Lorimer’s Gazetteer of the Arabia

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Table of Contents

Abstract
Introduction
The Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and central Arabia
The Gulf of Oman
Reference List

Abstract

This paper will attempt to give a detailed account of John Gordon Lorimer and his Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and central Arabia. The paper will further give reasons as to why he produced Gazetteer and also provide some account about his history in the United Arab Emirates. The paper will finally give some insights into the Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Arabia. The paper concludes by attesting the importance of John Gordon Lorimer to the development of the history of the Persian Gulf by addressing importance issues such as slavery, trade, geography among others.

Introduction

John Gordon Lorimer was an Indian civil service official. He used a lot of his personal knowledge of the gulf to give a detailed account of the history of central and Eastern Arabia. Information on this area was rare at that time and his account was a masterpiece. The Gazetteer is characterized with geographical statistical, historical, and sociology information of the gulf. He moved to the US in the early 1900 and extensively published this information 1902 -15. The information later became a source of historical information of the Gulf region, comprising of central Arabia and Oman. These publications were carried out in secret because of political situation that prevailed between the local, the sultan kingdom and the British colonial administrators.

Lorimer also got his information from various sources besides his personal knowledge of the countries of the Gulf. It is said for instance he also got the information from a couple of confidential sources, residency reports, commercial agencies’ reports and even from other publications. The intention of compiling the Gazetteer was to help the British agents with information that was important for their interests there. This would actually aid in policy making and also make them maintain a tight grip in area.

The Gazetteer was actually a single most source of material on the Gulf of Arabia and Saudi Arabia. Lorimar was such a strickler to detail and in the volumes he produced no detail was left out. His love for detail could be described as obsessive. To achieve this, he was armed with other ten researchers with whom they went through government archives in Bombay and Calcutta. He also organized field trips to gather information from informants.

The Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and central Arabia

The Gazetteer took two perspectives: historical and geographical. For the historical angle the Gazetteer dealt with information concerning the regions and their political orientation. The information was quite detailed too. It also looked provided detailed of the genealogical trees, maps of the ruling families etc. This information as earlier on suggested, was very important as it would talk specifically on issues such as the sultanate of Oman, Arabistan etc. No other publication has proved essential to history like this account.

The historical material could even go further and talk of the periods of arrival of the Portuguese in 1500 and then the western settlers. It further gives an account of the commercial interests of these settlers until 1907. Naval history is also given not forgetting the slave trade. For the economic activities the work contained information and data on fishing, shipping, pearling, date production etc.

Information crucial for sociologists was also provided for instance a lot was said on religious sects, tribes etc. The Gazetteer also provided geographical information which was statistically detailed. Most of this information was collected and compiled by Lorimer and his ten researchers. It covered areas such as trade, taxation, physical condition of the Gulf area etc. For instance it could talk of the physical trading routes between the different regions in the Gulf, the position of the regions (countries) in relation to the sea water frontiers namely Red sea, Arab sea, Gulf of Oman, gulf of Aqaba and the Arabian Gulf. Another issue covered in the Gazetteer was the physical aspect of regions. Their location advantage was also included in the details provided.

The Gulf of Oman

From the Gazetteer Lorimer gave the exact details of the Gulf of Oman. It is from the account that we learn that the Gulf of Oman serves as the only Gateway or route to the Persian Gulf from the Indian Ocean. It is sandwiched on both sides by Iran from the north and the present United Arab Emirates on the West. We also learn that through the Gulf of Oman transportation by sea is facilitated. Actually, Oman is a strait (and not an actual gulf) which connects the Arabian Sea with the Strait of Hormuz. This strait then extends to the Persian Gulf.

Oman has an area of 300, 000km square and lies within a region where monsoon climate dominates (Peterson, 2004, p.12). The Capital city of Oman is Muscat. About 15 percent of the land surface is mountainous in US and with no vegetation. 65% of the land comprises the wadis (wide gravel plains) which usually extend from the mountains to the sea. The vegetation is majorly thorny. There are also oases. Oman has suffered greatly from the influence of the tribal heads.

Lorimer recorded that Abu Dhabi is situated on the coast of Trucial Oman, which is around 88 miles south –west of sharjah. He further provided the exact location of those trade locations for instance he recorded from informants that Hadd was 15 miles to the north and that it was nearest of the Gulf Pearl banks. He also recorded that around Shaikh was, at the outskirts of the town, a bazaar of Indian traders.

