The GCC Journal

The Pearl Diving Heritage of the Gulf

Before oil, there were pearls. For 7,000 years, the Arabian Gulf’s most precious resource was found not beneath the sand but at the bottom of the sea.

Long before the discovery of oil transformed the Arabian Gulf, the region’s wealth came from the sea. Pearl diving, known locally as “ghous,” was the economic backbone of coastal societies from Kuwait to Oman for millennia. By the late 19th century, an estimated 60,000 people, nearly the entire coastal population of the Gulf, were involved in the industry. In some countries, such as Qatar, up to 95% of able-bodied men worked as divers, haulers, or crew during the pearling season. The Arabian Gulf once supplied roughly 90% of the world’s natural pearl market.

This is the story of how pearls shaped the Gulf’s economies, its cultures, and its families, and how the industry’s dramatic collapse in the early 20th century paved the way for the oil era that followed.

Ancient Roots

7,000 years of diving, from the Neolithic to the global market

Archaeological evidence suggests that pearl diving in the Arabian Gulf began more than 7,000 years ago. The oldest known pearl in the world, dating to approximately 5800 to 5600 BC, was discovered on Marawah Island off the coast of Abu Dhabi. An Assyrian inscription from around 2000 BC described “a parcel of fish eyes from Dilmun,” the ancient name for Bahrain, which would become the undisputed center of the Gulf pearl trade. By the Roman and Byzantine periods, Gulf pearls were famous in the courts of Rome, Constantinople, and later the Islamic capitals of Damascus, Baghdad, and Isfahan.

The pearl grounds stretched from Kuwait along the coast of Saudi Arabia through Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, and Oman. The season typically ran from April to September (a period called “Ghous al-Kabir”), with shallow waters fished first and deeper beds reserved for the warmer months. Grounds were fished in rotation, left fallow for several years to ensure regeneration, a surprisingly sophisticated form of resource management for its time.

Life on the Dhow

Roles, rituals, and the songs that kept divers alive

The pearling dhow was a self-contained society with clearly defined roles. The nakhoda (captain) commanded the vessel and managed the crew. The ghawas (diver) descended to depths of up to 40 feet without breathing apparatus, relying solely on lung capacity and a weighted rope called al-zubail tied around the leg for stability on the seabed. Each diver carried a woven bag (al-deen) around the neck for collecting oysters and a nose clip (al-fettam) made from wood or sheep bone. His only connection to the surface was a rope (al-yada) held by the seib (hauler), who literally held the diver’s life in his hands.

One of the most distinctive features of life aboard a pearling dhow was the nahham, the singer who performed fijiri music: rhythmic, call-and-response songs that set the tempo of work, coordinated dives, and sustained morale through the long, grueling season. Fijiri encompasses eight different genres with various sub-genres, accompanied by a double-sided hand drum and a clay pot played on both sides. The songs of the nahham are today recognized as an intangible cultural heritage and still performed at festivals across the Gulf. When a large pearl was found, the discovery was announced by pistol shots that could be heard along the distant coastline.

Bahrain at the Center

The Gulf’s undisputed pearl capital

While pearl diving was practiced across the entire Gulf coastline, Bahrain sat at the center of the trade. By 1905, the island had 917 boats and over 17,500 workers engaged in pearling. An estimated 97.3% of the Gulf’s pearl turnover was traded through Bahrain by 1904 to 1905. The old capital of Muharraq was the Gulf’s pearling capital: the largest fleet, the most divers, and a city built almost entirely from coral stone (in contrast to the barasti palm-frond settlements of smaller pearling centers like Dubai at the time).

The pearling economy reached its apex in 1911 to 1912, when Indian merchants were joined in Bahrain by buyers from Paris, London, and New York, all vying to secure the finest pearls at source. Jacques Cartier himself traveled to the Gulf in 1912 in search of the perfect pearl, a journey that helped establish what became the Cartier jewelry empire. Today, Bahrain’s Pearling Trail in Muharraq (including three oyster beds in its northern waters) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the only complete surviving example of a pearling economy and the wealth it created.

The Decline

Cultured pearls, the Depression, and the end of an era

The pearl industry’s collapse was swift and devastating. In the 1920s and 1930s, a series of blows arrived in rapid succession: the Japanese perfection of cultured pearls, which flooded the global market with affordable alternatives; the Wall Street crash of 1929 and the Great Depression, which destroyed demand for luxury goods; and the growing availability of oil industry employment in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia, which drew workers away from the sea. By the late 1940s, very few boats were leaving the pearling banks. An industry that had sustained entire civilizations for 7,000 years effectively ended within a single generation.

The entrepreneurial skills and international trading networks developed during the pearl era, however, proved invaluable. Many former pearl merchants and their families became the first generation of modern Gulf business leaders, applying their commercial acumen to real estate, construction, and the emerging oil services sector. The merchant dynasties of Kuwait, the trading families of Dubai, and the financial houses of Bahrain all trace their roots, in part, to the pearl trade.

How the Heritage Lives On

UNESCO sites, annual festivals, and a pearl shop in Souq Waqif

The pearl diving tradition is being actively preserved across the Gulf. Bahrain’s Pearling Trail in Muharraq is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Emir of Kuwait inaugurated the Pearl Diving Festival, a celebration in which dhows sail historic pearling routes. In the UAE, annual pearl diving competitions off the coast of Abu Dhabi and Dubai draw participants from across the region, and the Emirates NBD Pearl Museum documents the industry’s history. In Doha’s Souq Waqif, the Pearl Shop is run by a former pearl diver who shares the art of pearling with visitors and displays the many varieties of white, pink, and grey pearls that once made the Gulf wealthy. And across the region, fijiri music, the songs of the divers, continues to be performed at cultural festivals and recorded for posterity.

The Bigger Picture

The Gulf’s first globalized economy

The pearl diving heritage matters not only as history but as context. It explains why Gulf societies have always been outward-looking and commercially minded, connected by trade to India, Persia, East Africa, and Europe centuries before oil created modern wealth. It explains why maritime culture, from dhow racing to seafaring museums, holds such emotional weight across the region. And it serves as a reminder that the GCC’s relationship with global capital is far older and more deeply rooted than the oil era suggests. The Gulf was a global trading hub long before the first barrel was drilled. The pearl was its first export, its first source of international fame, and, in many ways, its first identity.