Time Frame: A window on the world

Eid is a time for families, but also a time for shopping. Expect the malls to be packed with bargain hunters this weekend.

This year Abu Dhabi’s new Yas Mall will be open for business for its first Eid. When this photo was taken, though, the place to shop was the main souq behind Airport Road.

This image comes from the archives of Al Ittihad, our sister newspaper, and shows a popular toy shop in the souq. It is not dated, but there is a clue in the window - the masks of George Bush Senior, Mikhail Gorbachev (with his distinctive birthmark) and Saddam Hussein. This places the photo to around 1990 or 1991, when the looming Gulf War caused by the invasion of Kuwait meant the US, Soviet and Iraq leaders were daily in the news.

The Abu Dhabi souq, built in the early 1970s, would burn down in 2003, to be replaced by the new Central Market and World Trade Centre Souq, where you can find high fashion and designer jewellery but probably not Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin or Haider Al Abadi masks.

* James Langton