Introduction

In this chapter I will outline the ancient origins of the pearl fishery of the Arabian Gulf over seven thousand years ago, and will trace the progressive, albeit interrupted, expansion of its markets through time to encompass a truly global scale during the period from the eighteenth to the twentieth century ce. Following a brief pre-historical and historical overview, this chapter will focus on how pearls played a formative role in the creation of the Gulf that we see today, drawing the Gulf and its people into the wider world of communication, consumption and globalisation. From the eighteenth century, the pearl fishery shaped the Gulf's settlement pattern, urban landscape, politics, demography and societies. As well as historical sources, I will employ archaeological data and geographical techniques, focusing on two case studies: Doha (Qatar) and Muharraq (Bahrain).

Pearl fishing and the pearl trade of the gulf before the eighteenth century CE

Early Evidence for Pearl Fishing in the Gulf, Sixth to First Millennia BCE

It is impossible to give a detailed summary of the development of the Gulf's pearl fishery in the space of a single chapter, for which other publications must be used (e.g. al-Shamlan 2000; Carter 2012). Instead, I will briefly examine the consumption of pearls locally and in distant markets, from the Neolithic onwards, focusing on the observable spread of the distribution of Gulf pearls through the world, and knowledge of their source, over the last seven and a half thousand years.

The earliest evidence comes from the sixth millennium BCE, when pearl jewellery is found relatively frequently at human burial sites, both coastal and inland, along with collections of pearls and single finds at coastal settlements along the Arabian shore and Oman (Carter 2005; Charpentier et al. 2012). The burial sites clearly indicate that they were valued by local Neolithic populations, and it can be inferred that pearls were also traded into Iraq. At this time (6th–5th millennia BCE), a remarkable maritime trading relationship existed between the coastal Neolithic populations and the village communities of southern Iraq, manifested by the export of painted ceramics to the Gulf (Carter 2006).