The Social, Economic and Cultural

History of Qatar

in the Pearling Age

 Main Themes

I: Social and Cultural History

1. The Social Fabric in Qatar Before Oil
2. The Role of Women Before Oil
3. Education in Qatar Before Oil
4. Qatari Mejalis Before Oil
The Effect of Qatar’s Location on Local Culture
The Judicial System in Qatar Before Oil

II: Features of the Pre-Oil Economy

What were the main resources in the Gulf economy in the pre-oil age?
What were the effects of the pearl trade on Qatari society before oil?
-Slavery
-Sea travel
-Pearl Diving
 I: Society and Culture
The Social Fabric in Qatar Before Oil
Qatari Society: Three Communities:

Bedouin nomads,
who lived in the
desert

The semi-settled, who

moved between the desert
and the coast

The settled, who lived on

the coast
 Two Groups of Bedouin

Semi-Settled Bedouin Nomadic Bedouin

Sheep and camel herders, but they did not travel deep Disliked settled life, lived in a state of
into the desert like the nomadic Bedouin, and they
constant movement in search of food
settled in certain places for longer periods of time,
sometimes as long as two generations. Some of them and water, and did not answer to any
were familiar with agriculture, which helped them authority except those of their tribes.
settle for longer periods, so they were called semi-
They did not understand the meaning
settled Bedouin. Many of the men would also join the
pearling expeditions or trade with the settled of geographical borders or laws.
population.
 Bedouin Social System

Their lives were simple, and they were always

moving so their tents were easy to fold and put up

again. The tents were made of woven goat or camel

hair . Women made the tents.

 Bedouin Social System

Their clothes were also simple. They wore flowing robes in the summer and

animal hides and skins in the winter, and they went barefoot. They ate the food

available around them like dates and dairy products from their animals. When

they needed food they did not produce, like rice, they bought it for special

occasions.

Bedouin were isolated and involved mainly in their local conditions. Their

communication with the outside world was limited, as they did not have surplus

to trade with others. Certain tribes also claimed superiority over others.
 Bedouin social life

Bedouin did not have any kind of official political organization or laws, only
tribal custom.

They did not recognize any authority except that of the shaykh of the tribe.
This position was not inherited, but rather went to those who were
generous, brave, intelligent, and natural leaders.

Their constant movement made education impossible, so most were illiterate.

However, they were experts in metered poetry and storytelling which they
passed on orally from generation to generation and celebrated in community
gatherings.
 2. The Settled Communities’ Social
System
The settled communities were those that lived in
villages and cities on the coast permanently. Being
settled allowed them to take part in handicrafts, small
industries, inherited professions, markets, kuttab-
based education, etc.

The settled communities’ economic system

depended on the sea. Proximity to the sea is what
explains the existence of settled villages like Doha,
Wakra, al-Khor, Fuwayrit, and Ruwais, etc.
 The Settled Communities’ Social System

The settled communities’ houses were made of mud

and stone, and they were organized in neighborhoods
(fareej), and the people living in one neighborhood
were not necessarily from the same tribe.

The settled community had some customs and social

and economic habits that it gained from its relative
stability, and this was reflected in the cooperation
between individuals and families.

The settled community also had a degree of legal organization and

collective norms.
 Women in Qatari Society Before Oil
Most of the settled Qatari men left their coastal cities and villages during the pearling
season for weeks and months. During this period, no one was left in these villages
and cities except those who did not work, such as the elderly, the infirm, children and
women, in addition to a few men involved in year-round professions like judges,
religious leaders, teachers etc. In this context, Qatari women played an important
role according to their social class, which determined their specific roles.

Wealthy women supervised domestic work done by servants, and they were isolated
from the outside world until they reached adulthood. For this reason they were not
educated, with the exception of learning to read enough Quran to be able to pray.

Despite this “respect” for wealthy women, they did not have any authority
relative to their husbands, who usually married two, three and four women.
This created a separate society of women among the wealthy with its own
customs and rituals, far from the world of men.
 The Role of Women in Bedouin Society

Women joined men in many tasks, including their

travels, guarding and shepherding their animals, and

preparing everything. Women also did traditional

work like raising and caring for children, milking

livestock and preparing dairy products, and spinning

sheep wool and goat and camel hair.

Because of the multiple roles of Bedouin women,

they had more freedom and moved around more

than the settled coastal women, even if this freedom

was not the result of a specific social status but rather

reflected women’s economic .roles.

