Ahmed Al Ali
Pearl diving was among the hardest, most exhausting, and most dangerous experiences ever endured by the people of the sea. It was a journey filled with countless risks, for the diver ventured into the unknown, relying only on God and on the simplest of tools—a rope and a weighted stone to carry him to the seabed. There were no diving suits, no oxygen tanks, and none of the safety equipment available today.
Eighty years ago, a man setting out on a pearl-diving voyage would bid farewell to his family and hand his wife her dowry, knowing he might never return. That is why it became known as “the journey of death.”
The vessel, known as the mahmal, sailed like a floating town, carrying sixty or more men under the command of a single leader—the nokhatha (captain), the undisputed master of the boat. The voyage lasted for weeks, sometimes months. Those who died on an island were buried there; those who died at sea were tied to a weight and committed to the depths. The hardships, exhaustion, and dangers were beyond measure.
A ghayyas (pearl diver) would descend to depths of up to forty metres, clinging to a stone weighing three or four kilograms. He never knew what awaited him below: a shark could attack, debris from a sunken vessel could fall upon him, or countless other unseen dangers might emerge from the depths.
Divers also suffered from numerous health problems. Toxic seaweed and marine plants could cause severe skin inflammations and rashes, while poisonous fish could inflict stings that were sometimes fatal.
A diver could also lose consciousness if his companion failed to notice the signal on the rope and delayed pulling him back to the surface. In some cases, his heart would stop. Fellow crew members would attempt to revive him using traditional methods, including making him inhale the smell of onions, which was believed to restore consciousness if fate allowed him to survive.
A single dive, known as a tabbah, lasted no more than three minutes. The diver blocked his nose to prevent water from entering, and his breath had to suffice for the descent, collecting oysters, and the ascent. About twenty seconds before running out of air, he tugged the rope to signal the seeb, the rope tender aboard the vessel, who immediately began hauling him back to the surface.
The ascent was slow and controlled rather than hurried. Leaning against the rope, with the bag of oysters hanging from his neck, the first words he uttered upon reaching the surface were: “There is no god but God,” giving thanks for returning alive from the unknown.
The oysters were then cleaned, while the pearls were handed to the tawwash, the pearl merchant aboard the vessel, who collected them before selling them to traders once the expedition returned to shore.
Food itself posed another challenge. Divers never ate during the day; they worked on an empty stomach. Rising before dawn, they performed their prayers and immediately began diving, continuing until sunset with little interruption. After every ten dives, they were granted a brief rest known as a qahmah, during which they floated while holding onto a rope net. The seeb would hand them a single date and a small cup of coffee.
Their only proper meal came in the evening, usually consisting of fish and Aweish, a rice dish cooked with date syrup or honey, known in the United Arab Emirates as Baranyoush.
At night, divers slept on woven mats laid over ropes or piles of oyster shells. Skin inflammations were treated with powdered qarat fruit. The fruit was crushed in a mortar, dried under the sun, mixed with fresh water each evening, and applied to burns, saltwater sores, and inflamed skin. By dawn, many divers were ready to return to work. More serious injuries were sometimes treated by cauterization.
Pearl diving followed distinct seasonal cycles. The principal season, known as Ghaws Al-Oud (“the Great Dive”), lasted approximately 130 days. It began in May, when the Pleiades disappeared from the sky, and continued until September, when the sea became calmer, currents weakened, and the water grew warmer. During this season, fleets of pearl-diving boats from across the Gulf sailed together in large convoys.
This was followed by Ghaws Al-Radda (“the Return Dive”), lasting no more than forty days as winter approached and the cooling waters became increasingly unsuitable for diving.
The final season, Ghaws Al-Radidah, lasted less than thirty days before the sea became too cold.
There was also Ghaws Al-Qahhah, carried out at depths of no more than fifteen metres without the use of a weighted stone. Divers left in the morning and returned by evening.
The simplest form was Ghaws Al-Mayanah, practiced mainly by women and children, who collected oysters in shallow waters no deeper than one to one-and-a-half metres.
I was born in 1950 and did not live through the era of the Great Dive, which had already ended in 1945 following the spread of cultured Japanese pearls and the discovery of oil.
Praise be to God for blessing us with wise leadership, and may God have mercy on Sheikh Zayed, who spared the people of the United Arab Emirates from those hardships.
Today, pearl diving survives only as a recreational activity and as a treasured cultural tradition passed down through generations.
Ahmed Al Ali
Maritime Heritage Expert and Advisor to the Abu Dhabi Heritage Authority.
