The Arabian Seas: Biodiversity, Environmental Challenges and Conservation Measures 3030515052, 9783030515058

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Laith A. Jawad Editor

The Arabian Seas: Biodiversity, Environmental Challenges and Conservation Measures

The Arabian Seas: Biodiversity, Environmental Challenges and Conservation Measures

Laith A. Jawad Editor

The Arabian Seas: Biodiversity, Environmental Challenges and Conservation Measures

Editor Laith A. Jawad Auckland, New Zealand

ISBN 978-3-030-51505-8 ISBN 978-3-030-51506-5 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51506-5

(eBook)

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

“My dearest wife Zainab, without your hearty support this book will not see the light” To my daughters and granddaughters. . . . . At the era of seventies of my life, you made me stronger, better, and more fulfilled than I could have ever imagined. . . . I love you all to the moon and back

Preface

I was always fascinated by the seas surrounding the Arabian Peninsula during my career in ichthyological science and especially fish taxonomy that extends over the last 45 years. These vast marine areas have a peculiar shape as they appear on the map, and their habitats and biota lack extensive and continuous exploration. The Arabian seas are those seas surrounding the Arabian Peninsula, i.e., the Arabian Gulf, the Sea of Oman, the northern part of the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and the Red Sea. I call them the Arabian seas as all the countries bordering them were Arabian except for Iran. Between the covers of this book, information was given as much as possible to cover historical, physical, and chemical factors, geology and biogeography and the major biotopes and biodiversity, the sea and human health, environmental challenges and bioinvasion, and the strategic action and conservation measure aspects. The books written about the environment of the Arabian seas are not many. Most of them are atlases that deal more with the diversity of the marine life. Biotopes of the Western Arabian Gulf by Basson et al. (1977) is the only book which deals with environmental issues in the Arabian Gulf area. In the Red Sea, the book of Alasdair Edwards The Red Sea (1987) represents the only book that talks about biotopes and environmental factors. Although the other book The Red Sea: The Formation, Morphology, Oceanography and Environment of a Young Ocean Basin, edited by Rasul and Stewart (2015) is related to the environment in some way, it is basically designed to deal with the geology and oceanography of the Red Sea. This book holds aspects that have not been dealt with before in any book about the area. At the same time, it examines several environmental challenges that are of least concern but shown to have a significant impact on the environment. The book ends up to evaluate the present status and put forward recommendations for conservation measure for the future of the area. In assessing the environment, the abiotic factors are the main role player in the environmental changes and will be dealt with

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in this book. Turning to the biotic components of the Arabian seas to a certain degree, the status of the biodiversity of the fauna and flora of the area has been discussed in this book and a general setting for the conservation and management measures is given. Auckland, New Zealand

Laith A. Jawad

Acknowledgments

First, the editor would like to thank each one of the authors, who contributed their time and expertise to this book. Without their support, this book would not have become a reality. Second, the editor wishes to thank the staff of Springer DE in general about the efforts they have put in publishing this book and in particular Éva Loerinczi for her distinguished service, valuable advice, and suggestions that she delivered throughout the period of checking the text of this book. Auckland, New Zealand

Laith A. Jawad

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Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Laith A. Jawad Part I

Historical Perspectives

History and Geography of the Arabian Gulf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Abdul Salam Idrisi and Omar Al-Ejli The Prehistoric Fishers and Gatherers of the Northern and Western Coasts of the Arabian Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Paolo Biagi, Renato Nisbet, and Elisabetta Starnini Part II

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Environmental Aspects

The Biogeochemical Features of Kuwaiti Water in the Northwestern Arabian Gulf: Current State of Knowledge and Future . . . . . . . . . . . . Turki Al-Said, Amit Sarkar, and Rakhesh Madhusoodhanan Some Physical Oceanographic Aspects of Kuwait and Arabian Gulf Marine Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Subramaniam Neelamani, Yousef Al-Osairi, Khaled Al-Salem, and Karim Rakha Low Oxygen Zones Predict Future Condition of Fish Under Climate Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Issam Humaid Al-Rasady, Jessica J. Meeuwig, and Michel R. Claereboudt

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Dust Storms and Its Benefits to the Marine Life of the Arabian Gulf . . Waleed Hamza

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Desert Dust as a Vector for Cyanobacterial Toxins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . J. S. Metcalf, A. D. Chatziefthimiou, N. R. Souza, and P. A. Cox

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Part III

Contents

Geological Aspects

The Geology of Iraqi Territorial Waters, Northwest of the Arabian Gulf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Badir N. Albadran Deep Tectono-Geodynamic Aspects of Development of the Nubian-Arabian Region and Its Relationship with Subsurface Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lev Eppelbaum and Youri Katz Freshwater Ostracoda from the Wetland Mid-Holocene Sediments, Dhamar Highlands, Yemen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Munef Mohammed and Dietmar Keyser Part IV

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Major Biotopes

Microbial and Physical Sedimentary Structures in the Tidal Flats of Khor Al-Zubair, NW of Arabian Gulf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Badir N. Albadran and Layal F. Al-Kaaby

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Preliminary Account of the Ichthyoplankton of the Marine Waters of Iraq, Northwest Arabian Gulf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sumaya M. Ahmed

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Distribution and Abundance of Seagrasses in Qatar Marine Zone . . . . Ekhlas M. M. Abdelbary and Aisha A. Al Ashwal

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Marine Macroalgae in Qatar Marine Zone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aisha A. Al Ashwal and Ekhlas M. M. Abdelbary

