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Let Them Know She is Here
From the peaks of Kilimanjaro to the sands of Mleiha, Bodour Al Qasimi embarks on a journey where reality and vision intertwine. With every step, the echoes of Arab queens rise: Mavia the warrior, Zenobia the scholar, Shams the wise, and the moon queens of Sheba. Each footprint uncovers a trace in the land and a resonance within, where forgotten grandmothers whisper of a time when history began not with kings but with Arab women who built the first kingdoms on pillars of wisdom, peace, and reverence for the earth and its people.
The future is not created from emptiness, but woven from centuries of memory. This book is more than a journey. It is the unearthing of a buried truth, the call to reclaim a timeless feminine essence rising from a queen who never left the sands of Mleiha. She is here, waiting for those who will listen.
The future is not created from emptiness, but woven from centuries of memory. This book is more than a journey. It is the unearthing of a buried truth, the call to reclaim a timeless feminine essence rising from a queen who never left the sands of Mleiha. She is here, waiting for those who will listen.
335 pages, Hardcover
Published November 11, 2025
18 people are currently reading
38 people want to read
About the author
Bodour Al Qasimi
4 books11 followersBodour bint Sultan Al Qasimi (Arabic: بدور القاسمي)
Sheikha Bodour bint Sultan Al Qasimi is an Emirati author, publisher, and cultural advocate whose work bridges Arab heritage with contemporary identity. As the founder and CEO of Kalimat Group, one of the Arab world's leading publishing houses, she has spent nearly two decades championing Arabic literature and amplifying voices that have long been overlooked.
Her most recent book, Let Them Know She Is Here: Searching for the Queen of Mleiha, draws from her native Sharjah's rich heritage to reimagine Arab history through the forgotten stories of ancient queens and influential female figures, offering an excavation of history and a reclamation of narrative.
Sheikha Bodour serves as UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Education and Book Culture and is the first Arab woman to receive the prestigious BolognaRagazzi Award. Through her writing and her leadership in publishing, she continues to elevate the cultural legacy and contemporary voices of the Arab world.
Sheikha Bodour bint Sultan Al Qasimi is an Emirati author, publisher, and cultural advocate whose work bridges Arab heritage with contemporary identity. As the founder and CEO of Kalimat Group, one of the Arab world's leading publishing houses, she has spent nearly two decades championing Arabic literature and amplifying voices that have long been overlooked.
Her most recent book, Let Them Know She Is Here: Searching for the Queen of Mleiha, draws from her native Sharjah's rich heritage to reimagine Arab history through the forgotten stories of ancient queens and influential female figures, offering an excavation of history and a reclamation of narrative.
Sheikha Bodour serves as UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Education and Book Culture and is the first Arab woman to receive the prestigious BolognaRagazzi Award. Through her writing and her leadership in publishing, she continues to elevate the cultural legacy and contemporary voices of the Arab world.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
February 9, 2026
This beautiful book by @bodouralqasimi felt like poetry disguised as history, or perhaps history whispered back to life through poetry. Every sentence is deliberate, musical, and deeply felt. As someone who loves archaeology, history, mythology, religion, and poetry, this novel felt as though it had been written directly for my soul.
Through the searching for Queen Mleiha, the story unravels layers of Arabia’s past with extraordinary tenderness. Queens emerge not just as historical figures, but as living presences. Their voices echo through time, revealing secrets, silences, strength, and resilience. The journey becomes as much inward as it is historical, filled with whispers, memory, and an intimate reckoning with identity and womanhood.
Boudour AlQasimi writes with absolute literary genius. History here is not distant or academic. It is personal, sacred, and emotionally alive. You feel the weight of time, the ache of forgotten stories, and the beauty of reclaiming them.
This was the first book in a very long time that I truly did not want to end. Reading history that is this personal, this touching, and this poetically divine is an absolute delight.
Through the searching for Queen Mleiha, the story unravels layers of Arabia’s past with extraordinary tenderness. Queens emerge not just as historical figures, but as living presences. Their voices echo through time, revealing secrets, silences, strength, and resilience. The journey becomes as much inward as it is historical, filled with whispers, memory, and an intimate reckoning with identity and womanhood.
Boudour AlQasimi writes with absolute literary genius. History here is not distant or academic. It is personal, sacred, and emotionally alive. You feel the weight of time, the ache of forgotten stories, and the beauty of reclaiming them.