The Role of Women in Pearling Society

Because of need and low income, the wives of

the pearl divers and others from the same social

class did some work outside the household. This

included tailoring for neighborhood women, carrying

water for the local inhabitants, trading in simple

products they would carry among the houses to sell,

working in the houses of the wealthy, cleaning and

selling fish in the markets, or weaving and cutting

palm leaves and branches. Some women who had

both physical strength and courage even worked as

guards.
 Education in Qatar Before Oil
A. The Kuttab System
There was a great need for education in Qatar

especially among merchants and ship

captains who needed to record their

economic transactions. Merchants and ship

captains led the movement to start an

education system in Qatar, along with some

religious leaders.

There was no formal education in Qatar before oil, but there were around 15 kuttabs
starting in the late nineteenth century.
 Education in Qatar Before Oil
A. The Kuttab System
Education in the kuttabs depended on the teacher.
Kuttabs would often close when their teachers
(mutaawa’) died or retired, especially those that women
supervised.

Kuttabs were usually located in mosques, or

sometimes in private homes. They focused on
memorizing the Quran, some simple religious
matters, and basic principles of reading, writing
and arithmetic. Students would write on a board
to practice.

This type of education fulfilled the requirements of the period’s simple society and its
economic context and social needs until the post-World War II era.
Kuttab education was not stable, because it depended on the volunteers
and funders that supported it. However, these schools provided what the
society needed in terms of teachers (mutaawa’) and mosque imams, and
they never aimed to provide any kind of crafts or vocational skills.

Kuttabs in Qatar included girls and boys until age ten, and mixed the
children of the wealthy and the poor. Usually the wealthy would pay
for the kuttabs by paying the teachers a salary and buying the basic
supplies needed for reading, writing and arithmetic.

There were girls’ kuttabs that were run by female teachers, usually
in their homes.
Ms. Amna Mahmud al-Jayida was one of the most well known
female teachers, and she was a pioneer for working women in
Qatar. She was the first female teacher and the first principal of the
first modern girls’ school in Qatar that was established based on her
kuttab in 1956.
 Some Qatari kuttabs became famous in the early twentieth century, and were known as
schools because of their high quality and the level of their graduates.

These included: The kuttab/school of Shaykh al-Rahbani, Shaykh Ibn Hamdan, Shaykh

Mohammad al-Jabir, Shaykh Hamad al-Ansari, Shaykh Al-Darham, Shaykh Sanayd,etc., as well

as the kuttab of Amna al-Mahmud, which became the first modern school for girls in 1956. In

general, the kuttabs played a limited role because of their teachers’ lack of academic

qualifications.
 B. Early Formal Schools
• Because of the strong relations between Shaykh Jassim and the Ottomans, a
formal Ottoman school called “The Rushdiye School” was established in 1890.

• Arabic language, the principles of Islamic studies, and basic arithmetic were taught
there.
• There were three primary classes and three intermediate classes.

• The education system was Ottoman, and did not continue after the Battle of
Wajbah in 1893.
• Because of the increasing numbers of merchants and their relations with the
outside world, the need increased for schools more developed than kuttabs.

• First initiative with donations from merchants to open first formal school in
Qatar in 1913, called the “Athariya” school. Initially held in a room of Shaykh
Abdullah bin Jassim’s palace, then moved to a place near the al-Mani’ mosque.
 Shaykh Mohammad bin Mani’, who was a judge in
Bahrain, was brought to run the school. It was a well
known school until 1938 when bin Mani’ moved to
Mecca and it closed. The economic decline with the
decline of the pearl trade was directly related to the
closing of this and other schools.
After the end of World War II and the return of the oil
company to Qatar, the country needed a more modern
education system than the kuttabs. Shaykh Hamad bin
Abdullah Al Thani (the crown prince) brought Shaykh
Muhammad bin Ali al-Mahmoud from Sharjah to found a
modern school in 1947.

The new school, called “al-Islah al-Hamadiya”, opened during the 1947/48
academic year. It was named after Shaykh Hamad bin Abdullah.
 Qatari mejlises

The mejlis is an important architectural feature of the Qatari house. It usually had
a private entrance at the front of the house. Some people kept literature, history
and religion books in their mejlis halls, and some held literary meetings and
informal evening gatherings.

The mejlis also had an important economic and commercial role. The merchants,
ship captains, and creditors would meet at the mejlis to agree on funding the pearl
diving operations. Local merchants and the Banyan also used mejlises as trading
spots for buying and selling.