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The Diversity of the Giant Clams and Their Associated Symbiodiniaceae Algae in the Red Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411 Melissa Pappas The Dynasty of the Pharaoh: Phylogeography and Cryptic Biodiversity of Sepia pharaonis Cuttlefish in Northwest Indian Ocean Peripheral Seas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ahmad Farhadi and Frank E. Anderson Sharks and Rays of the Arabian Sea and Adjacent Waters . . . . . . . . . . Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara and Rima W. Jabado Maturation, Spawning, and Feeding Habits of the Indian Mackerel Rastrelliger kanagurta (Cuvier, 1817) from the Sea of Oman off the Sohar Coast, Sultanate of Oman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nachiappan Jayabalan, Shama Zaki, Abdulaziz Al-Marzouqi, and Lubna Al-Kharusi

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Reproduction and Feeding of the Indian Oil Sardine Sardinella longiceps Val. from Mahout along the Arabian Sea Coast of Oman . . . . . . . . . . . 499 Shama Zaki, Nachiappan Jayabalan, Abdulaziz Al-Marzouqi, Fatma Al-Kiyumi, and Ibrahim Al-Anboori Interdecadal Changes in Community of the Fish Fauna of the Marine Waters of Iraq . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Laith A. Jawad Fishes of the Arabian Sea Coasts of Oman: Checklist and Biodiversity Analyses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Laith A. Jawad, Issam Al-Rasady, Dawood Al-Mamari, Haithem K. Al-Busaidi, Lubna Al-Kharusi, and Juma M. Al-Mamri Gobiiform Fishes of the Arabian Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Zeehan Jaafar and Muhammad Irsyad Khalis Daud Population Biology Including Population Structure, Spawning Cycle, and Maturity of Plectorhinchus schotaf (Forsskål, 1775) (Family: Haemulidae) Collected from the Arabian Sea Coast of Oman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Haitham K. Al-Busaidi, Anesh Govender, Saud Musallam Al-Jufaily, and Abdulaziz Al-Marzouqi The Ichthyodiversity of the Red Sea: A Unique Extension of the Indian Ocean Biota . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Menachem Goren Marine Mammals of the Arabian Seas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara, Robert Baldwin, Gillian Braulik, Tim Collins, and Ada Natoli Part V

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Biodiversity

Is It the Time to Perform a Regular National Marine Biology Survey in the Seas Around the Arabia Peninsula to Assess the Marine Biodiversity? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Laith A. Jawad and Baradi Waryani A Proposal for Creating a Directory of Marine Biota Gauges in Iraq . . Laith A. Jawad

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Influence of Climate-Driven Low Oxygen Zones on Fish Biodiversity: A Case Study from the Arabian Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Issam Humaid Al-Rasady, Jessica J. Meeuwig, and Michel R. Claereboudt

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Assessment of the Fish Biodiversity in the Vicinity of Sohar Industrial Area, Sultanate of Oman: A Proposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Laith A. Jawad

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The Feasibility of Introducing Undergraduates in Biodiversity Science in the Arabian Gulf Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Laith A. Jawad and Baradi Waryani

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The Possibility of Applying Citizen Science in the Countries Bordering the Arabian Peninsula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Laith A. Jawad and Baradi Waryani

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Part VI

Natural Resources

Stock, Maximum Sustainable Yield, and Management Status of Tenualosa ilisha in Bangladesh Waters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Md Harunor Rashid, S. M. Nurul Amin, Aziz Arshad, Fatimah Md Yusoff, and M. A. Wahab Biological Characteristics, Population Dynamics and Fisheries Management of Pomadasys commersonnii (Lacepède, 1802) in the Arabian Sea Coast of Oman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Abdullah AL-Nahdi Law Enforcement, Compliance, and Fisheries Sustainability . . . . . . . . . Shekar Bose The Influence of Oxygen Minimum Zone and Oceanographic Parameters on the Length Distribution of Five Fish Species in the Arabian Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Issam Humaid Al-Rasady, Jessica J. Meeuwig, and Michel R. Claereboudt Strategies for Monitoring and Management of Marine Fisheries Resources of the Sultanate of Oman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nachiappan Jayabalan, Abdulaziz Al-Marzouqi, Shama Zaki, and Lubna Al-Kharusi The Fisheries of the Arabian Sea Large Marine Ecosystem . . . . . . . . . . M. L. D. Palomares, M. Khalfallah, D. Zeller, and D. Pauly

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Valuation of Fishing Tools and Social State of Hilsa (Tenualosa ilisha) Fishers of the Estuary of Shatt al-Arab River, Basrah, Iraq . . . . . . . . . Laith A. Jawad and Audai M. Qasim

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Monitoring the Marine Recreational Fisheries in the Arabian Gulf and Sea of Oman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Laith A. Jawad and Baradi Waryani

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Marine Artisanal Fisheries of Iraq . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Abdul-Razak M. Mohamed and Laith Abd Jalil Jawad Fish Consumption Behavior in the Coastal City of Basrah on the Arabian Gulf, South of Iraq . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Laith A. Jawad

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Part VII

Fishing Boats

Boats and Ships of the Arabian Gulf and the Sea of Oman Within an Archaeological, Historical and Ethnographic Context . . . . . . . . . . . Alessandro Ghidoni and Tom Vosmer

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Small Watercrafts on the Western Indian Ocean: Interaction of Human and the Sea in the Pre-oil Era . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Norbert Weismann

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Part VIII

Coral Reefs

Coral Reef Management in the Arabian Seas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1041 Mark Tupper, Reia Guppy, and Deanesh Ramsewak Underwater Fish Survey in the Marine Waters of Iraq: An Imported Training Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1073 Laith A. Jawad Part IX

The Sea and Human Health

Harmful Algal and Cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Blooms in the Arabian Seas: Current Status, Implications, and Future Directions . . . 1083 Aspassia D. Chatziefthimiou, Sandra A. Banack, and James S. Metcalf Catfish-Related Injury and Infection: Report on Cases from the Marine Waters of Iraq . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1103 Laith A. Jawad Do Not Turn Your Back to a Dangerous Animal: A Case of a Fatal Selfie with Poisonous Ray in the South of Iraq . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1111 Laith A. Jawad Human Remains Recovered from a Shark Collected in the Marine Waters of Iraq: A Case Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1117 Laith A. Jawad Multiple Puffer Fish (Tetrodotoxin) Poisoning, with Fatal Incidences After Ingestion of Pufferfish in Sana’a, Republic of Yemen . . . . . . . . . . 1125 Laith A. Jawad Marine Fish Attacks in the Arabian Sea Coasts of Republic of Yemen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1133 Laith A. Jawad Part X