Lorimer also provided some information on the population of the area and the economy. Lorimer said that the inhabitants of Abu Dhabi lived almost entirely on pearl diving, fishing or even by petty trading. There were also few dates, about 750 camels, 85 horses etc. The Shaikh and his family owned 90% of the cattle.

The presence of Indian traders in Oman reflects the long links that Oman had with India. The Gazetteer shows that there were many Indian merchants in Muscat. These were mostly Banyans, Hindu merchants from Sind who formed a trading axis with Muscat during the time of Portuguese occupation. The Gazetteer estimated the number of Banyans by the turn of the twentieth century to be approximately 299 adult males, some 50 women and a few children. These were engaged in several activities such as banking, rice importation, sugar, and coffee from India, dates exportation, silver and even some owned gardens in Muscat’s suburbs (Lorimer, 1907, p.185).

The Persian Gulf is also sometimes referred to as Arabian Gulf but historically, according to Gazetteer, it is referred to as the Persian Gulf. The Gulf is located between the present day Iran and India, thus it is an extension of the Indian Ocean. (Potts, 1990, p.63). The Gulf is also endowed with extensive coral reefs, pearl crystals and good fishing grounds.

It is also recorded in the Gazetteer that most parts of the Persian Gulf were ruled by Nomadic tribes and through several conquests the Gulf has been controlled by ruling families (Bhacker, 1992, p.89).

Slave trade is also another aspect that Lorimer’s work captured in the Middle East. There was a high demand for labour especially in the pearl and dates industry in Arabia. Besides pearl, Arabian diamond, gems and precious stones were also traded in. There was therefore need for labour which mainly came from East Africa in the form of slaves. Between 1873 and 1905 the value of pearl exports from Bahrain also increased and this also attracted additional labour who engaged in slave business. The merchants found slave trade so profitable. The Gazetteer describes how the slaves could be taken to diving boats and only be paid at the end of the season.

The captain could select a pearl bank to be fished. Each diver wore only loin cloth and a knife. The divers were made to stay undersea for as long as they could hold their breath. After the oysters were collected and placed on the boat it was also the duty of the divers to search the smelly flesh of the oyster for pearls. The season would last 130 days. The dates was also an important cash crop in the Arabia gulf, it was a global crop which was gaining popularity across the global market in the nineteenth century.

The gulf like any other Middle East countries and the rest of the world shifted its attention to this agricultural farming aimed at exporting the crop exchange for foreign cash during the nineteenth century. Most of the dates produced in the Arabia were consumed locally but a minimal was exported mostly to India. The export of dates provided an opportunity for Arabians to have a strong regional trade and it facilitated the importation of staples such as rice, cotton pieces sugar and metals from India.

The logistics was made possible by use of efficient ships which operated from the port of Muscat. Dates were mostly grown at Basra, Al-Hasa and Muscat this was because of cheap slave labor and availability of good climate in the region. The expanding global economy in Dates made use of the existing trade that was in place.

All the proceeds from diving season were taken by the master (Weber, 1930, p.74). Captains and boat owners abused the divers since the divers were illiterate and had no rights. It was surprising to note that this business attracted even free men. Lorimer, (1907, p.45) stated that the divers were “mostly poor Arabs and free negroes or Negro slaves…” He added that most of the Negroes were from Africa and that “a few are Baluchees from Makran coast between India and Persian…” (Lorimer, 1907, p.228).

In conclusion, Lorimar’s work is of great importance to the historian and the general public as it opened up the Persian Gulf to the rest of the world. This has led to a number of historical investigations into the once neglected Gulf region. He recorded to great detail the situation as it was then and this expose has served as a benchmark through which any change in the region can be based.

The issues of great importance that he brought about were slavery, trade, genealogy, geography etc. These records have proved quite useful as they also show the impact of interaction not only in Asia but also with the outside world.

Reference List

Bhacker, M. (1992). Trade and Empire in Muscat and Zanzibar. The Roots of British Domination. New York: Routledge.

Lorimer, J. G. (1907). Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf. Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing.

Peterson, J. E. (2004). Oman’s Diverse Society: Northern Oman. Middle East Journal, Vol. 58, No. 1 pp. 32-51. Web.

Potts, D. (1990). The Arabian Gulf in Antiquity. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Weber, M. (1930). The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. London: Unwin University Books.

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