'File 11/46 Publicity in the Persian Gulf' [‎12r] (23/314)

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Nomad tribes
migratingj
flocks & herds*
Bahrain grave
yard*
-4-
the few tribes which are of purely Persian origin. In the
hinterland of the coast, between Shiraz and Bushire,
wander the Qashqai nomads, their name derived from the
Turkish Kachmak ( to run away ), because they split off
from the Seljuk Turks; and further south, above Lingah,
are the grazing grounds of the Khamseh, the five tribes
whose Arabic name betrays their racial origin.
12. The population is no less mixed on the Arab coast.
Kuwait, indeed, with its close commercial links with the
Bedu dwellers of the desert is nearly pure Arab. Bahrain
has a 3hia population called the Baharina ( the name is
merely the Arabic " broken plural” of Bahraini) who
represent the original population which dwelt there before
the asxtgijudtx conquest of the island by its present
rulers, the Al Khalifah-a sub-branch, originally, of
the great Ajman tribe. It would be too tempting, and too
commonplace, to bring in the familiar name of ,f Phoenician”
in describing their origin. However, south of the tora of
Manama, the capital of Bahrain, is a vast area of tumuli,
c vering perhaps ten square niies of the island's surface;
a phenomenon which gives point to the gibe of old
inhabitants, when asked what Bahrain Is like, ” well, it
has the largest gyaxiqaig* graveyard in the world”. It
is claimed by these who have excavated these turauli, that
the articles buried with the dead, and the posture of the
skeletons ( their knees drawn up towards their chin) prove
that the race which buried its dead here originated from
the Mediterranean area .
Omit in filming
Hindu temple at
Muscat
Pearl diving
scenes
13. Phoenician vt not as its inhabitants may have been,
it is interesting that in the Middle Ages the Carraathian
sect of the Ismaili Shias were strongly represented in
Bahrain, from where they sent help and support to the
Fatimici Caliphate in Egypt. Now, however, Ismailis in
Bahrain could be counted on one's fingers, and the strong
hold of that sect in the Gulf is at Muscat. This is,
of course, a fresh immigration from India, and large
numbers of the Khojas and Aga Khanis there still possess
British nationality. Indian Bunnis are mostly to be
found on the Trucial Coast A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. , where they are gwairically
called ” Hyderabadis”. They speak Arabic and wear
.arab dress, except that they affect the coloured turban
rather than the white, hanging Kufiyah of the desert.
14. Apart from Muslims, there are, of course, consider
able colonics cf Hindu traders all up and down the coast;
and their local name of ”banians” truly indicates India's
predominant interest in the Gulf, namely the export trade
to It. In Muscat the Hindu coAony ( nearly all Gujeratis)
is particularly strong, and they have built for themselves
a very fine temple in the best-watered part of the town's
outskirts. A tragic memento of the former heyday of
India's trade with the Persian coast of the Gulf is found
in the presence of a Hindu temple in Bandar Abbas, now
deserted. However, with the end cf autocracy in Persia,
we may hope for a moreliberal commercial policy there, and
puja may scon again bo clone in the temple at Bandar Abbas.
15. Indian traders are not only interested in the
export trade; many of them engage also in the pearl trade.
On the pearl banks the divers plunge from the side of thej
ships all through the summer days, with their simple
equipment of a clip for the nose and a v;ire basket for tk