Some people also invited important jurists and writers from the Persian coast,
both to the mejlis and to teach the children of the neighborhood the principles
of reciting the Quran and the foundations of religion during the day, and to
give lessons in the mosque in the evening.
 C. The Effect of Qatar’s Location
on Local Culture
Because of its geographical location and social and
economic systems, Qatar was relatively open to a
number of other cultures from Persia, Africa, and
India, as well as the Arabian peninsula and the west
coast of the Gulf. This had an effect on clothing,
food, the local accent and art and architecture.

In addition to the inherited Arab culture, some Persian practices became widespread
in Qatari culture. These included the way rooms were distributed in the house
according to the design of the Persian coast and they also imported the roofs of
houses (the danjal) from there. The Batula and the embroidered Sirwal for women
also came from the same region, as well as particular foods.
 The Effect of Qatar’s Location on
Local Culture

From India, they adopted embroidery and certain types of furniture.

Many Hindi words also entered the local dialect especially with regard

to trade and pearl diving. Many names of boats are originally Hindi

names, as well as names of pearls like Al-Dana and al-Jiwan. There

are also some African cultural effects especially in folkloric arts that
.
used certain African musical instruments.
 The Judiciary in Qatar Before Oil
Before oil, the judiciary in Qatar relied on the Islamic Sharia and tribal
customs and traditions. The judicial system depended to a great
extent on the Shar’i judge for Shar’i cases and the shaykh of the tribe
in tribal cases and conflicts. The Shar’i judge’s rulings reflected his
personality and interests, and for this reason the judiciary generally
served the interests of the society’s ruling class.
There was a custom that the ruler of Qatar would appoint a shaykh to
hear the complaints of litigants, and if he could not reach a mutually
agreed upon solution between them he would send them to the Shar’i
judge along with his private security force to issue a ruling between
them.
 The Judiciary in Qatar Before Oil

All courts were Shar’i courts except for those dealing with conflicts
related to trade and pearling. The Sharia courts specialized in
marriage, divorce and inheritance cases as well as murder, moral issues
and anything else related to the Islamic Sharia. The Shar’i judge was
from the religious men such as the mosque imams, and its sessions
were usually in the mosque itself or in the personal mejlis of the judge.
The rulings were not recorded, but communicated orally by the judge.
For major crimes like murder and large-scale theft, the shaykh would
attend the trial and sentencing.
 The Judiciary in Qatar Before Oil
There were also courts for commercial disputes like mortgage and credit, markets,

etc.

As for cases related to pearling, they had their own courts called “salifa courts”, and

the ship captains were the judges, and for this reason their rulings were also biased.

Many ship captains gave themselves the right to beat divers, demote them or fire

them altogether.

The salifa courts had a key role in applying labor laws, monitoring taxes for the

shaykhs, maintaining the quality of the pearls sold in markets, and trying merchants

who tried to cheat in the pearl market.

 II: The Economy Before Oil

• Subsistence Economy: Barely produces enough to meet

consumption demands, and produces based on what is
available in the natural environment
• Production for survival/lack of accumulation factors/ wealth
and long-term investments .
• Individuals act in the framework of the community (the tribe,
tribal alliances, etc.
• Transactions were largely barter-based (with limited
exceptions) There were no strong reasons for the economy to
change.
What were the main resources in the Gulf before oil ?

Resources (in order of importance):

1. Diving for natural pearls and
selling them

2. Herding and Fishing

3. Agriculture (in limited locations

dependent on artesian wells and
relative rainfall

4. Revenues from customs fees on

goods traded in Gulf ports.
What was the effect of the pearl trade on Qatar’s economy and
society before the discovery of oil?

• The pearling economy created work opportunities for the

coastal inhabitants, and it also attracted social powers
(Bedouin) from the interior to the coast. (Urban development).
• A relative increase in the coastal population happened, which
was the main pillar of the Gulf society when the modern state
was established.
• Pearls were a key aspect of the regional economy and they
brought the Gulf society into world trade, especially during
periods of prosperity (the late 19th century until the end of
World War I).
• The pearl trade and industry paved the way for modern cities
which were originally villages built on beaches to become the
most important cities after oil.
 The Slave Trade

