Migration and Slavery in Bahrain Pearling Industry (1892- 1939)

Abstract

The pearl industry was the first source of income for the Arab Gulf countries before the era of oil, so most of the Gulf population relied on it, as more than 50% of the men in the Gulf community worked in it. Bahrain was the center of the pearl industry in the Arabian Gulf, with its medium location, and its diving sites, towards which the diving and fishing population migrated from various parts of the Gulf countries and some other countries, and its markets also attracted the world's largest merchants in the pearl trade. This has resulted in many historical and geographical changes at the economic and social level in the Gulf countries.

This research paper monitors some of these changes, the most prominent of which is immigration to those areas with the aim of working in pearling and trading in it, as well as the phenomenon of slavery suffered by seafarers working in the pearling industry, through documents during the period of British protection over Bahrain. That slavery to which the sailors were subjected, including divers, Siob (Withdrawals), Radef and others to pearl merchants and Nakhoda (the captain or Shipmaster). It also monitors government actions and the British administration's efforts to mitigate the impact of slavery on seafarers. Although these efforts came despite their importance in the period of the decline of the pearl industry in the Gulf for several reasons, including the emergence of oil, the competition of industrial pearls produced in Japan, in addition to the circumstances of the Second World War that stopped the pearl trade globally.