This was the first book in a very long time that I truly did not want to end. Reading history that is this personal, this touching, and this poetically divine is an absolute delight.
November 29, 2025
what a journey through beauty and faith and love! you dont come out of this read the same, you are transformed along the way ♥️
February 21, 2026
I read Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi’s book in Arabic, and it was the first Arabic book I’ve picked up in about fifteen years. The language is clear and accessible, but it still holds depth, and I ended up reading it with a kind of focus I didn’t expect.
It’s not an academic book, and it’s not fiction either. It’s a personal journey that moves through history, but also through memory and the self. And honestly, the most powerful part for me was how the book is carried by women. Her relationship to Mleiha isn’t only built through archives and archaeology. It’s built through the women in her family, the grandmothers and great-grandmothers who come to her through dreams and visions, and who feel like they are quietly guiding the entire search. That thread gave the book its intimacy, and it’s what makes the “land” feel like a living connection rather than just a setting.
That’s also why the book’s question about the historical erasure of women lands so strongly. It doesn’t politely wonder why queens are missing. It directly confronts how women’s presence, authority, and leadership get minimized, rewritten, or pushed to the margins in the histories we inherit. As sociologist who usually lives in contemporary gender debates, I found myself thinking about how the erasure of women isn’t just something we notice today. It’s been built into what gets recorded, what survives, and what gets repeated as “the story,” which makes the present feel like an extension of an older pattern.
Overall, it’s easy to move through, but it has real weight underneath.
It’s not an academic book, and it’s not fiction either. It’s a personal journey that moves through history, but also through memory and the self. And honestly, the most powerful part for me was how the book is carried by women. Her relationship to Mleiha isn’t only built through archives and archaeology. It’s built through the women in her family, the grandmothers and great-grandmothers who come to her through dreams and visions, and who feel like they are quietly guiding the entire search. That thread gave the book its intimacy, and it’s what makes the “land” feel like a living connection rather than just a setting.
That’s also why the book’s question about the historical erasure of women lands so strongly. It doesn’t politely wonder why queens are missing. It directly confronts how women’s presence, authority, and leadership get minimized, rewritten, or pushed to the margins in the histories we inherit. As sociologist who usually lives in contemporary gender debates, I found myself thinking about how the erasure of women isn’t just something we notice today. It’s been built into what gets recorded, what survives, and what gets repeated as “the story,” which makes the present feel like an extension of an older pattern.
Overall, it’s easy to move through, but it has real weight underneath.
December 3, 2025
Let Them Know She’s Here presents itself like a traditional biography—places, pivotal life moments—but it quickly becomes clear that the “life” being narrated is not confined to chronological time. Instead, the author offers a series of soul-journey meditations, each vignette revealing an inner landscape more vivid and instructive than external events could ever be. What looks like a memoir on the surface is, in truth, a record of consciousness unfolding.
The brilliance of the book lies in how subtly it shifts the reader from listening with the mind to listening with the spirit. The early chapters feel familiar: childhood memories, mentors, turning points. Yet, slowly, the narrative dissolves into states of presence, archetypal encounters, and symbolic experiences that are felt more than understood. The author never announces the transition—you simply notice that you are no longer “following a story” but entering an experience.
Each chapter reads like what a biography would sound like if someone documented not what happened to them, but what happened within them. Instead of recounting achievements, the author traces how their soul responded: the moment an inner gate opened, the subtle lesson transmitted by silence, or the way a feeling expanded into an insight without language
The brilliance of the book lies in how subtly it shifts the reader from listening with the mind to listening with the spirit. The early chapters feel familiar: childhood memories, mentors, turning points. Yet, slowly, the narrative dissolves into states of presence, archetypal encounters, and symbolic experiences that are felt more than understood. The author never announces the transition—you simply notice that you are no longer “following a story” but entering an experience.
Each chapter reads like what a biography would sound like if someone documented not what happened to them, but what happened within them. Instead of recounting achievements, the author traces how their soul responded: the moment an inner gate opened, the subtle lesson transmitted by silence, or the way a feeling expanded into an insight without language
January 6, 2026
بعد قراءة "أخبروهم أنها هنا" شعرت أن الكتاب لا يحاول أن يقدّم قصة مكتملة بقدر ما يدعونا للتوقف والتفكير في طريقة تعاملنا مع التاريخ. الفكرة الأساسية التي يطرحها العمل هي أن الغياب في السرد التاريخي لا يعني بالضرورة أن ما غاب لم يكن موجوداً. فـ"البحث عن ملكة مليحة" يُستخدم هنا كنقطة انطلاق لطرح سؤال أوسع عن الأدوار التي لم تُكتب، وخصوصاً أدوار النساء، ليس لأن الأدلة غير موجودة، بل لأن زاوية النظر كانت محدودة.
