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Fisher-folk and fish-traps in al-Baḥrain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

R. B. Serjeant
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For assistance in every Kind of way to obtain the information Presented here I am in debted to Shaikh 'Abd al-'Aziz b. Muḥammad b. 'Abdulāh Āl Khalīfah, and particularly for introducing me to his friend the nawkhudhā 'Abdullāh b. Khamīs al-Shurūqī of al-Ḥidd village, situated on the south-east tip of al-Muḥarraq island, the northern island of the Baḥrain group. Al-Shurūqī entertained us to a fuwalih and took us carefully over his ḥaḍrah, explainig the technicalities involved in siting it, etc. The aerial Photographs reproduced here were made available through the Kindness of the station commander Group Captain Sanderson, R.A.F., and through the exertions of Flight-Lieutenant W. T. Wenham and his staff. I am also indebted to Eric and Beverley Fitzsimmons of the British Council for help in this and other matters

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Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 31 , Issue 3 , October 1968 , pp. 486 - 514
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Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1968

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References

1 Dr Wadiīah Najm has supplied this reference to a passage, not apparently in the printed text of Taha al-Ḥājirī, from a MS.CF. al-Khatīb al-Baghdād;ī', Baghdad, 1964, 186.

2 Sir Charles Belgrave, Personal column, London, 1960, 100.

3 Diīwaān al-KarkhiīA(i.e.'Abbuūd al. Karkhi‚), ed. Ḥusain Ḥātim al-Karkhī, Baghdad, 1956, in the poem entitled al-Majrashah.

4 Marsh dwellers of the Euphrates Della, London, 1962, 76.

5 Al-bukhalaā', ed.Taha al-Ḥaājiriī, Cairo, 1948, 144.

6 Mu'jam al-alfaāẓ al-Kuwaitīyah, Baghdad, 1964, 56.

7 Bertram Thomas, Arabia Felix, London, 1938, 12: al-Hamdaānī, Sifat jaziral al-'Arab, ed.D.H. Muūller, Leiden, 1884–91, 52, and al-i klil erstes Buch, ed. O. Lofgren, Uppsala, 1965, II, 74, who describes them as the ancient inhabitants of Raisuūt (p). (al-BayaĻsirah). In Alarms and excursions in Al-jaājoz. Rasaā'il ed.'Abd al-salaām Haāruūn, Cairo, 1964, II, 298, and Hayawaān, ed.'Abd al-Salaā, HaāruŪm, Cairok, 1938–45, I, 311–12, mentions a type of poultry 'between al-Baidaā'(white type) and al-sindi‚'Known as Baisari‚.

8 Al-Hanafi, op. cit., 216, says it is worn by the Kandari or water-carrier. ShaiKh 'abd al-'Aziz spells it sidairi (with sin), pl. sidairitah, from sidar/sadur'chest'.

9 cf.my remarks on the Arab attitude to poultry in BSOAS, XXIV, 1, 1961, 144.

10 Naqsim, v.n. qismah.

11 op. cit., 33.

12 Descriplio Arabiae meridikonalis...Ta'riūh, ed. O. Lofgren, Leiden, 1951–4, 301. Cf. Ibn Maājid, in G. Ferrand, Instructions rautiques, Paris, 1921–8, I, 69b, who says the population consists of Arab tribes (qabaāil min al-'Arab), and a number of merchants-perhaps by the latter the bahaārnsh are intended.

13 Safad is explained as fuluūs 'scales'.

14 Al-Jaābiz, al-Hayawaān, Cairo ed., I, 297, Iv, 102, VI, 79, irbiyaān (sing. ah). In Aden it is still called ruūbiyaān (crawfish Panulirus spp.)

15 Lorimer, J. GGazetteer of the persian Gulf, 'Omān and central Arabia, calcutta, 1908 and 1915, 2308. Cf. Appendix E, ‘Fisheries of the Persian Gulf’, for some notes on ḥaḍrahs, 2316Google Scholar.

16 Belgrave, op. cit., 47.

17 ibid., 56.

