292 Joseph E. Harris
A Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia, Vol. II, Calcutta,
- In that Gazetteer, Lorimer provides estimates of Africans in certain areas.
For Bahrein he estimates some 11,000 Africans; Kuwait, 4,000; Lingeh,
1,500; Qatar, 6,000; for Oman he simply notes, 'exceptionally numerous'.
His counts were based on various British reports for 1905-07. We should note
that some of these figures are for areas in which intensive date-palm cultivation
occurred—Bassa, Qatar, Oman, for example.
Pearl Diving
The other area with a high African population in Lorimer's survey is Bahrein.
Here several nineteenth-century observers noted the major economic activity
for African slaves in Bahrein was as pearl divers. The demand for them was
reportedly very high, as was the mortality rate. Captain Prideaux reported
that pearl diving was so deliterious to the health in the 1840s that middle-
aged Africans were hard to find, and a Bahrein Sheik told the British political-
officer in the 1890s that the demand remained great. Lorimer simply observed
that 'free negroes or negro slaves' were a large proportion of the divers.
What needs to be determined is the specific relationship between the
Persian Gulf pearl industry and companies in Europe and elsewhere. And what
about the profitability of the industry, whether it was of long standing—that is,
prior to the 1840s when observers seem to have been noticing it? For the present,
no conclusion is made here other than that African labour made this economic
contribution. The extent must await further research.
African crews
In addition to agriculture and the pearl industry, I will comment briefly on
African crews serving on Arab and European vessels. There may be studies on
this subject, I just do not know since I have not devoted much attention to it.
But there are frequent references to the African crews on dhows going to and
from East Africa, and one British official in India observed the large number
of Africans in the British navy during the 1850s. Africans also worked on the
docks at several ports on the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean. These occupations
certainly contributed to economic development in affected regions.
Military
One final area is the military. Of course the use of African soldiers contributed
to political and economic development in several Asian areas, India in particu-
lar. There is some documentation for this in general histories of India and
travel accounts of Ibn Batoutah and others. But I prefer to call attention to
two examples. The first is to Malik Ambar, the Ethiopian who usurped power
in central India in 1602 and governed until 1626. A bit has been written on
him and his achievements, including the expansion of trade, construction of