• The slave trade was one of the forbidden activities that the British
authorities monitored in the Gulf, and all of the agreements with the
shaykhs of the Arab Gulf mention it. However, it continued to be
widespread until the early 1950’s, and Mecca was one of the most
important destinations to which slaves were smuggled especially
during the Hajj season.
• Slaves worked in a number of professions like pearl diving, fishing,
shipbuilding and domestic work, and as private guards to shaykhs of
tribes as well as supporting them in local battles. Owning slaves was
considered a sign of social prestige.
• The British worked with all tools to counter the slave trade for their
own reasons, and this gave hope to some slaves, some of whom fled to
the British political agent with complaints, and the agent would convey
their complaints to the shaykh.
 The Slave Trade
• The Shaykh’s opinion on releasing slaves differed from
that of the British. The ruler wanted to keep the right to
release slaves in Qatar for himself, based on the principle
of compensating their owners, to avoid the opposition
from his family and the people who supported him. He
tried to convince the British to pay a certain amount for
every slave, and he was prepared to pay a quarter of this
amount himself, and he fulfilled this promise especially
after oil revenues increased.
• With the increasing work of the oil companies the slavery
problem solved itself, because the companies absorbed
them as laborers, and the British gave them documents
proving their freedom.
 Travel (Marine Transport)
• A small number of divers and sailors were involved in sea travel, or marine
transport, outside the diving season. This type of work would supplement pearl
diving, not replace it. The ships involved had to be strong, durable and large
enough to carry heavy cargo.
• The ships left Doha heading in two directions. The first was the Basra route that
passed Bahrain, al-Ahsa and Kuwait, where they would be stocked with dates,
wood, flour, grains, clarified butter, textiles, rice, tea, sugar and other goods that
these regions imported from India. The other route went to India passing by the
ports on the Persian coast like Bandar Abbas and Qeshm, as well as Dubai,
Sharjah, Ras al-Khayma and Oman on the Arab side. In these ports they would
trade and sell dates from Basra, and stock up on grains, dried fruit, goats, lemons,
Omani sweets and other goods, and from the Indian ports they would carry back
spices, rope, perfume, sails, etc.
 Travel (Marine
Transport)

There were ships that went to the East

African coast via the Arabian peninsula,

and the port of Aden the main center of

that trade. .

These ships had to return before the

summer so the sailors could work in

pearl diving.
 Pearl Diving

• Pearl diving was the most important

economic activity before the discovery
of oil, even though it was a seasonal
craft that lasted slightly longer than
four months of every year. Most of the
work force in Qatar was involved in
diving.

• The other economic activities, like sea

fishing, farming and herding in the
winter, never took the place of
pearling in the summer, and if the
pearling industry flourished it affected
all aspects of life, and if pearling
declined so did the other crafts, and
along with it the entire economy.
 The Team on the Pearling Ship

• There were about 13,000 laborers

in the pearling industry in 1904,

with about 30 men on board each

ship.

• Each ship was an independent unit

in terms of production, and each

person on board had a specific

role..
 The Dangers of
Diving

Indirect Dangers Immediate Dangers

Divers suffered illnesses especially in

their eyes and lungs, such as
cataracts, cornea infections and lung
diseases. They also got skin diseases Shark Attacks
because they did not bathe in pure
water, so the salt water would
interact with the heat of the sun and
produce skin sores

Sting rays would attach themselves to the

diver’s back, making it impossible to tug the
 The Dangers of Diving

Despite all of this hardship and danger, the pearl divers, deck hands and sailors were

generally from the poorest sectors of society. They were always subject to the

wishes of the ship captains, and they could not do anything without the ship

captains’ approval because they were in debt to them, and they had to pay back

their debts through working on their boats. At the end of the season, the pearl

divers, ship hands and sailors took out more loans for the following year, an amount

called the “tisqam”. The ship captains recorded these loans in special registers, and

this group entered a cycle of debt that lasted their entire lives, beyond their

dependence on the ship captains, their orders and conditions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHWum

-qYBqc&feature=youtu.be
 The reasons for the decline of the pearl trade and the danger of total
collapse of the Gulf economy during the 1930s and 1940s

1. The appearance of the cultured pearl for the first time in the Gulf in
July 1924

2. The Japanese company Kokichi Mikimoto’s efforts to develop the

cultured pearl in the late 19th century and its huge increases in
production starting in the 1920’s.
3. The increasing global demand for cultured pearls because of their
low price and high quality

4. The First World War and its effect on global trade routes
5. The Great Depression (1929-1933) and the collapse of global
financial markets
 The most important results of the collapse of the pearl trade in
the Gulf

1. A decisive blow to the diving profession and the pearl

trade which affected the Gulf economy very negatively
2. Suffering of a large segment of society that inherited the
diving profession
3. The Bedouin tribes who depended on their coastal
connections were also affected
4. Increased importance of finding an alternative to the 4.
pearl trade as a basis for economic life
5. Oil was the economic savior and agent of change that
lifted the Gulf societies to the level of modern countries and
lives of comfort.