Dubai: Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence of the UAE, turns 44 today. Most people know the titles. His 17.3 million Instagram followers know something else: a man who calls his camels by name, jumps out of planes over Palm Jumeirah, and treats Dubai’s fog as his favourite photo filter.
His handle is @faz3, after his pen name, Fazza. In the Emirati dialect the word means “someone who rushes to help”. It is a word used in Nabati poetry, which he has written under that pen name since he was young. On his birthday, here is the Fazza his followers see, and the city he loves to share with the world.
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A head for heights, and depths
Nothing on his feed gets more attention than the stunts. Whether it’s cycling down Sheikh Zayed Road or jumping from an airplane, he shows no fear when it comes to trying new things. He flies his own helicopter over the Palm and The World islands, once captioning the footage “An alternate view of #Dubai.”
