Seafaring in the Arabian Gulf and Oman: People of the Dhow Kegan Paul Arabia Library

This book is a study of the seafaring communities of the Arabian Gulf and Oman in the past one hundred and fifty years. It is an analysis of the significance of the dhow and how coastal communities interacted in the long tradition of seafaring. In addition to the archival material, this work is based on extensive field research, recording the voices of seamen in over 200 interviews.

The book provides an integrated study of dhow activity in the area concerned and examines the consciousness of belonging to a wider culture of the Indian ocean as expressed in boat-building traditions, navigational techniques, crew organisation and port towns. The book brings together the different measures of time past, the sea, its people and their material culture.

The Arabian Gulf and Oman have traditionally shared a common destiny within the Western Indian Ocean. The seasonal monsoon winds were fundamental to the physical and human unities of the seafaring communities, producing a way of life in harmony with the natural world, a world which was abruptly changed with the discovery of oil.

What remains is memories of a seafaring past, a history of traditions and customs recorded here in the recollections of a dying generation and in the rich artistic heritage of the region.