18 This Shi'ah tradition may have its roots in ancient Arabian Practice. For the entitlement of the Hāshimites to the Khums throught their Kinship with the Prophet, of. the traditions assembled by Abū 'Ubaidah, Kitāb al-amuāl, n.d., and QUDāmah b.Ja'far in A. Ben Shemesh, Taration in Islam, II, Leiden, 1965, 51–2, unfortunately very incorrectlly translated at this point.The methods by which the revenues of certain shrines of saints in the tribal districts of south. Yemen are disposed of to-day seem to be closely analogous to the Sh‚ah traditional view on the treatment of the Khums. Cf. al-Wāqid‚ah a useful source is the treatise of the well-Known merchant and bookshop proprietor of al-Bahrain Muhammad 'Ali Tli Tājir, Kitāb muntazam al-durrain fi a' yān al-Qatif wa ''l-Bahrain, consiting okf Sunni and Shi'ah biographies, still in MS form. MF. also 'Anwār al-badrain fi larājim 'ulamā' al.Qafif wa 'l-Ahsā' wa 'l-Bahrain, al-Najaf, 1960.

19 Imptrddiond of a fiahing industry-Dubai Trucial States-Arabian Gulf, report, July 1964, to the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Federal Government of South Arabia.

20 Bahrain Trade Directory, 1383/1963, 114.

21 Jalāl al-Hanafi, op. cit., 167 cites this word but in the sense of a net, as also in Qatar (Dr.T.M.Johnstokne). Cf.I.MacIvor, 'Notes on sea-flshing in the Pohitical Agency for 1880–I, 55, where it is described as a circular cast-net with lead weights round the circumference.

22 cf. Ibn Mājid, loc.cit., and George Rentz, 'Pearling in the Persian Guf', in W.J.Fischel (ed.), Semitic and Oriental studies: a dolume Presented to William Pokpper (University of California Publications in Semitic Philology, 1951,) 402.

23 loc. cit.

24 According to the Bahrain Trade Directory, I14, the large water-skin in which the pearling dhows used to take water from these sea-springs was called farzih.

25 C. de Landberg, Glossaire dalinois, Leiden, 1920–42, gharqān 'noye'.

26 F.S. Vidal, The oasis of al-Hasa, Dhabran (?), 1955, 215. In Hadramawt barāh means a breeze, and at al- Shihr a mibrah is a space upon which pebbles have been laid, used for drying flsh.

27 Ba‚n or bain and zahr are widely used in the Persian Gulf and Arabian coasts in general in this sense, as may be perceived by a study of such authors on navigation as Ibn Mājid and '‚sā al-Qutāmi, Dalil at- muhtār f‚ ilm al- bihār, third ed., Kuwait, 1383/1964, passim, Ihave noted also that bain al-shirā is the inskle of a sail which the wind is filling, and the okutside is the zahr.

28 H.R.P. Dickson, The Arab of the desert, London, 1949, 248.

29 One says, al-bahr Thābir 'tho tide is receding '. The verb is thabara. Cf. al-Qutāmi, op. cit., 247; al-Hanaf‚, op. cit., 68. vidal, op. cit., 5216, gives thabr as a gathering canal in irrigation at al-Hasā'.

30 Mash'ūrah is a seaweed growing in long strands which con tains at best only a few fish. Sometimes the Lazzāq was described as like the kan'ad (sir/seer fish, Cybium guttatum) but with a heaqd like the heel okf a shoe which sticks to t he deck-presumably a sort of sucker?

31 cf. my Portuguese off the South Arabian coast, Oxford, 1963, 195 passim. In al-bahrain one says, Fulālāli 'annā'So-and so is north of us'and nās'allaw(yi'alli)'Peokple who have gone northwards', To go southwards is dabbar, and the south is al-sāfil.

32 T.M. Johnstone and J. Muir, ' some nautical terms in the Kuwaiti dialect of Arabic', BSOAS.xxviI, 2, 1964, spell this width sin, but cite Lorimer's spelling with sād. For al- Bahrain my own observation was probably checked with al-Shurūq‚ at the time, but I have noted from south-west Arabia that the distinction between these twok letters is often unclear. One says of a ship, suuar al-mahmal. The word mahal itself in the sense of a vessel, ship, was linked by my informant with Qur'ān xvi, 72.

33 cf.p.490.

