Emirates Pearl Fishing: A Cultural Treasure Rooted in the Waters of the Gulf

🧭 At the origins of a thousand-year-old maritime heritage

Before glass skyscrapers and desert highways, long before oil and futuristic metropolises, the United Arab Emirates lived to the rhythm of the Gulf winds and the tides. Pearl fishing in the Emirates, now considered a major part of its intangible heritage, was for centuries one of the economic, social, and spiritual pillars of the region.

Dating back at least 7,000 years, according to archaeological excavations in Umm al-Quwain, this activity shaped the lives of coastal communities in present-day Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Ras al-Khaimah, and Sharjah. Long before the arrival of hydrocarbons, the Emirati pearl lit up the markets of Bombay, Constantinople, Paris, and even London.

But this tradition wasn't just an industry. It was a way of life, a symbol of resilience and harmony with nature.

🌊 Pearl season: between rituals, endurance and fraternity

Every year, between May and September, hundreds of dhows would set sail, carrying entire crews of men, young and old, to the pearling shallows of the Gulf.

The journey was harsh: crushing heat, austere living conditions, and a spartan diet. The diver's job—the ghawwās—consisted of diving to depths of 15 meters, often without equipment, holding his breath for over a minute. Attached to a weighted rope, he scoured the seabed for pearl oysters (Pinctada radiata). It is estimated that only 1 to 2 percent of the shells collected contained a usable pearl.

The roles on the ship were well defined: the nahhām, the on-board singer, punctuated the days with poetic songs intended to alleviate the hardship; the sā'ib, responsible for towing the divers; the nukhudhah, the experienced captain, managed navigation, discipline and finances.

Pearl fishing was as much a collective adventure as an initiatory rite of passage.

🏛️ Pearls, jewels of the pre-oil trade

Before oil transformed the UAE's economic landscape in the 1960s, pearl fishing was the main source of income for many families. Natural Emirati pearls, prized for their unique luster and subtle hue, were shipped to the world's finest jewelry stores.

The trade was organized around pearl merchants—called tawāsh —who bought directly from the captains. These captains then resold the pearls to Indian or Iranian traders based in the souks of Dubai or Bahrain. The town of Al Jazirat Al Hamra (now a ghost town south of Ras al-Khaimah) was one of the major centers of this activity.

Today's leading Emirati merchant families – some of whom have built empires in real estate, finance, and hospitality – often owe their initial fortunes to this centuries-old trade.

📉 Decline and rebirth of a forgotten tradition

The 20th century marked a sharp slowdown in this age-old economy. Several factors contributed to this:

1. The Great Depression of 1929, which drastically reduced global demand.

2. The emergence of the Japanese cultured pearl, introduced by Mikimoto in the 1920s.

3. The development of the oil sector, which offered stable, better-paid, and more secure income.

   
   

Over the course of two decades, thousands of fishermen hung up their nets, and the dhows were left at the docks. But while the economic tradition faded, the memory never disappeared.

In the 1990s, in the face of rapid modernization, the Emirates initiated a series of heritage policies aimed at rehabilitating this maritime memory.

📖 Cultural transmission: between museums, festivals and living testimonies

Today, Emirati pearl fishing is celebrated in several cultural institutions and educational initiatives. The goal: to preserve this ancestral know-how and pass it on to younger generations.

Among the emblematic places:

• The Sharjah Maritime Museum, which exhibits traditional diving instruments, shells and dhow models.

• Abu Dhabi's Heritage Village, where former fishermen share their memories with visitors.

• The Pearling Path in Muharraq (in Bahrain, a UNESCO World Heritage Site but connected to shared regional history), which illustrates the scale of this pearling civilization in the Gulf.

  
  

Many festivals also include reenactments of traditional diving, with young people trained to handle nose clips ( fattam ) or net baskets ( dayeen ) as in the old days.

🌱 A model of sustainability and respect for ecosystems

At a time when oceans are threatened by overfishing, pollution and microplastics, Emirati pearl fishing offers a model of gentle and respectful extraction from the sea.

Unlike other types of industrial fishing, this activity requires neither massive nets nor disturbance of the seabed. Divers collected only what they could carry, and unexploitable oysters were thrown back into the sea, allowing the ecosystem to continue.

Today, some projects even aim to revive local pearl production, by combining traditional techniques and ecological innovation, particularly in the lagoons of Ras al-Khaimah or on the island of Sir Bani Yas.

🗺️ Pearl fishing in the Emirates, a mirror of a national identity

More than a memory of a bygone past, pearl fishing in the Emirates is now a marker of identity for a young, cosmopolitan and forward-looking nation.

In a country where modernity is accelerating at a dizzying speed, this tradition reminds us that there is a soul in the desert, a memory in the waters of the Gulf, and a pride in the effort of transmission.

Many Emiratis today wear pearl jewelry as a tribute to their ancestors, and local authorities are encouraging schools to incorporate pearl history into their curricula.

This return to roots is not nostalgic. It is structuring, almost visionary: by drawing on its ancestral cultural riches, the Emirates are building a present balanced between technology and tradition.

🎯 Conclusion: A sliver of humanity in a world of glass

Pearl fishing in the Emirates is not just a historical anecdote. It is a foundation, a collective memory, a soft light from the depths, which the Emirates have proudly preserved.

Through the songs of the sailors, the sweat of the divers and the brilliance of a natural pearl, it is a whole vanished world that continues to shine discreetly, and which reminds us that true luxury does not reside only in oil or skyscrapers, but in transmission, nature, and shared history.

📚 Sources

• National Archives UAE – Oral Histories of Pearl Miscellaneous

• Sharjah Museums Authority

• The National News (UAE) – “Preserving the Memory of Pearl Fishing”

• ICOMOS UAE Heritage Reports 2022