Pearling
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The Seashore


The seashore had key cultural and strategic functions in the pearling economy. It was the point of departure for the pearling fleet during the annual diving season (Al Ghus Al Kabir) and its return some four months later. These occasions were the most important in Bahrain’s pearling calendar, marked not only by farewells and reunions (or, alternately, by scenes of tragedy when a father or son did not return) among loved ones but also by large festivals held on the seashore.

 

The seashore was also pivotal to the island society’s relations with the wider world. It was here that visitors arrived and departed outside the pearling season, where international traders unloaded goods shipped from India or other parts of the Arabian Gulf, and where diplomatic visitors were officially received.

 

A third role was the seashore’s strategic defensive function: it protected the Muharraq settlement largely due to its inaccessibility. Most of Muharraq’s seashore was extremely shallow because of offshore coral reefs, most of which have now been converted into land through successive land reclamation programs. Muharraq’s harbour was an open area of deeper water at the very southern tip of the island. From there, passengers and goods would be transferred into rowboats and landed at the island’s southernmost shore of Bu Mahir.

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