34 T.M.Johnstone has recorded a plural hzār for al-Bahrain. Cf.al-Hansfi, op. cit., 96.

35 Agricultural terms peculiar to the island okccur in Qānūn miyāh al-nakhil, al-Bahrain, 1379/1960, which I am examining.

36 Al-Hanafi, op. cit., 97.Qutāmi, op. cit., 235, gives a photograph of the Kuwait form of hazrah.

37 cf.al- Hansfi, op. cit., 365.

38 Straits Times Annual (Singapore), 1966, 82–4, illus.

39 op. cit., 97.

40 Umbārak as elsewhere in Arabia is a popular form of Mubārak.

41 A derivation suggested for ibxūr is from zūr, i.e. quwrwah, as in akhadh-ah bi'l-zūr'he took it by force'. The name seems to me non-Arabic but I can see no ready derivation from Persian.

42 Explained as Class. Ar. tatabbu'āt, i.e. mā hawlah haqq aw mu'āradah. One says, Al-būs tatabba' al-padiyah.

43 Mistārithah, i.e. hasalat bi'l-irth. Literally the text rups, 'and I, my mother inherited it'.

44 Names like Khalaf and Khalfan mean 'Awad ( name very common in south -west Arabia) Thāni means Monday, and other names for days of the week use4d as proper names are Lihdān, Sunday, Eabi'ah, Wednesday, Khamis, Thursday, Jum'ah, Friday, Sabt, Saturdy. Monthnames used as proper names ate Ramadān, Rajab, Sha'bān, 'Ashūr, and Safar, though of course the last- damed month is unlucky. In al-Bahrain they consider Wednesdy unlucky (yitashāamūn bi-yawm al- Arbi'ā), but they say, al-Rubū' li 'l-dawā' Wednesday is medicine day', On it they take such medicines as sanāh, the alif omitted as in wal-salāh, supra.

45 For Wallāh, the alif omitted as in wal-salāh, supra.

46 Mantūq, explained as ' contents'.

47 My notes suggest that the correct reading here is wa-radi‧Aziz informs me that a fostersister is ikht‚ min al-rdā'.

48 Sic, incorrectly, for al-ard. The tā' of musammā musammāt is incorrect, here and previously, for tā marbūtah.

49 Though these documents were checked over with al-Shurūqi with care, I am inclined to think that one shokuld read 'Miryam bint Saif'. This would make the situation simpple, but if it is correct to take the names as they stand, the only solution could be that Fātimah bint Mubārak married twice, firstly Saif by whom she had Mawzah, and later Mubārak by whom she had miryam. This, however, seems to me a far less likelyl explanation than a simple error in transcription of the names.

50 This lady is called 'Banana ' because the banana is nice! Perhaps it might also be a reference to the colour of her skin though I made no iquiries on this point. In other parts of Arabia I have come across Mawzah as a slave-name. In al-Bahrain it was said that onne calls a slave a nice name for tabarruk, but this is common practice in general.

51 Al-Bat‚n, cf.p.491, n. 27, the sheltered side of al-Hidd.

52 This seems to be a stereotyped formula in documents, as Na'am wa-ana fulān b. fulān.

53 Explained as alladh‚ awjaba '-kitābah.

54 Explained as al-haq‚qah.

55 So pronounced by al-Shurūqi.

56 The last sentence seems to be in saj'.

57 Shaikh 'Isā b. 'Al‚ retired in 1923, but lived till 1932 (Belgrave, op.cit., 10 and 76).

58 The Arabic was explained to mean -so that the kalām 'decision 'should not be concealed-but the phrase is obscure.

59 Arabic (so 'Abd al-'Aziz), but in al-HanafȚ, op. cit., 402, It is supposedly connected with the root h w l, linked with the idea that they are immigrant Arabs. for these events ct., inter alia, Gholam-Reza Tadjbakhche, La quesinon des Iles Bahrein, Paris, 1960, 43.

60 Al-HanafȚ, op. cit., 353 discusses the mutawrwa' who is teacher of boys in a Qur 'an school also. Mutawwa' is further the name of a kind of fish. Al-Hanafi refers to Mutawwa' al-'Amāir, the latter a Bedokuin tribe. In al-Bahrain one says limtawwa' (pl.il-mifaw'ih)according to Shaikh 'Abd al-Aziz.