ما لفتني أكثر هو أن الكتاب الجميل لا يتعامل مع الاكتشافات الأثرية كحقائق جامدة، بل كمواد مفتوحة للتفسير. فالكاتبـة لا تفرض استنتاجاً واحداً، بل تشرح كيف يمكن أن تقود قراءة مختلفة للشواهد نفسها إلى فهم مختلف للتاريخ. هذا الطرح يجعل القارئ يشعر أنه شريك في التفكير، لا متلقٍ لمعلومات جاهزة، ويمنح العمل صدقاً وهدوءاً يميّزانه عن الكتب التي تسعى إلى إثبات فكرة واحدة بأي ثمن.
في رأيي، قوة "أخبروهم أنها هنا" تكمن في عمقه وفي الأسئلة التي يتركها مفتوحة بعد القراءة. هو كتاب يجعلنا نعيد النظر في ما نعتبره "تاريخاً"، وفي من نمنحهم حق الظهور داخله. لا يقدّم إجابات نهائية، لكنه ينجح في تذكيرنا بأن كثيراً مما نبحث عنه قد يكون موجوداً بالفعل، فقط بانتظار من يقول: نعم، هي هنا.
ما لفتني أكثر هو أن الكتاب الجميل لا يتعامل مع الاكتشافات الأثرية كحقائق جامدة، بل كمواد مفتوحة للتفسير. فالكاتبـة لا تفرض استنتاجاً واحداً، بل تشرح كيف يمكن أن تقود قراءة مختلفة للشواهد نفسها إلى فهم مختلف للتاريخ. هذا الطرح يجعل القارئ يشعر أنه شريك في التفكير، لا متلقٍ لمعلومات جاهزة، ويمنح العمل صدقاً وهدوءاً يميّزانه عن الكتب التي تسعى إلى إثبات فكرة واحدة بأي ثمن.
في رأيي، قوة "أخبروهم أنها هنا" تكمن في عمقه وفي الأسئلة التي يتركها مفتوحة بعد القراءة. هو كتاب يجعلنا نعيد النظر في ما نعتبره "تاريخاً"، وفي من نمنحهم حق الظهور داخله. لا يقدّم إجابات نهائية، لكنه ينجح في تذكيرنا بأن كثيراً مما نبحث عنه قد يكون موجوداً بالفعل، فقط بانتظار من يقول: نعم، هي هنا.
December 3, 2025
Sheikha Bodour writes with a tenderness that feels like she is sitting with you, sharing pieces of her heart. Every chapter carries emotion, introspection, and a deep sense of purpose.
What moved me the most is how universal the stories feel. Whether you are a mother, a dreamer, a leader, or simply someone navigating your own journey, you will find pieces of yourself here. This book reminds us that presence is not just physical. It is spiritual, emotional, and deeply rooted in the legacy we carry.
It is a book that heals, encourages, and empowers.
A book you will want to underline, revisit, and gift to the women you love.
I’m grateful this book found me at the right moment.
And grateful to Sheikha Bodour for writing something so honest, so human, and so beautifully alive. I recommend it over and over and over.
What moved me the most is how universal the stories feel. Whether you are a mother, a dreamer, a leader, or simply someone navigating your own journey, you will find pieces of yourself here. This book reminds us that presence is not just physical. It is spiritual, emotional, and deeply rooted in the legacy we carry.
It is a book that heals, encourages, and empowers.
A book you will want to underline, revisit, and gift to the women you love.
I’m grateful this book found me at the right moment.
And grateful to Sheikha Bodour for writing something so honest, so human, and so beautifully alive. I recommend it over and over and over.
December 3, 2025
A must-read from the way it starts to how it transitions slowly taking you through each phase with ease allowing you to reflect on your own journey, be it personally or professionally.
This book is an ode to the women who ruled when history chose to forget them. The book celebrates powerful female rulers from the Arab peninsula but more profoundly, it’s a tribute to continuity itself: the unbroken thread connecting contemporary Arab women to ancestors who wore crowns, commanded armies, and inscribed their names on currency. In seeking these lost queens, Sheikha Bodour seeks herself, honouring the strength that flows through generations even when the records have turned to dust!