Environmental Challenges

Coastal Environmental Challenges in Kuwait . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1143 S. Baby

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Lipid Tracers in Coastal Sediments of the Northwestern Arabian/Persian Gulf: Characteristics, Sources, Distribution, and Possible Ecological Impacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1167 Ahmed I. Rushdi Hydrocarbons Pollution in the North-West Arabian Gulf . . . . . . . . . . . 1187 Hamid T. Al-Saad and Faris J. M. Al-Imarah Characterization and Possible Cause of the Fish Anomalies So Far Reported in the Vicinity of Jubail City, Saudi Arabia, Arabian Gulf . . . . 1199 Laith A. Jawad and Mustafa Ibrahim The Feasibility of Using Fish Bioindicators to Check Enhancements in Habitat Quality: Case Study of Two Teleosts Collected from Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Oman Waters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1219 Laith A. Jawad Assessing the Environmental Impacts of Seawater Desalination on the Hypersalinity of Arabian/Persian Gulf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1229 Anton Purnama Secondary Microplastic Ingestion by Planktivorous Fishes in the Sea of Oman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1247 Laith A. Jawad First Report of Plastic Fragments in the Lanternfishes Collected from the Sea of Oman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1255 Laith A. Jawad Topically Acquired Bacterial Infections from Aquaculture: A Synopsis with Relevance to the Arabian Peninsula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1261 E. McLean, J. Cole, A. N. Sriskanda, B. W. Hughes, B. Blake, and O. Bagasra Part XI

Biological Invasion

Potential Pitfalls in the Definition of Lessepsian Migrants: The Case of Brachidontes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1293 Jonathan Belmaker, Avigdor Abelson, Michal Haddas-Sasson, Nobuyuki Yamaguchi, Sigal Shefer, and Eli Geffen A Proposal for a Plan of Assessment of Danger of Alien Species to Marine Biota Variety in the Eastern and Southern Coasts of the Arabian Peninsula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1309 Laith A. Jawad

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Part XII

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Islands

Idmi and Other Mammalian Wildlife in the Farasan Islands Protected Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1323 Jorge F. Soares and Torsten Wronski Part XIII

Conservation

It Is About Time to Use Magnetic Resonance in Fish Studies and Aquatic Ecological Risk Assessment in Iraq . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1359 Laith A. Jawad Marine Protected Areas in the Countries Bordering the Arabian Peninsula: Reserve the Existing and Establish Further . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1367 Laith A. Jawad

Editor and Contributors

About the Editor Laith A. Jawad obtained a degree (MSc) in fish taxonomy from the Zoology Department, University of Bristol, UK, in 1980. He continued as fish taxonomist at Basrah University, Iraq, where he worked for more than 20 years before he immigrated to New Zealand in 1997. During this time, he started studying the biochemical taxonomy of fishes of Iraq and published over 400 scientific papers and book reviews in leading scientific journals. He is the author and coauthor of several textbooks in biology published in Arabic. Recently, he contributed five chapters to a book about coastal fishes, Coastal Fishes: Habitat, Behavior and Conservation, published by Nova Publishers, Canada, and authored a book Dangerous Fishes of the Eastern and Southern Arabian Peninsula published by Springer in 2017. He served as fish biodiversity expert and consultant at the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries in Oman for the period 2008–2012 during which he coauthored two papers describing a new fish species from the Omani waters and reported over 80 fish species as a new record to the Omani waters. He authored a guide to the fishes of the southern coasts of Oman published by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries in Oman in 2018. He has also published over 90 papers on fish fauna of Oman, Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. In 2013, he broadened

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his scientific contact and started to collaborate with over 60 scientists from more than 50 countries around the world in researches dealing with different aspects of fish taxonomy and ichthyology.

Contributors Ekhlas M. M. Abdelbary Environmental Science Centre, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar Avigdor Abelsson School of Zoology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel Sumaya M. Ahmed Department of Fisheries and Marine Resources, College of Agriculture, University of Basrah, Basra, Iraq Ibrahim Al-Anboori Marine and Fisheries Centre, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman Badir N. Albadran Department of Geology, University of Basrah, Basrah, Iraq Haithem K. Al-Busaidi Oman Animal & Plant Genetic Resources Centre (OAPGRC), Seeb, Sultanate of Oman Omar Al-Ejli Doha, Qatar Faris J. M. Al-Imarah Department of Chemistry and Marine Environmental Pollution, Marine Science Centre, University of Basrah, Basrah, Iraq Saud Musallam Al-Jufaily Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman Layal F. Al-Kaaby Department of Geology, University of Basrah, Basrah, Iraq Lubna Al-Kharusi Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman Fatima Al-Kiyumi Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman Dawood Al-Mamari Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman Juma M. Al-Mamri Oman Aquarium, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman Abdul Aziz Al-Marzouqi Directorate of Fisheries Resources Development, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman Abdullah AL-Nahdi Muscat Airport, Muscat, Oman Yousef Al-Osairi Environment and Life Sciences Research Centre, Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, Safat, Kuwait