61 cf. Banāt al-hawā 'Prostitutes' (zāniyah). Wald al-hawā is the corresponding term for the male.

62 This is not a word which figures in Lane's Lexicon, but the sense can be derived from a elassical root.

63 The Murrah are also encountered north of Hadramawt, but see 'Umar Ridā Kahhālab, Mu'jam Qabā'il al-Arab, Damascus, 1949.

64 Quoted by 'Abd al-Salām Hārūn in al-Jāhiz, Hayawā, I, 63.Cf. Mas'ūdi, Murūj al-dhahab, Paris, 1861–77, III, 352.Ibn Sa'd, Tabaqāt, ed.F.Schwally, Leiden, 1905–9, I, I, 98, refers to the 'arrāf of Hudhail who was shown children.

65 This would be the function of the ancient Arabian qā'if.

66 These, of course, are distinct from the satwah of a village. In al-Bahrain a fishing-ground is mahdaq, pronounced mhadaq (pl.mahādiq), hadāq being the act of fishing. Fishing-grounds are called aqwā'(sing.qū')if they are coral reefs or stony rocky areas ('irshān(pl. 'ar‚ah));al-Qutāmi speaks of qū'ah, the hard rock sea-floor. T.M.Johnstone has also given me mismacha/mismakah 'a fishing-ground for simach'.

67 James Belgrave, Welcome to Bahrain, Stourbridge, 1957, 67.

68 This is a Well-known word. Its origin is discussed in a rather Buperficial note by al-Hanafi, op.cit., 403. Rāshid b.Fādil al Bin 'Al‚, Majāri 'l-hidāyah, Manāmab, 1341/1922–3, I, calls it makān maghās al-lu'lu,. a pearl-bed.

69 A najwah (pl. najawāt) is a nabāwah fi 'l-babr, an eminence in the sea with shells below the surface, but it projects when the water is shallow. Lorimer, op.cit., 2220, calls the najwah a submarine mound surrokunded by deep water.He says the hair is often Known from of old, but the na najwah is a recent discover y and still bears the name of the founder. I have heard rather similar statements.

70 op. cit., 191.

71 The contract issued by the Dā'iral al-Awqāf al-Ja'far‚yah is entitled 'Apd iyjār-damān, and the standard form Ihave relates to agricuitural properties, most of the regulations being of a Western.

72 cf. Belgrave, op. cit., 56.

73 These times are defined each year in a document published by the Bahrain Courts With the title I'lān, mūsim al-ghaws li-sanat..., of which I have a copy for 1383/1963–4.

74 Murābahah is well defined in Lane, Lexicon.

75 For the Pearlers a Fasl is an instalment paid after each quffai (close of season) to discharge a debt or loan.

76 cf.T.M.Johnstone, Eastern Arabian dialect studies, London, 1967, 101. He has suggested that this word might be derived from the Mabri root b ' to fish'.

77 Shaikh 'Aziz states that marsh‚ is ism maf 'ul from rā (v.n.mrāh) 'to persuade', used in al-Bahrain specially for children.

78 Administration Report of the Persian Gulf Political Residency and Muscat Political Agency for 1880–1, Cf.the list of fish in Lorimer, op.cit., 2308 f., 'Fisheries of the Persian Gulf'.

79 Al-Jāhiz, al-Bukhala', 102, etc. Cf. al-Damiri, Hayāt al-hayawān, trans, Jayakar, London, 1906–, 501, juwāf; Ibn al-Nihāyah, Cairo, 1311/1893–4, I, 219, juwāfah, a poor-quajity fish.

80 Therse fish-names are also to be found in al-Hanafi, op. cit.

81 Al-Hanafi, op. cit., sibait‚ Johnstone, op. cit. 204, sbeef‚ ShaiKh 'Add al-'Aziz, sbiti. It is described as ' a large porgy'.

82 For MacIvor's 'ghulee'.

83 The Zaidi sect of the Sh‚ ah does not permit that fish found floating on the sea be sold.

84 Belgrave, op.cit., 56: ' It was at this time (1928) that the Government took an important step by placing the administration of Shia Waqf property, which had been dealt with by the Kadhis, in the hands of an elected council kof tokwn and village Shias. This was a popular move as in the plast much of the proceeds of an elected council of town and village Shias. This was a popular move as in the past much okf the plroceeds from the property, gardens, houses, fish-traps and shops, which had been bequeathed by Shias in the past for religious purposes, had not been spent on the objects for which it was dedicated'.

