the eyes and hair. It also used to mention that the person was blind or had poor eyesight. For example, the words "karim alaynain" (poor vision) were used in one passport, whereas you will not find anything like this written in today's passports. Research was done on the birthplaces of people in these passports, which revealed that there were many people who were born outside the UAE.