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Issam Humaid Al-Rasady Marine Sciences and Fisheries Centre, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries Wealth, Muscat, Oman Turki Al-Said Environment and Life Sciences Research Centre (ELSRC), Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, Salmiya, Kuwait Khaled Al-Salem Environment and Life Sciences Research Centre, Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, Safat, Kuwait S. M. Nurul Amin Department of Aquaculture, Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia International Institute of Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences, UPM, Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia Frank E. Anderson Department of Zoology, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Carbondale, IL, USA Aziz Arshad Department of Aquaculture, Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia International Institute of Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences, UPM, Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia Aisha A. Al Ashwal Environmental Science Centre, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar Saji Baby GEO International Environmental Consultation, Al-Surra, Kuwait Institute for Delve and Evolution for Excellence (InDEE), Coimbatore, India O. Bagasra South Carolina Institute for Biotechnology, Claflin University, Orangeburg, SC, USA Robert Baldwin Five Oceans Environmental Services, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman Sandra A. Banack Brain Chemistry Labs, Institute for Ethnomedicine, Jackson, WY, USA Jonathan Belmaker School of Zoology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel Paolo Biagi Department of Asian and North African Studies, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Venezia, Italy B. Blake Department of Biology, South Carolina Institute for Biotechnology, Claflin University, Orangeburg, SC, USA Shekar Bose Unit 2301, Woolloongabba, Queensland, Australia Gillian Braulik University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, Fife, UK Aspassia D. Chatziefthimiou Weill Cornell Medicine – Qatar, Education City, Doha, Qatar Michel R. Claereboudt Department of Marine Science and Fisheries, College of Agriculture and Marine Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Al-Khod, Sultanate of Oman

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J. Cole Department of Biology, South Carolina Institute for Biotechnology, Claflin University, Orangeburg, SC, USA Tim Collins Ocean Giants Program, Wildlife Conservation Society, New York, NY, USA P. A. Cox Brain Chemistry Labs, Jackson, WY, USA Muhammad Irsyad Khalis Daud Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore Giuseppe Notarbartolo Di Sciara Tethys Research Institute, Acquario Civico, Milano, Italy Lev Eppelbaum Porter School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel Azerbaijan State Oil and Industry University, Baku, Azerbaijan Ahmad Farhadi Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Engineering, College of Agriculture, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran Eli Geffen School of Zoology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel Alessandro Ghidoni The Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK Menachem Goren Steinhardt Museum of Natural History and School of Zoology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel Anesh Govender Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman Reia Guppy Centre for Maritime and Ocean Studies, University of Trinidad and Tobago, Arima, Trinidad and Tobago Waleed Hamza Biology Dept. College of Science, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, UAE Md Harunor Rashid Department of Aquaculture, Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia B. W. Hughes Department of Biology, South Carolina Institute for Biotechnology, Claflin University, Orangeburg, SC, USA Mustafa Ibrahim Ministry of Agriculture, Fish Welfare Branch, El-Jubail Province, Saudi Arabia Abdul Salam Idrisi Chula Vista, CA, USA Zeehan Jaafar Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore Rima W. Jabado Gulf Elasmo Project, Dubai, UAE Laith A. Jawad Pokeno, Auckland, New Zealand

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Nachiappan Jayabalan Alga Marine Pvt. Ltd., Chennai, India Youri Katz Steinhardt Museum of Natural History & National Research Center, Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel Dietmar Keyser Biozentrum Grindel, Hamburg University, Hamburg, Germany M. Khalfallah Sea Around Us, Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada Rakhesh Madhusoodhanan Environment and Life Sciences Research Centre (ELSRC), Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, Salmiya, Kuwait E. McLean Aqua Cognoscenti, West Columbia, SC, USA Jessica J. Meeuwig School of Biological Sciences and the UWA Oceans Institute, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia James S. Metcalf Brain Chemistry Labs, Institute for Ethnomedicine, Jackson, WY, USA Abdul-Razak M. Mohamed Department of Fisheries and Marine Resources, College of Agriculture, University of Basrah, Basra, Iraq Munef Mohammed Sana’a University, Sana’a, Yemen Ada Natoli Zayed University, Dubai, UAE Subramanian Neelamani Environment and Life Sciences Research Centre, Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, Safat, Kuwait Renato Nisbet Department of Asian and North African Studies, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Venezia, Italy M. L. D. Palomares Sea Around Us, Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada Melissa Pappas King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia Daniel Pauly Sea Around Us, Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada Anton Purnama Department of Mathematics and Statistics, College of Science, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman Audai M. Qasim Department of Marine Vertebrates, Marine Science Centre, University of Basrah, Basrah, Iraq Karim Rakha CH2M, Warrington, UK Deanesh Ramsewak Centre for Maritime and Ocean Studies, University of Trinidad and Tobago, Arima, Trinidad and Tobago

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Editor and Contributors

Ahmed I. Rushdi ETAL, Oregon, USA Amit Sarkar Environment and Life Sciences Research Centre (ELSRC), Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, Salmiya, Kuwait Michal Haddas Sasson School of Zoology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel Sigal Shefer School of Zoology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, Israel National Centre for Biodiversity Studies, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel Jorge F. Soares Loro Parque Fundación, Puerto de la Cruz, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, España N. R. Souza Brain Chemistry Labs, Jackson, WY, USA A. N. Sriskanda Department of Biology, South Carolina Institute for Biotechnology, Claflin University, Orangeburg, SC, USA Elisabetta Starnini Department of Civilizations and Forms of Knowledge, Pisa University, Pisa, Italy Mark Tupper Centre for Maritime and Ocean Studies, University of Trinidad and Tobago, Arima, Trinidad and Tobago Tom Vosmer Department of Maritime Archaeology, Western Australian Museum, Perth, Australia University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia M. A. Wahab ECOFISH-BD, World Fish, South Asia, Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh Baradi Waryani Department of Fresh Water Biology and Fisheries, University of Sindh, Jamshoro, Sindh, Pakistan Norbert Weismann Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter, Exeter, Devon, UK Torsten Wronski School of Natural Sciences and Psychology, Faculty of Science, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK Nobuyuki Yamaguchi Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar Fatimah Md Yusoff Department of Aquaculture, Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia International Institute of Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences, UPM, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia Fatimah Md Yusoff Department of Aquaculture, Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia International Institute of Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences, UPM, Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia

