Pearling, Testimony of an Island Economy Bahrain

Pearling, Testimony of an Island Economy - Bahrain

Short Report

The site consists of seventeen buildings in Muharraq City, three offshore oyster beds, part of the coast and the Al Qal'at Bu Mahir fort on the southern tip of Muharraq Island, where the boats used for the oyster beds. The listed buildings are properties of rich merchants, shops, warehouses and a mosque. The site is the last remaining complete example of the cultural tradition of appetizers and the wealth it generated at a time when the trade dominated the Golf economy (2th-century until 1930, when Japan developed cultured pearls). It is also an excellent example of traditional exploitation of marine resources and the interaction with the environment, which form both for the economy and the cultural identity of the island's society.

Wonderful Universal Importance

The traditional sea-use of harvesting pearls of oyster beds in the Persian Gulf island of Bahrain economy indeed for millennia. As the most famous source of pearls since antiquity, the Golf industry reached the top of the prosperity at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. The wealth of what has become a global trade is reflected in the development of the merchant quarters of Muharraq. A few characteristic buildings and properties remain as a proof of this proud but dangerous and demanding economic activity which suffered a sudden and catastrophic decline in 1930 as a result of the development in Japan cultured pearls of freshwater mussels.

The property has seventeen buildings integrated in the urban structure of Muharraq city, three offshore oyster beds, and a part of the coast on the southern tip of Muharraq Island, where the boats for the oyster beds.

The architectural testimony consists of residential and commercial structures that tangible expressions of the great social and economic functions and settings connected with society appetizers. Most organizations have survived relatively unchanged since the collapse of the pearl industry in the beginning of the 20th century and witnesses of typical traditions which the industry, and in particular the high degree of craftsmanship in wood and plaster. These buildings create memories of that industry, the support of the social and economic structures, and of the cultural identity.

Source:whc/unesco