The majlis
What is a majlis?
Word for word, a place of sitting. In a UAE home it is the room kept for receiving guests, and once it leaves the house the planning codes give it rules of its own.
The word and the room
What is a majlis, and where does the word come from?
What is a majlis? The Arabic word grows from the verb for sitting, so a majlis is, literally, a place where people sit. In a UAE villa it names the formal room where guests are received, kept apart from the family's own rooms and lined with seating along its walls. The same word also names councils and gatherings, and around Dubai it turns up on restaurants and hotel lounges, so context decides which meaning is in play.
What is a majlis?
A majlis is a sitting room for receiving guests, and more widely any gathering where people sit together to talk, from a family's evening visitors to a ruler's open council. In a home it is usually a separate formal room near the entrance with low seating along the walls. It can also stand in an annex on the plot or in a seasonal tent, and those two forms carry planning rules. Our majlis design page covers planning one room by room.
What is a majlis in the UAE?
It works at two scales. In a house, the majlis is where relatives, neighbours and visitors are received, and where the host sits within reach of the door. In public life it is an institution: rulers have long held an open majlis at which people raise matters in person, and the federal parliamentary body, the Federal National Council, carries the word in its Arabic name, Al Majlis Al Watani Al Ittihadi.
Outside the home the word stretches further. Dubai has restaurants, hotel residences and an airport lounge named after it, and a heritage house, Majlis Ghorfat Umm Al Sheif. When an owner raises a majlis with us, though, it is nearly always the room: where it goes on the plan, how it is furnished, and whether anyone has to approve it.
What does majlis mean in English?
No single English word covers it. The translation follows the setting:
- Sitting room or reception room, for the room in a house where guests are received.
- Council, for a body that meets to decide, as in the Federal National Council.
- Gathering or session, for people meeting with a purpose, such as study or remembrance, which is the sense the word carries in religious settings.
- Majlis, left untranslated, which is how the 2021 Dubai Building Code and Abu Dhabi's Capital Development Code both write it.
Are there different types of majlis?
Yes, and in a home the type decides which rulebook applies. Five turn up on UAE plots:
| Type | Where it sits | What governs it |
|---|---|---|
| Formal majlis room | Inside the villa, usually by the front door | Interior work: the community's rules on floors, ceilings and lighting |
| Majlis annex | A separate building on the plot | Dubai Building Code 2021 annex limits; Abu Dhabi Capital Development Code |
| Extension majlis room | Added to the villa's built-up area | Developer extension schedules, such as the one for Nad Al Sheba Villas |
| Tent majlis | A seasonal structure on the plot | Abu Dhabi City Municipality's 2025 tent rules for Al Falah |
| Garden majlis | Open seating under shade outdoors | Community approval for pergolas, awnings and shade cloth |
The annex and the tent carry hard numbers. Dubai caps an annex at 5.5 metres in height, and Al Falah caps a tent at 100 square metres. The annex rules are set out in full beside the community codes, and the tent rules follow below.
Majlis and family living room compared
| Point | Majlis | Family living room |
|---|---|---|
| Who it is for | Guests, and the host receiving them | The household, every day |
| Where it sits | Near the entrance, often with its own door | Deeper in the house, near the kitchen and bedrooms |
| Seating | Low seating around the walls, facing the centre | Sofas and chairs grouped around a table or screen |
| Floor | Carpet or rugs that take floor cushions | Whatever suits daily use |
| Planning rules | Named in the Dubai and Abu Dhabi codes once it becomes an annex | Ordinary interior work |
Those differences shape the plan. A majlis wants a route from the front door that keeps guests out of the family's rooms, a washroom close by, and unbroken wall lengths for the seating. Larger family homes often have two, one for men's gatherings and one for women's, and that belongs in the brief before anyone draws a line.
The rules behind each type
A majlis made from an existing room is interior work. Dubai Municipality's Circular 3-12-1 of 2022 treats new floors, painting and suspended ceilings as simple maintenance with no permit, provided a Municipality-accredited contractor carries them out, and the master developer's rules sit on top: Tilal Al Ghaf, for one, wants written consent before floor coverings change. An annex is a different job. It is a building permit, filed by a registered consultant in Dubai and only by a licensed design consultant in Abu Dhabi.
Tents have the most detailed rules of all. Abu Dhabi City Municipality's 2025 regulations for Al Falah allow one tent per plot, built of fabric, tarpaulin or palm fronds with no cement, brick or metal structure, at least 1.5 metres from any other building and no taller than 6 metres. A plot that already has an additional majlis cannot license a temporary majlis tent as well.
Planning a majlis of your own
Settle three things first: where the majlis goes (room, annex or tent), how many guests it should seat, and whose rules apply to the plot. Our design guide then takes seating, light, floor, walls and ceiling one at a time. None of the firms on our fee page publishes a price for a majlis; the nearest published figure is Studio 11's living room design fee of AED 40,000 to 120,000. One written brief from us reaches several licensed design studios, so their proposals arrive in the same shape.
Questions
More about the majlis
- What is an Arabic majlis?
- The phrase usually means the traditional arrangement: low seating with backrests and armrests running around the walls, a carpet or rugs across the middle, and room left to serve coffee. Modern versions keep the wall-hugging layout and swap floor cushions for low sofas.
- What is a majlis in Islam?
- In religious usage the word means a gathering held for a purpose, such as a session of study or remembrance, and mosques and religious centres use it in that sense. It is the same word as the room in a home, because both describe people sitting together.
- Can a majlis be outdoors?
- Yes, as garden seating under shade or as a seasonal tent. The structures need approval: Emaar's 2026 villa rules require written approval for awnings, pergolas and shade cloth, in materials that match the villa's woodwork or paint, and Dubai Holding Community Management lists rooftop pergolas among works that need its prior written approval.
- Does a majlis need its own entrance?
- No rule requires one inside a villa, but a separate route for guests is why most majlis rooms sit by the front door. An annex majlis in Dubai may stand on the plot boundary, and in Al Falah a majlis built on the boundary must have doors and windows that open inward.
- How big should a majlis be?
- No authority sets a size for a majlis room inside a villa. Limits start once it leaves the house: a Dubai annex may cover no more than 60 percent of the main building's gross area, and an Al Falah tent majlis no more than 100 square metres. Indoors, the seating plan decides the size.
- Is a majlis only for men?
- Not by definition. The word describes the room and the gathering, and many family homes keep two, one for men's gatherings and one for women's. Say in the brief how the rooms will be used, since it changes the entrances and the washrooms the plan needs.
Who you are dealing with
- OperatorWebsiteOS LLC
- Licence2646567.01
- Cost to homeownerNone
- Figures datedSeptember 2026
Tell us about the majlis
Room, annex or tent, the plot, the community and how many guests it should seat. We come back with design firms and contractors who quote against the published bands, and show you where each quote sits against them.