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Shama Zaki Marine Science and Fisheries Centre, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries Wealth, Muscat, Oman D. Zeller Sea Around Us – Indian Ocean, School of Biological Sciences, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia

Introduction Laith A. Jawad

1 The Name of the Studied Area For some, the name “Arabian Seas” looks incorrect as there is only one sea named the Arabian Sea. In this book, the name “Arabian Seas” is used after Barendse (2000) introduced it. It has been chosen as it represents fully the marine areas surrounding the Arabian Peninsula although not all the countries bordering these seas are Arab, with Iran and Israel, are the only non-Arab countries in this region. Barendse (2000) proposed this name to describe the coastlines adjacent to the Arabian Peninsula and the interior of the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf. In this book, the name “Arabian Seas” is used slightly different from the usage of Barendse (2000) in including the both coasts of the Red Sea, the Arabian Gulf and the Sea of Oman. The chosen name of the Arabian Seas came as an alternative choice in having a name that does not show any territoriality and nationalistic issues.

2 The Geographical and Geological Settings The countries bordering the marine waters in the Arabian Seas region are, in the Arabian Gulf area and from the north to the south, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and Sultanate of Oman and Iran on the west coast. The coasts of the Sea of Oman are bordered only by Iran on the west and Sultanate of Oman on the east coast. The northwest region of the Arabian Sea is bounded by Sultanate of Oman and the Republic of Yemen in the north and Somalia in the south. There are several countries surrounding both coasts of the Red Sea, and

L. A. Jawad (*) Pokeno, Auckland, New Zealand © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 L. A. Jawad (ed.), The Arabian Seas: Biodiversity, Environmental Challenges and Conservation Measures, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51506-5_1

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these are from the north to the south, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Republic of Yemen, Djibouti, Eretria, Sudan, and Egypt. The length of the coasts of the Arabian Seas is over 23,000 km (Chiffings 1995). These connected aquatic habitats are known as characteristic marine environments containing an exclusive variety of species and highly composite biological structures (Sheppard et al. 1992). A general review of the geological history of the Arabian Seas was given by several authors (Beydoun 1966; Kassler 1973; Al-Sayari and Zötl 1978; Krupp 1983; Wolfart 1987; Alsharhan et al. 2001). Brook et al. (2006) have given a detailed explanation for the geological scenario that led to the formation of the Arabian Seas. Here, a short description of this scenario will be given in the following section. The geological formation scenario of this region is included with that of Afro-Arabian mainland mass. In the Precambrian to the Paleogene (Paleocene to Oligocene) periods, the Afro-Arabian mass was uninterrupted sheet. During the Mesozoic time, tectonic activities caused an eastward sloping of the Arabian plate, and by the Cenozoic period, the Arabian Plate drifted away from the African continent along the Red Sea crack. The tertiary crack in the area between African and the Arabian shields caused the formation of the Red Sea fissure. Throughout the Eocene and Oligocene epochs, a division of the Tethys Sea stretched into the northern Red Sea dip, whereas the southern Red Sea split valley enclosed freshwater lakes. The Indian Ocean cracked through the Strait of Bab al-Mandab later in the Pliocene era forming the contemporary Red Sea. The geological changes that happened in the Yemen and Dhofar regions occurred mostly during the Mesozoic Era, and they can be seen in the formation and the wadis in Yemen and Dhofar. The geological formation of Oman’s mountains or Al-Hajar at the southeastern verge of the Arabian Peninsula founded in the Neogene period origin and persistent into current times. The mountains in this area are high and could reach to about 3000 m. This area is full of wadis that drain into the Arabian Gulf, Sea of Oman, the Arabian Sea, or the desert of Rub al-Khali. The Arabian Gulf is formed in the period of Pliocene to Pleistocene era, and it is a result of the equivalent tectonic actions that happened in the Zagros Mountain formation. Nearly at the close of the Pliocene era, the basin of the Arabian Gulf took its current shape, but the water height was about 150 m higher than today. The succeeding dropping of sea level caused the development of marine habitats in the eastern side of the Arabian Peninsula. The Arabian Gulf dried up in the Pleistocene glacial period, and a river from Mesopotamia extended further south to the Sea of Oman. The process of reaching to its present level, the Arabian Gulf has begun since 17,000 years ago and the water reached its present level 5000 years ago. While the sea is uninterrupted in the Arabian Seas area, present of water bodies have been located with peculiar environmental features, mostly owing to their semienclosed feature, which has caused the presence of diverse communities and species groupings as well as the separation of some areas in waters nearby to each other (Sheppard et al. 1992).

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3 Biodiversity The weather conditions in most Arabian Seas are categorized by having high temperature for air and water accompanied with high salinities and evaporation during summer time mainly in the Arabian Gulf area (Carpenter 1997; Sanders and Morgan 1989). The freshwater resources are very limited, with less rain. Therefore, with such a harsh environment, the biodiversity needs to be acclaimed to and has a peculiar kind of life. In spite of the punitive environment and climate, the area is characterized in having high biodiversity. It includes a considerable number of endemic species, particularly in the Red Sea (Head 1987; Sheppard et al. 1992). This is considered factual for some organisms such as fishes, echinoderms, and corals (Ormond and Edwards 1987; Smith et al. 1987; Klausewitz 1989; Price 1982; Sheppard and Sheppard 1991; Sheppard et al. 1992). It is presumed that the occurrence of such elevated number of endemic species is owing to the geological and hydrographical settings of the area and the radical rates of abiotic factors such as high salinity and temperature, particularly in the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf. Grounded on the level of endemism and other distribution designs, different methods have been made, reliant on the group of animals, to be found in the Arabian area or even parts of it as a sector of the Indo-West Pacific (Knox 1957; Klausewitz 1989; Sheppard and Sheppard 1991; Briggs 1974, 1996). A distinguishing trait of the Arabian Seas area is its arid coastal zone, containing in utmost areas of a flat coastal plain of changing width, which is frequently bordered inland by widespread mountain ranges. In a few areas, the coastal plain is influenced by huge alluvial fans with seasonal release of freshwater into the sea. Coastal vegetation contains monospecific stands of mangroves. Avicennia marina and Rhizophora mucronata are the leading species, which are prevalent throughout the region and deliver a range of ecosystem services: their widespread root systems maintain sediments and guard the coastline; they improve the quality of freshwater flowing into the sea; they offer refuge for a collection of animals; and their dead leaves and branches are a source of food for many marine species, such as shrimp. Besides the shore, salt-tolerated plantations found, which ranks into arid–adapted plant association’s further inland. The Gulf of Aden is much broader than the Red Sea and more than 4500 m deep. Like the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman coasts, it is powerfully affected by the upwelling of cool, nutrient-rich waters during the monsoon season. The seas of southern Arabia are also categorized by a dominant high-energy marine climate, posturing restrictions on coral reef development.

