Diving into pearling history

THE Pearl Pathway will cover around 3.22km in South Muharraq and will feature a natural shoreline and buildings where individuals of the pearling community lived, worked and prospered over a period of 5,000 years including residences, mosques, souqs, amaras or warehouses and Majlis - the places for special gatherings.

It will reveal the living conditions and roles of various individuals in the pearling hierarchy including the nukhida or vessel captain, the pearl divers, the men who delivered sweet water and food to the dhows out at sea, timber merchants and the medicine men.

The merchants who played such a prominent part during the pearling era will also be highlighted. There were two types - one was the ground merchant who sold his goods to traders directly and the second was the tawawish, the sea merchants or the 'brokers' of pearls who bought the gems directly from the dhow captains.

They then sold their pearls to the ground merchants or directly exported them, most specifically to Mumbai, India, which was the strongest pearl market at the time.

Of the many restoration works covers Fakhro House which will be converted to a modern art gallery as well as a majlis and include a new community centre.

Nearby Murad House which will be converted into a traditional guest house, which is a unique aspect of the project. Dr Rudolff said: 'It will have 14 guest rooms and people can stay overnight to get the feel of living in a real Bahraini house.'

Well-known Bahraini pearling merchant's property Syedi Majlis will become a Museum of Pearling exhibiting two themes - one the life of the ground merchants and the other highlighting the life history of the pearls and the stunning jewellery items they became. The family will continue to live in a private property nearby.

The Fakhro Amarat property will be restored and host a new multi-media visitor centre featuring an artifact and video-audio documentation of the pearling era.

A special section will be dedicated to children for hands-on pearling experience and information. The two amaras were used as warehouses in the past and sold mainly food items and dhow building equipment.

The centre will also feature a documental archive with a comprehensive collection of records on pearls for researchers and students studying the subject.

Dr Rudolff said: 'We are also planning a specialised library of pearls centred in Bahrain for those interested in carrying out research or wishing to write about the industry's history.'

The project also includes three oyster beds in the northern territorial waters of Bahrain, namely Hayr Bu-Lthama, Hayr Bu am'amah and Hayr Shtayyah.

The closest oyster bed is 25km from the beach and will be used to promote underwater tourism once the project is complete.

Dr Rudolff explained that once the project is complete, boat tourism will also be promoted under two categories.

She said: 'For people who can dive, scuba diving will be available where they can explore the underwater on their own. For those who cannot, the boat will be equipped with an underwater camera and they can view the underwater sights at that very location on a screen.'

In order to link the oyster beds to the houses, Dr Rudolff's team had to locate a traditional, natural beach area to meet Unesco requirements.

Dr Rudolff said: 'We had a hard time identifying a beach that was really authentic until we finally found a natural one in Muharraq which was located on a coastguard base.

'We negotiated with the Ministry of Interiors to use it and will be building a wall that separates it from the coastguard to make it publically accessible at any time while not threatening security.'

In order to protect these three beds, the ministry is also preparing a well-developed conservation programme to ensure the protection of the pearls as a natural resource.

In earlier days the beach which connected the oyster beds to the main land was used as a location for special festivals in which the women folk of the pearling community and their children celebrated as the dhows left and returned to the shore. Dr Rudolff said: 'The pearl diving season was a very remarkable time. It lasted about four months and ten days during which the entire male population of Muharraq was out in sea which meant the women lived amongst themselves until the men returned home.

'The lives of the women changed dramatically as they had to carry out functions which the men would normally have undertaken and manage on their own.'

The grand festivals were called Rakbah on the day they left to sea and Quffal on the day they returned.

When the first dhows were seen on the horizons, the pearling crews' families would gather on the beach to welcome their fathers, brothers and husbands home.

Dr Rudolff explained: 'It was a dramatic event as not all of them survived the seas - there was a lot of death on board. The women would watch out to be assured that their loved ones were safe.

'There was a code. Every boat that lost men during the diving season would raise a black flag. The first thing the women would try to do is check for the boat their family members were on to see if there was a black flag.

'If there wasn't one, then they would celebrate immediately before even the boat arrived, but if there was a black flag then they would anxiously wait to see who would, or would not, come back.'

The ministry is planning to re-introduce the festivals to provide an insight into how people lived and thrived during the period.

Dr Rudolff said: 'The idea of the pathway will be to tell the story of the social community during the pearling era - house per house a new story could be introduced and offer the visitor a new perspective on the industry.

'Aside from the positive aspects, it will also show the difficulties of a diver, who often faced financial troubles as well as physical challenges.

'It's not always a beautiful story ... and we feel it is important to show all aspects of life at this time.'

PROFILE:_Dr Rudolff

Dr Britta Rudolff, a German, came to the island in 2005 after meeting Shaikha Mai at a UNESCO conference in South Africa.

She had worked with UNESCO, the UN and an Italian cultural organisation called Iccrom as well as teaching at universities in Germany and Canada and working in the Ministry of Culture in Syria.

Dr Rudolff, completed her degree in Conservation of Culture Property, post graduation in World Heritage Management and earned her PhD in Cultural Geography.

Dr Rudolff, 36, lives in Muharraq.