Why Pearls Are Part and Parcel of The Persia Gulf

In the context of originality, pearls serve as the symbol of wealth, royalty and beauty especially in the UAE and the world at large. This is because they are rare and to find them might take some quality time in the sea. Basically, the history of pearling dates back to some seven thousand years ago when Emiratis could spend their entire lives in the Persian Gulf in order to earn a living. In fact, it was the primary source of income for the Arabians. During those days, young and determined divers could take it into the sea for quite some time in order to be able to fish out the rare and most valuable resource (uaeinteract.com). Surprisingly, it could not matter on how long they stayed in the Gulf but as long as they turned back home with the precious resource they had gone for in the Persian Gulf.

Qamashah as the local people term it was the fundamental source of wealth before the later discoveries of the oil fields. It has been a long serving source of income for the Arabians especially those in Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi and Kuwait. For instance, as it is put forth by the EAU musician, Jason Carter; the old folks who seem to understand the diving and traditional ideologies of pearling are still alive in the already mentioned places. He urges the young slot to embrace the now bygone culture and traditional ideologies, which happens to might have been lost all along. Precisely, the pearling process and culture was not as easy as most people may think and this is because of the nature of packages involved in searching and fishing out of the precious resource.

According to the Arabian writer Al Idris, Julfar in Ra’s Al-khaimah was already a fertile pearling centre by 1145. The place is considered to have attracted many divers and even foreigners especially from Rome and Portugal. For example, according to the Portuguese writer, Barbosa in 1157 Julfar was a great fishing zone for pearls and large ones! Actually, this is a clear indication that Julfer’s fame had penetrated into many lands across the globe. The moors of Hormuz could come, buy them and carry them to India, which served as a ready market for them while others were ferried to the other foreign lands. As a result, this made the pearling zones to grow richer out of the rare resource.

The today’s Abu Dhabi and Dubai cities were established long time ago as the Arabs occupied the coastal settlements while participating in the pearling industry. This could happen as the Emiratis who seasonally worked in the Persian Gulf could as well move to Sri Lanka to work on the pearl beds. The industry kept on growing as more jobs could be created for the young energetic youth who were ready to work (7daysindubai.com). But as the Portuguese empire took charge of the pearling sites, a good number of divers could be affected with the taxes imposed on their income. Unfortunately, it could cut deeper into their profits hence, making them earn meager wages. As of the 20th century, 1200 boats could be released into the sea with twelve strong men in search of the pearls.

However, in the 1920s the industry faced greater challenges as the cultivation of cultured pearls found their way into the market. The cultured pearls undermined the market of natural pearls, which were rare and difficult to get hence, making it tough for the locals who entirely depended on the industry. Unfortunately, the cultured pearls were easily and readily available although of low and poor quality when compared to the natural pearls, which could be fished out of the Persian Gulf. In the 1930s the industry could not withstand the pressure of economical depression and the Indian taxation hence, enhancing and facilitating to the demise of the pearling industry. Equally, the breakdown was facilitated by the banning of modern diving equipment.

This is because the practice was purely traditional and only local divers could be allowed to harvest the pearl oysters. But if the outsiders could join, permission was to be granted in order for them to join the rest of the pearling crew. In the 1940s, oil fields were discovered and voluminous cultured pearls could be developed by the Japanese hence, resulting to the demise of the pearl industry (aljazeera.com). All these rendered most divers jobless as they a good number found refugee in other marine industries such as fishing as some of them could open up small business from the little savings they had made during the pearling period.

The good news is that ever since the demise of pearling industry, the expert divers such as Abu Haliqa, Faraj Al-Muhairbi among others have taken an initiative to ensure the long gone culture is not forgotten and they have been able to do it by recruiting and training young men on the diving techniques. Finally, the pearling industry enhanced and facilitated the socio-economic trends of the region hence, increasing the living standards of the Emiratis especially for those who ventured into the pearling practice (uaeinteract.com). The region gained well cultivated international relations with the rest of the world as it attracted outsiders and thus higher economic gains. And as usual, any source of income transforms the lives of people in almost all aspects thus the current Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Dubai and Saudi cities with wealthy packages.