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4 Faunal Domains Hayden et al. (1984) have categorized the Somalia, southern Arabian Peninsula, and Arabian Gulf coasts as a single faunal domain (Western Indian Ocean). As to the Pakistani, coasts are deemed the westernmost range of a domain (Indo-Polynesian) that spreads right through to southern China, alongside the northeastern coast of Australia, and around the New Hebrides and New Caledonia. The Red Sea is classed as a distinct domain. Such a distinction of the Red Sea was made by Briggs (1974) based on the information in more recent reviews of the fauna and flora of the Red Sea (in Edwards and Head 1987). However, Crossland et al. (1987) categorized five different regions based on a new data that they obtained and which seem to be mainly constant with the floral and faunal sub-domains known by Crossland et al. (1987). The consideration that the Arabian Gulf falling in the domain of the Western Indian Ocean by Briggs (1974) might once be suitable. On the bases of the study performed by Price (1982) on echinoderms, he found that the level of endemism in this group is high and could reach that of the Red Sea. Therefore, the Arabian Gulf has been acknowledged as a discrete faunal domain for some researchers (Chiffings 1995). However, it has been noted that subdividing the Arabian Gulf area could be problematic as the biota of this sea have not been dealt with precisely in this manner earlier. Large areas in the Arabian Gulf region, i.e., Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain, were fully explored (Basson et al. 1977; Jones 1986; MEPA 1987; Price et al. 1983, 1987), and still many other localities need to survey fully.

References Al-Sayari SS, Zötl JG (1978) Quaternary period in Saudi Arabia. Wien, 334 pp Alsharhan AS, Rizk ZA, Nairn AEM, Bakhit DW, Alhajari SA (2001) Hydrogeology of an arid region: the Arabian Gulf and adjoining areas. Elsevier, New York Barendse RJ (2000) Trade and state in the Arabian seas: a survey from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century. J World Hist 11:173–225 Basson PW, Burchard JE, Hardy JT, Price ARG (1977) Biotopes of the Western Arabian Gulf. Aramco, Dhahran Beydoun ZR (1966) Geology of the Arabian Peninsula: Eastern Aden Protectorate and Dhufar. Professional Papers of the United States Geological Survey 560-H:1–49 Briggs JC (1974) Marine zoogeography. McGraw-Hill, New York Briggs JC (1996) Global biogeography. In: Developments in palaeontology and stratigraphy, vol 14. Elsevier, Amsterdam, 452 pp Brook MC, Al Shoukri S, Amer KM, Böer B, Krupp F (2006) Physical and environmental setting of the Arabian peninsula and surrounding seas. In: Policy perspectives for ecosystem and water management in the Arabia Peninsula. UNESCO Doha and United Nations University, Hamilton, pp 1–16 Carpenter, K. E. (1997). The living marine resources of Kuwait, eastern Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. FAO Species Identification Field Guide for Fishery Purposes, FAO, Rome, p 239

