Hundreds of years ago, the resident population earned a meager living fishing, pearl diving or creating a valuable purple die from shellfish.  Even today, many Qatari families can trace their history to the coastal dwellers. 

Pearling was an important part of the Qatari economy, but started to decline in the 1920's and 1930's with the Great Depression and the rise of the Japanese cultured pearl industry.

Originally, the sea itself was a source of sustenance.  Now it's the exploitation of rich undersea hydrocarbon deposits that brings wealth and prospertiy to the country, while the warm turquoise waters feature prominently in the attractions of the tourism industry.

 

For hundreds of years, pearling was one of two main activities in Qatar, the other being fishing. Life was extremely harsh – thousands were dependent on the weather, the skill of the captain in finding the best oyster beds, and the divers for their ability to stay down for prolonged periods to scour the seabed. Storms could sometimes sink boats with the loss of the entire crew – a catastrophe for the whole community.

Mesopotamian trading documents from 2000 BC refer to ‘fish eyes’ imported from the Gulf, believed to be a reference to the region’s superb natural pearls. Though man learnt that pearls were not in fact fish eyes, it was hundreds of years before people began to understand the way in which they were formed, and stories abounded about their origins, some saying that they were angels’ teardrops, others that they were dewdrops which had fallen to the seabed from heaven.

For thousands of years, natural pearls have been valued for their beauty and scarcity, and until the development of Japan’s cultured pearl industry, pearling formed the backbone of Qatar’s economy. At the beginning of the 20th century, almost 13,000 men worked from over 800 dhows. Sailing three times a year and spending up to six months at sea, most took loans to buy provisions to sustain their families.
Despite the drab outer layer, the inside of the shell is radiant with the nacre or ‘mother of pearl’. If an irritant enters the oyster, additional nacre is secreted to envelop and cement it to the inside of the shell, forming a blister pearl. Marine biologists believe that freely moving pearls form when the irritant cannot be cemented to the shell, and the pearl develops instead within the body of the oyster.

 

Known as lu’lu or igmush, pearls consist of minute crystallites of calcium carbonate, with overlapping platelets of aragonite which give them their characteristic sheen. Usually creamy white, they can also be deep grey, pink or peach. Each pearl is unique – it could take 30 years to collect enough matching pearls to make a necklace – and is assessed for colour, shape and size. By rolling the pearl gently under his fingertips, the merchant sought out imperfections before passing the pearls through a series of sieves with different sized holes: those in the largest sieve were known as ras; in the next sieve batn; in the third thail or zayl; and in the next ruweiba. Tiny seed pearls passing through even the smallest sieve were known as sahtat.

 

Al Deyeen : a basket made of cotton net. The divers hang it on their neck to fill it with oysters while diving.

Al Khabt : a piece of leather covering the fingers of the diver to protect their hands while collecting the oysters.

Al Fetam : a nose clip made of tortoise shell, used to close the nose of the divers while diving. Divers used this tool to prevent them from exhaling air, or inhaling water through their nose while diving in search for pearls.

Al Kher : a piece of stone or led attached to the diver’s foot to help him go deep into the sea. This stone was pulled up by the Seib as soon as the diver achieved the required depth.

Shimlul : cotton shorts worn by the divers during the dive.

Al Maflag : the knife for opening the oysters.

Al Falas : a small pot divers used to collect the pearls when opening oysters.

 

Each ship had a complex division of labour with a captain (nokhda); pearl divers (ghasah); men to pull the divers up (siyub); extra hands called radfah; and apprentices (walaid) who did the chores. Each boat also had a lead singer, the nahham, since music had an important role on board. There were two shifts, one group constantly singing and playing percussion instruments to spur on the others. The ghasah would make 10 to 50 dives a day, each anything up to one and a half minutes, and would only break for midday prayers.

 

They wore shirts and wax earplugs, but had little other equipment: tortoise shell nose clips (fatm) and finger stalls (khabat) to protect their fingers from the sharp coral, rough shells and occasional poisonous dragon fish. To reach the seabed swiftly, the divers placed one foot into a looped rope with a lead weight, with a second rope tied around their waist; a tug on the rope told the siyub that the diverwanted to return to the surface. Most divers worked at a depth of 8-10 fathoms – only the most skilled were able to dive up to 14 fathoms.

 

A small bag or wire basket of oysters was emptied onto the deck after each dive, until just before sunset. The oysters were left overnight and opened just after dawn prayers the next morning. Small knives with curved blades pried open the shell, always under the watchful eye of the captain, who kept all the pearls for the merchants that visited each ship during the season. The money from the sale of the pearls was divided between the captain and crew according to a strict format; sometimes the men barely earned enough to cover their loans.

 

The working day was long and the food was simple. Water was always in short supply and fresh fruit and vegetables were non-existent. Many divers suffered from respiratory and brain diseases due to the repeated restriction of oxygen.

 

Fishing 
Provided fishing food and income for families living on the coast, where fishermen were fishing on the beach by hook or the net, using the network of Kherom small to catch shrimp, and Related Kherom thickness of two fingers of fish medium size, with Kherom thickness of four fingers of fish large. 
There were several places in the walls of limestone on the beach called "heady" with long, narrow corridor of a fishery and a trap, it was working, depending on the movement of tides.When the sea is in the case of D, to enter the fish from above the walls; and occurs when the islands, surrounding the fish using spears triceps (as was the Lobsters are caught in the same way). And the viewer can until the present day to see the fishing boats sail from Doha, Al Khor, Al Wakra and Al Ruwais, loaded with piles of fisheries domed called the "Gargour." 
  
Boat Building

Was "Kulalev" or boat builders known for their skills in Qatar reverting the traditional Arab way to collect panels together by wooden bolts before putting the ribs (as opposed to European-style ribs that start and then add the wood-based panels). The builders used simple tools Calfos Qataris and drill for the formation of the fundamental pillars of high-quality imported from Africa and the sub-continent Hindi. There was no statue on the front of the boat, but they were Itlunha Izinunha and usually black and white, and blue light.