85 cf. Gazetteer, Appendix E.

86 Although the Muslim Year is used, this in itself would make no appreciable difference to the circumstances.

87 There is no figure for 1377, commencing 29 July 1957, because, instead of dividing the annual income, the partners (al-ahurakā')took the entire income for that year, but received nothing in the year following.

88 cf. my ' Star-calendars and an almanac from south-west Arabia', Anthropos, XLIX, 3–4, 1954, 436.The Shibām star-calendar commences in January with al-Han'ah.

89 Al-Saiyid 'Abd al-Rahmān al-Hashim‚, al-Taqw‚m al-Bahrain‚ li-ām 1382 hijr‚yah (sic) 1962–1963 m., al-H‚rab, al-Bahrain, n.d.: 'Abdullah b. Ibr‚m al-Ansāri, al-Taqwim al-Qatari bi 'l-tawqit al-'Arab‚ wa l- zawali li- am 1383 hijri, al-muwāfiq 1963–1964 milā al-Dawhah, Qatar, n.d.

90 op. cit., 249. Dickson does not seem to have understood the system very exactly, and his valuable data are somewhat confused.

91 In al-Bahrain I was tokld that the Mala'suhail (rising of Suhail) falls on 26 August, and that it rises with al-Tarf, i.e.Tarf al-Asad, which information corresponds with the table infra. The Bahraini almonac says that after Suhail, from 28 August, the heat begins to diminish a little.

92 cf. my portuguese, 174. At Khawr Fakkān I come across a type of calculation used by fishermen which I had not time to examine properly. They say, Al-darr dashsh fi 'l-Asad 'The darr enters in al-Asad'. This last I' assume is the zodiacal sign (burj), according to the Qatar‚ almanac, 25 July to 24 August. Suhail in Qatar falling on 18 August within that period, I surmise that the darr calculation commences from Suhail in Qatar falling kon 18 August within that period, I surmise that darr calculation commess from Suhail. I was told that the sardine srives fi thalāthin min al-darr. Mr J. Wilkinson of Shell has confirmed to me that in Buraimi the darr commences from Suhail, adding that the darr system which he has studied, is not to be found in Oman proper, but it is used in the Zāhirah. My investigations in Socotra seemed to indicate that it was not known there, but I found the Shahrā of Hallān‚yh island of the Kuria Muria group which I visited through the Kindness okf the High Commissioner, Sir Richard Turnbull, in 1966 use a darr system, 12 darrs to the year, each of abkout 30 days. Mr G. Tibbetts has pointed out tome that Ibn Mājid (G.Ferrand, Instrucliques, Paris, 1921–8, I, 145b-145b) has composed a poem on the darr system. It appears to consist of 10-day periods commencing on the 150th day of Nairūz in the zodiacal sign al-Thawr, i.e. about September. This would applear not to be the NairĻz discussed in my Portuguese, but further investigation would be lengthy.

93 Al-Bahrain has only four seasons- Saif, 24 June; Khar‚f, 25 September; Shitā', 23 December;Rabi, 22 March.

94 This incorrect spelling is in the original.

95 Al-Dhirā' is also called Dhirā' al-Asad, falling in the period al-Asad. As I did not register local pronunciation for these names, vocalization is according to the lexicons.

96 Since this article was Written, Dr.T.M.Johnstone's Eastern Arabian dialect aludies has appeared, containing in easy systematic transliteration, some of the vocabulary of this study. I have not aimed at consistency between the standard and colloquial forms of Arabic, but have registered it as spoken to me, by plersons educated and uneducated. Differences, as one expects, Will be apparent in our vowelling according as an individual speaker uses standard or dialectal Arabic, even when a word is not so classical as to figure in the lexicons. If we differ okccasionally over consonants-Arab writers themselves often differ in this respect also. While I accept that persons speaking dialectally might employ other vowels than I haverecorded I have retained the spellings as I heard them in 1963. I am much indebted to Dr. Johnstone for looking through my article and commenting upon it.