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Chiffings AW (1995) Arabian Seas. In: Kelleher G, Bleakley C, Wells S (eds) A global representative system of marine protected areas, vol 3. Central Indian Ocean, Arabian Seas, East Africa and East Asian Seas, pp 39–70 Crossland CJ, Dawson SA, Stafford SM,Marshall CJ (1987) The Red Sea Saudi Arabia: analysis of coastal and marine habitats of the Red Sea. MEPA Coastal, and marine management series report no. 1 Edwards AJ, Head SM (eds) (1987) Red Sea. Key environments series (Treherne JE (ed) 441 pp. Oxford) Hayden BP, Ray GC, Dolan R (1984) Classification of coastal and marine environments. Environ Conserv 11:199–207 Head SM (1987) Introduction. In: Edwards AJ, Head SM (eds) Red Sea. Pergamon, Oxford, pp 1–21, figs 1.1–1.8 Jones DA (1986) A field guide to the seashores of Kuwait and the Arabian Gulf. University of Kuwait, Kuwait Kassler P (1973) The structural and geomorphic evolution of the Persian Gulf. In: Purser BH (ed) The Persian Gulf. Springer, Berlin, pp 11–33 Klausewitz W (1989) Evolutionary history and zoogeography of the Red Sea ichthyofauna. Fauna Saudi Arabia 10:310–337, 8 figs Knox GA (1957) Distribution of polychaetes within the Indo-Pacific. In: Proceedings of the 8th science congress, vol 3, pp 403–411 Krupp F (1983) Freshwater fishes of Saudi Arabia and adjacent regions of the Arabian Peninsula. Fauna Saudi Arabia 5:568–636 Meteorological and Environmental Protection Administration (MEPA) (1987) The Arabian Gulf Saudi Arabia: an assessment of biotopes and management requirements for the Saudi Arabian Gulf coastal zone. MEPA Coastal and Marine Management Series Report No. 3 Ormond RFG, Edwards AJ (1987) Red Sea fishes. In: Edwards AJ, Head SM (eds) Red Sea. Pergamon, Oxford, pp 251–287, figs 13.1–13.6 Price ARG (1982) Comparison between echinoderm faunas of Arabian Gulf, SE Arabia, Red Sea and Gulfs of Aqaba and Suez. Fauna Saudi Arabia 4:3–21 Price ARG, Vousden DHP, Ormond RFG (1983) Ecological study of sites on the coast of Bahrain, with special reference to the shrimp fishery and possible impact of the Saudi-Bahrain Causeway under construction. IUCN report to UNEP regional seas program, Geneva Price ARG, Chiffings AW, Atkinson MA, Wrathall TJ (1987) Appraisal of resources in the Saudi Arabian Gulf. In: Proceedings of the fifth symposium coastal and ocean management. American Society of Civil Engineers Sanders MJ, Morgan GR (1989) Review of the fisheries resources of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. FAO Fisheries Technical Paper 197. Rome Sheppard CRC, Sheppard ALS (1991) Corals and coral communities of Arabia. Fauna Saudi Arabia 12:3–170, 189 text figs, 16 pls Sheppard CRC, Price A, Roberts C (1992) Marine ecology of the Arabian seas region: patterns and processes in extreme tropical environments. Academic, London Smith GB, Saleh M, Sangoor K (1987) The reef ichthyofauna of Bahrain (Arabian Gulf) with comments on its zoogeographic affinities. Arab Gulf J Sci Res B5:127–146 Wolfart R (1987) Late cretaceous through quaternary palaeogeographic evolution of the Middle East. In: Krupp F, Schneider W, Kinzelbach R (eds) Proceedings of the symposium on the fauna and zoogeography of the Middle East, Mainz 1985. Beihefte zum Tübinger Atlas des Vorderen Orients, A vol 28, pp 9–22. Wiesbaden, Ludwig Reich

Part I

Historical Perspectives

History and Geography of the Arabian Gulf Abdul Salam Idrisi and Omar Al-Ejli

Abstract There were early civilizations in Iraq, Iran, India, China and Egypt that extend from 6000 years B.C. There was a large volume of trade between these areas due to their prosperity and product surpluses. Hence, people demanded commodities from each other. The Arabian Gulf has been standing in the centre between the EastWest trades. Besides, sea transportation between these civilizations was the only means. Since small ships and boats were only vehicles available for merchants, they had to make stops more often than current giant ships of today. This required many ports along the Arabian Gulf eastern shores or islands. These ports were created by people who migrated from the Arabian Peninsula or Iraq. Such migration was in numerous waves due to natural or political reasons. Migrants formed small communities to grow gradually into entities (sheikhdoms). During the early stages of history, those entities were blessed by trade, ship servicing and pearl industries. However, when Europe was awakened from its slumber, the Portuguese were the first to open their eyes to the profitable trade between the East and West. They took over the Arabian Gulf ports and islands. The British, Dutch and French tried to get rid of the Portuguese. Ultimately, the British eliminated their European rivals and began to infiltrate into the Arabian Gulf entities. Unlike the Portuguese cruel treatment of the Arabs, the British showed a friendly face and protective aim in being there. This chapter gives some geographic information about the Gulf and each of its countries. It goes into the history of the Gulf including its several names and then provides the history of those countries from early ages until their independence and their oil bonanza.

A. S. Idrisi (*) University of Basrah, Basrah, CA, Iraq e-mail: [email protected] O. Al-Ejli Nahawand Media Center, Doha, Qatar © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 L. A. Jawad (ed.), The Arabian Seas: Biodiversity, Environmental Challenges and Conservation Measures, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51506-5_2

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Keywords Arabian Gulf · Iraq · Kuwait · Bahrain · Oman · Qatar · Ottoman · India · Iran · Persian · Great Britain

1 Introduction The Arabian Gulf has been the trade link between the East and the West for thousands of years. Ships for merchants in the East, West or of the Arabian Gulf area used to pass through the Gulf all year round carrying cargoes or passengers since 6000 B.C. The Gulf has been the source of income and nutrition from its pearls, fish, coral, servicing ships, etc. Hence, it was the sanctuary of a large number of people who fled oppression or natural disasters, in spite of its harsh environment. We try in this chapter to give the reader basic knowledge of the Gulf’s geography and historical development since 6000 B.C. until the emergence of its countries as independent rich states. We divided the chapter in two parts; the first part deals with the Gulf in general, and the second part is devoted to discuss the individual entities separately. We shall concentrate on the main events and stop with the each country’s independence, because of the limitation of space. We should note to the reader that Dr. Al-Ejli went to Istanbul in 2011–2012 to obtain documents for his book, Sheikh Jassim Al-Thani. He has translated copies of those documents. We shall refer to them in the text here by their numbers. Besides, the reader may see some information without references. We think that these are common knowledge or we have lived their events.

2 The Arabian Gulf in General The Arabian Gulf has a large surface area and is an extension of the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea. It extends from the Gulf of Oman in the south to the estuary of Shatt-al-Arab River in the north. Its length is about 965 km. Its western shores are shared by Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Saudi Arabia, while it’s eastern shores are occupied by Iran since the Shah of Iran forced the Arabian tribes, which were there for thousands of years, to relocate to the north of Iran, replacing them with Iranians. The width of the Gulf ranges between 370 and 59 km at the Strait of Hormuz. The total area of the Arabian Gulf is about 233,100 km2. The Arabian Gulf is not deep in most of its area. Its deepest point is about 90 meters. That is why the Gulf was very suitable for pearl picking (Al-Abdul Qadir et al. 2012). A renowned traveler from Baghdad (Houqal) wrote in the tenth century that the water of the Gulf as being very clear. Any person, he said, can see the white rocks in its bottom. It has, he added, tremendous amount of pearls and corals. The Arabian Gulf has 350 islands; most of them are very small. They are dome shaped resulting from salt accumulation as well as the remnants of marine animal skeletons. There