Enjoy this beautiful read!
This book is an ode to the women who ruled when history chose to forget them. The book celebrates powerful female rulers from the Arab peninsula but more profoundly, it’s a tribute to continuity itself: the unbroken thread connecting contemporary Arab women to ancestors who wore crowns, commanded armies, and inscribed their names on currency. In seeking these lost queens, Sheikha Bodour seeks herself, honouring the strength that flows through generations even when the records have turned to dust!
Enjoy this beautiful read!
December 30, 2025
Some books leave you informed.
Others stay with you, and this is one of the books that leaves many things with you long after you finish reading.
What stayed with me most was HH Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi determination to pursue a challenging historical idea, the possibility of a queen in Mleiha.
Not as a claim, but as a theory she was willing to test, question, and defend.
Through the book, you follow her persistence as she travels, asks, researches, reads, and listens to scholars and specialists, driven by curiosity and belief rather than certainty.
Thoughtful and engaging, this book highlights the importance of perseverance in historical inquiry and reminds us that history still holds space for questions that have yet to be fully explored.
Others stay with you, and this is one of the books that leaves many things with you long after you finish reading.
What stayed with me most was HH Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi determination to pursue a challenging historical idea, the possibility of a queen in Mleiha.
Not as a claim, but as a theory she was willing to test, question, and defend.
Through the book, you follow her persistence as she travels, asks, researches, reads, and listens to scholars and specialists, driven by curiosity and belief rather than certainty.
Thoughtful and engaging, this book highlights the importance of perseverance in historical inquiry and reminds us that history still holds space for questions that have yet to be fully explored.
February 24, 2026
I love books that resist tidy classification, and that’s one of the reasons I so enjoyed Let Them Know She Is Here by Bodour al Qasimi — it moves fluidly between meditation, hiking journal, nature diary, dreamscape, and a tender tribute to maternal lineage.
At its heart is the idea that the ground beneath our feet is layered with memory—that returning to the land, and to our ancestors, offers healing for both the living and those who came before us.
I loved the book’s exploration of ancient queens of Arabia. It is a powerful reminder that women and power are not a modern coupling, but part of a much older inheritance—one we are finally remembering.
At its heart is the idea that the ground beneath our feet is layered with memory—that returning to the land, and to our ancestors, offers healing for both the living and those who came before us.
I loved the book’s exploration of ancient queens of Arabia. It is a powerful reminder that women and power are not a modern coupling, but part of a much older inheritance—one we are finally remembering.
December 9, 2025
Bodour Al Qasimi has given us a truly powerful and a smart pairing of a deeply personal memoir and a serious historical deep dive. It instantly feels bigger than just a history lesson; it’s an intimate, reflective journey that uses the stunning landscape of Mleiha and historical fragments to wrestle with big questions of identity, belonging, and the lasting impact of ancient Arab matriarchal heritage.
If you're into history, cultural heritage, or the powerful, untold stories of female leadership in the ancient world, grab this one. It’s a compelling, beautifully written piece of reclamation.
If you're into history, cultural heritage, or the powerful, untold stories of female leadership in the ancient world, grab this one. It’s a compelling, beautifully written piece of reclamation.
December 15, 2025
A truly enjoyable read! gave me both goosebumps and tears. I especially loved how it feels global, big and universal, yet so local, particular, and personal. I learnt a lot and want to read more by this author
November 23, 2025
الكتاب نقلني إلى عالم ثاني
Tips: انصحكم تزورون مليحه قبل لا تبدون قرائته❤️🗻
Tips: انصحكم تزورون مليحه قبل لا تبدون قرائته❤️🗻
December 3, 2025
الكاتبة ملكةٌ تقود القارئ في رحلةٍ تفيض بتاريخٍ أصيل وإيمانٍ عميق.
رحلةٌ تمسّ الروح وتفتح باب الشفاء، وتمنح من يقرأ فرصةً حقيقية للتغيير
والنهوض من جديد
رحلةٌ تمسّ الروح وتفتح باب الشفاء، وتمنح من يقرأ فرصةً حقيقية للتغيير
والنهوض من جديد
December 3, 2025
A beautiful tribute to feminine strength and heritage that feels both grounding and timeless.
December 3, 2025
كتاب رائع و جميل
مع تحياتي عبدالله آل علي
مع تحياتي عبدالله آل علي
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews