With GDP per capita approaching $113,000, Qatar it is currently considered the fourth richest country in the world. However, few people know that before rich deposits of oil were discovered underground in 1939, life there revolved around pearls. And they have played a key role in the culture, politics, diplomatic relations and standard of living of the local people for thousands of years. The reins of power were in the hands of the Al Thani royal family of Qatar, who dominated the local pearl industry. It peaked in the early 20th century, as reported in a related CNN article and moneyreview.gr. In particular, the pearls of the Persian Gulf had great appeal to the emerging middle class in Europe and the US. Qatar became the dominant power among its Persian Gulf neighbors, today’s UAE, where in 1907 48% of the working-age population (or almost all men) were employed in the pearl industry.

However, in 1958 the boom ended. “For the first time in many years, not a single ship with pearls left the port of Doha,” the British representative in the Persian Gulf said at the time, as a result, among other things, of the discovery of “black gold” in the area. The contribution of pearls to Qatari life is still evident, from art to modern architecture. Some observant people will also see mother-of-pearl tiles in Doha metro stations. Tourists also have the opportunity to buy rare pearls from the very few fishermen/divers who trade them. While Bahrain and the UAE have revived, albeit on a much smaller scale, pearl trade in recent years, Qatar has lagged behind but is increasingly moving its story forward. For example, some local festivals include pearl diving competitions or related traditional events. And, of course, the history of pearls has a place in the museums of Qatar.

In this light, it is worth noting that the conditions for divers were quite different from those for the rich who traded them. Divers could spend more than four months at sea each summer. “They had almost no food, except for rice, fish and maybe some bread, so they had one problem – scurvy. The amount of water was severely limited, so they bathed in the sea and were wet all the time, so they developed nasty fungal infections,” Robert Carter, a Qatari archaeologist and pearl writer, told CNN. Divers made 50 to 60 dives a day, during which they were often injured by rays or killed by sharks. The dives were carried out with the weight of a stone and the divers, having collected 20 oysters, pulled the rope to bring them to the surface. Pearls were transported in locked boxes, and anyone who tried to steal them had very serious consequences.