UAE General's Lord Of The Rings Sword, 1185 Military Tag On Display At Adihex 2026

A military identification tag bearing the number 1185, an old UAE passport, an 18th-century hunting gun and a sword made for The Lord of the Rings may seem to have little in common, except that they all tell part of one Emirati general's story.

Inside a small red, corridor-style booth at the Abu Dhabi International Hunting and Equestrian Exhibition (Adihex) 2026, Museum 1185 is displaying a selection of objects from the vast private collection of General Obaid Al Ketbi.

The collection, which numbers more than 15,000 items and includes mementoes from more than 160 countries, has previously been showcased at Al Ketbi's Abu Dhabi home. But the Adihex display brings together a smaller selection of objects that offer snapshots of his military, diplomatic, sporting and humanitarian career.

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Museum supervisor Abdulwahab Boulabrouf said many of the objects are personal possessions or gifts received by Al Ketbi during a career that began when he joined the UAE Armed Forces as a second lieutenant and later took him into senior military and police positions, diplomacy and government.

At the centre of the collection's identity is the number 1185.

It was the military number assigned to Al Ketbi when he graduated from Zayed Military College in 1976. A military identification tag bearing the number also records his blood group and was intended to help identify soldiers in the field, which he wears as a necklace around his neck till this day, according to Boulabrouf.

The museum's name is a tribute to that number and, according to the museum, to the UAE's investment in and support of its people. Its own description calls the collection a timeline of the success of both an individual and the nation that supported him.

Not every object in the collection has a grand military or diplomatic story.

An Australian security officer's hat, for example, recalls an unexpected moment during Al Ketbi's time as UAE ambassador to Australia.

His official motorcade was travelling when it had to stop because kangaroos were crossing the road.

After the delay, Boulabrouf said, the Australian security officer responsible for the motorcade got out and gave Al Ketbi his hat as an apology for keeping him waiting. The hat has remained in the collection as a souvenir of the posting.

Al Ketbi served as UAE ambassador to Australia from 2015 to 2018, during which he also promoted sports diplomacy between the two countries.

A wall of photographs, paintings and documents at the booth takes visitors much further back, to the UAE's humanitarian operation during the Kosovo war in 1999.

The material documents the UAE's involvement in supporting Kosovar refugees, including the camp established near Kukës in Albania. Al Ketbi was part of the UAE humanitarian mission, which he has previously described as a three-month assignment.

The display includes photographs of the camp, visits by senior UAE officials and records from the operation.

One of its more poignant stories is that of the first baby born at the camp, who was named Fatima in honour of Sheikh Fatima.

The material also follows the longer history of the site, which became associated with the development of Zayed International Airport in Kukës.

For the museum, the photographs serve as a record not only of the humanitarian operation but of Al Ketbi's own role in one of the UAE's international missions.

Among the most striking objects is an old Panasonic mobile or car phone housed in a bulky briefcase.

The equipment is a reminder of a time when mobile communication looked nothing like today's smartphones. Al Ketbi's collection also contains an even older communications device, a Second World War-era field telephone used for military communications and signalling.

The juxtaposition of the two objects compresses decades of technological change into a single display case.

Nearby are a Japanese dagger and an Emirati sword associated with the Amiri Guard, now the Presidential Guard. The latter bears the UAE's falcon emblem.

There is also a pre-1986 UAE passport, another seemingly ordinary object that has become a piece of the country's own history.

Then there is the object that is almost impossible to miss: the giant Guinness World Records medal associated with Al Fursan.

The UAE's medal holds the Guinness record for the world's largest sports medal. It weighs more than 68.5kg and measures 1.6 metres by 1.6 metres, with a four-metre ribbon. It was made of stainless steel and topped with gold.

Al Ketbi founded Al Fursan in 2008, initially with 13 members. The team later grew to 48 athletes and took part in sporting events in the UAE and abroad.

One of the booth's most unexpected objects is a sword from The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.

The sword is one of 15 original swords made for the films, according to Museum 1185. The collection's account says three of the 15 are owned by Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, the Emperor of Japan and former US President Barack Obama.

Al Ketbi owns the 15th and final sword.

He found it during a visit to New Zealand, where it was displayed in a gallery. The other 14 had already been sold and the sword was not initially for sale.

After lengthy negotiations with its owners, however, Al Ketbi managed to acquire it.

The same story was reported by Khaleej Times during a 2021 tour of Al Ketbi's home museu, when he described finding the sword in New Zealand and persuading its owners to sell it.

That is ultimately what makes the Adihex display different from a conventional military or personal collection.

The objects are not simply valuable or unusual. They mark different chapters of one life.

The 1185 tag represents the beginning of a military career in 1976. The old passport belongs to an earlier UAE. The field telephone recalls another era of military communications, while the briefcase mobile phone shows how technology changed during his lifetime.

The Australian hat captures an amusing moment from diplomacy. The Kosovo photographs preserve a humanitarian mission. The giant Al Fursan medal represents sport and endurance, while the Lord of the Rings sword is a reminder of the unexpected treasures encountered during decades of travel.

At Adihex, only a fraction of that collection fits inside the narrow red booth. But each object has been chosen to do what Al Ketbi has long said is the purpose of the museum - tell a story through the things he kept.

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