Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T00:31:52.971Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

“Enough, Enough, Oh Ocean”: Music of the Pearl Divers in the Arabian Gulf

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2016

Nasser Al-Taee*
Affiliation:
University of Tennessee

Extract

      They fight death and all its elements
      While smiling

      O how I suffer from the long nights
      Witnessing those motherless divers
      Every time a month passes by, another follows
      Until the eyes grow old.

Murshid bin Sa’d al-Bithali.

      Oh, how lucky are the rich
      Who no longer cross the ocean as me.

      And again:
      If I was rich and a merchant
      I would never have endeavored
      But I'm weak and all I have
      Is my cane.

Fahad Rashid Boorsely

Type
Essays
Copyright
Copyright © Middle East Studies Association of North America 2005

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Al-Mallah, Isam. 1997. Al-Musiqa al-Omaniyah al-Taqlidiyyah wa Ilm al-Musiqa [Oman’s Folk Music and Ethnomusicology], 2 vols. Tutzing: Hans Schneider Verlag.Google Scholar
Al-Manna’yee, Ali Shabeen. 1992. “Al-Ghaws ala Al-Lu’lu fi al-Shi’r al-Sha’bi al-Qatari” [Pearl Diving in the Folk Poetry of Qatar] Al-Ma’thurat Al-Sha’biyyah 27: 721.Google Scholar
Al-Rufa’ee, Hissah al-Sayyed Zayd. 1985. Aghani al-Bahar: Dirasah Folkloriyyah [Songs of the Sea: A Folkloric Study]. Kuwait: Manshurat That Al-Salasil.Google Scholar
Al-Taee, Nasser. 1997. “Wealth of a Tradition: Ritual Ceremonies and Dance in the Music of Dhofar,Pride 4: 11018.Google Scholar
Bowen, Richard LeBaron Jr., 1951. “The Pearl Fisheries of the Persian Gulf,Middle East Journal 5/2: 16180.Google Scholar
Campbell, Kay Hardy 1996. “Recent Recordings of Traditional Music from the Arabian Gulf and Saudi Arabia,Middle East Studies Association Bulletin. http://fp.arizona.edu/mesassoc/Bulletin/campbell.htm.Google Scholar
Eisler, Laurie A. 1985. “Hurry up and Play my ‘Beat’: The Zar Ritual in Cairo,” in UCLA Journal of Dance Ethnology 9: 2331.Google Scholar
Gibbs, H.A.R.Translator and selector. 1953. Ibn Battuta: Travels in Asia and Africa (13251354), third impression. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul LTD.Google Scholar
Harban, Jasim. 1996. L’Fjeri [The Fjeri], Silsilat al-fann al-sha’bi fi al-Bahrayn. Manama,Bahrain: al-Mu’assasah al-Arabiyah.Google Scholar
Hourani, George F. 1995. Arab Seafaring in the Indian Ocean in Ancient and Early Medieval Times, revised edition. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Ibn, Battuta 1960. Rihlat Ibn Batuta [The Journey of Ibn Battuta]. Beirut: Dar Beirut Littiba’ah wa al-Nashr.Google Scholar
Jargy, Simon. 1994. “Cultural Traditions of the Arabian Peninsula,liner notes to A Musical Anthology of the Arabian Peninsula. Vol. 2. VDE-781: 2235.Google Scholar
Jasim, Haya. 1991. “Min Aghani Al-Bahr fi al-Khaleeg: ’Tawb Tawb Ya Bahar’” [From the Tradition of Sea Songs in the Gulf: “Enough Enough, oh Ocean”], Al-Mathurat al-Sha ’biyah 21: 5965.Google Scholar
Olsen, Poul Rovsing and Wegner, Ulric 2001. “Arabian Gulf,New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd edition, Vol. 1. London: Macmillan Publishing: 795–97.Google Scholar
Racy, Ali Jihad. 1988. “Tanbura Music of the Gulf,” in The Arab Gulf States Folklore Centre. Vol.2: 133.Google Scholar
Saunders, L.W. 1977. “Variance in Zar Experience in an Egyptian Village,” in Crapanzano, V. and Garrison, V. eds, Case Studies in Spirit Possession. New York: John Wiley & Sons: 177–91.Google Scholar
Shawqi, Yoseph. 1989. Mu’jam Musiqa Oman al-Taqlidiyyah [Dictionary of Omani Folk Music]. Muscat: Oman Folk Center.Google Scholar
Touma, Habib Hassan. 1977. “The Fidjiri, a Major Vocal Form of the Bahrain Pearl-Divers,World of Music 19, Nos. 3-4: 121–33.Google Scholar
Villiers, Alan. 1940. Songs of Sinbad: an Account of Sailing with the Arabs in their Dhows, in the Red Sea, Around the Coasts of Arabia, and to Zanzibar and Tanganyika: Pearling in the Persian Gulf: and the Life of the Shipmasters, the Mariners and Merchants of Kuwait. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.Google Scholar