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are, however, large islands such as Abu Dhabi, Qesham, Bubiyan, Bahrain, Failaka, Greater Tomb, Lesser Tomb and Abu Musa. Most of the western shores of the Arabian Gulf are sandy and flat with few small hills caused by sand dunes. However, the shores of Qatar and Musandam Peninsula at the Strait of Hormuz are a solid rocky type. There are several bays and small gulfs along the western shores that are good for ports, ship repair docks and fishing. The eastern shores of the Gulf are mostly narrow as the Zagros Mountains run close to the Gulf, except for estuaries of small rivers as they form sedimentation. The Arabian Gulf has long hot summer and cold winter. Such change in the weather induces fish migration (Abdul Qadir et al. 2012). One of the earliest civilizations in world history was in Mesopotamia. Many natural endowments were behind the rise of great civilizations: Babylonian, Assyrian, Acadian, Sumerian and Chaldean. They dated as far as 6000 B.C. The climate was moderate; land was fertile because it was formed by the two rivers’ alluvium sediments; and the existence of freshwater from Tigris, the Euphrates and their tributaries carried from mountains in Turkey, Iran and northern Iraq aided agriculture in the region. These empires succeeded each other that resulted into mass migrations either to the Arabian Peninsula or to the shores of the Arabian Gulf. People do not usually leave their land unless there is a strong reason to drive them away from it. Among the reasons for migration, we can state the following: 1. Every time an empire in Mesopotamia had a strong king, he started to expand by taking over adjacent territories. There would be mass migrations to the Arabian Peninsula or Arabian Gulf sanctuaries, especially by defeated king and his entourage, soldiers and rich families. Farmers usually stayed giving a portion of their crop to the new ruler and pay taxes. Those who fled would adapt to the new life and occupation, such as pasturing in the Arabian Peninsula or fishing and merchant trading in the Arabian Gulf area. Most of those migrants formed nomadic tribes in the Arabian Peninsula. But those who migrated to the Arabian Gulf islands or coasts formed residential communities. However, there were several mass migrations that made the marshes of southern Iraq as their sanctuary. They gradually gained strength to form an empire: the Sumerians. 2. While Mesopotamia had a moderate climate, fertile land and plenty of freshwater, every few years great flood used to happen. Some great kings used to construct flood control projects and maintained them. Others indulged into pleasure, neglecting flood control projects. Flood drove people out of their homes seeking refuge somewhere else. Most people went to the Arabian Peninsula or the Arabian Gulf. Other natural calamities, such as drought, drove Bedouins from their areas to the Arabian Gulf islands or coasts. Many Arabian tribes left their home area in the Arabian Peninsula toward the Arabian Gulf when there were several consecutive years of drought. History tells us that many Arabian tribes settled in the eastern shores of the Arabian Gulf for thousands of years. It is interesting to note that migrants to the Arabian Peninsula or to the Arabian Gulf were accepted by the existing tribes. The reason could be that the residents were

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former migrants themselves. Another reason for that could be the deep-rooted custom of welcoming stranger migrants especially if they were inflicted by calamity (Al-Timimi and Malik 1998). 3. There were migrations as a result of tribal wars. There were large tribes in the central and northern regions of the Arabian Peninsula, which used to raid smaller ones. Wars used to drive weak tribes to flee to less desirable lands. Sometimes wars could happen for trivial reasons and yet continue for years. It was normal practice among tribes to invade others taking men and women as slaves and confiscating their cattle. Some of the defeated tribesmen would flee for their lives to the Arabian Gulf coasts or islands. 4. If we compare civilizations in Mesopotamia with those that existed in the Nile Valley or the Sind Valley, it is possible that farmers in Mesopotamia were producing more than their counterparts in the Nile or Sind Valleys. The reason was the fertile land was greater. Hence, more men could be spared in Mesopotamia as soldiers, weapon producers and other workers, than in the Nile or Sind Valleys. That is why kings in Mesopotamia used to expand to other territories as far as the southern region of the Arabian Gulf and westward to the Mediterranean Sea. Yet Egyptians confined themselves alongside the Nile, and the Indians remained within their Sind territory. Therefore, the transgression of Mesopotamian kings led to migrations of people. These reasons for migration, grouping and re-grouping of the Arabs in the Arabian Peninsula and the Arabian Gulf explain the rise of settlements that developed into current Emirates of Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. Those settlements started before the third millennium B.C. The waters of the Gulf extended from currently Samarra, about 100 km north of Baghdad, and then retreated leaving behind alluvium deposits of the Tigris and the Euphrates for thousands of years to its present location. Currently the Arabian Gulf is bordered by the Arabian Peninsula from the west; Iran from the east; Iraq, Kuwait and Iran from the north; and Oman, the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean from the south. The Arabian Gulf has about 3300 km of coastline. Iran has about one-third of this coastline, while the Arabian territories have two thirds of the coastline. All islands of the Arabian Gulf have Arab residents. Iran seized the three islands, Greater Tomb, Lesser Tomb and Abu Musa, which belonged to the United Arab Emirates. Besides, Shah Abbas of Persia drew a plan to take over the entire eastern coast of the Arabian Gulf, but he was assassinated before accomplishing it. His successor carried out the plan by forcing the Arabian tribes to move to the southern shores of the Caspian Sea in the north of Iran and replacing them with Persians. The British Government helped Iran to do so and later on assisted Iran to take over Arabistan that forms now southern Iran from its ruler Sheikh Khaz’al Al-Ka’bi. The British Envoy in Basrah invited the Sheikh to his yacht to sign a treaty with Shah of Iran. But they arrested him and then assassinated him. The Iranian troops were ready to take over the Sheikh’s emirate. The area now is the main source of Iran’s oil (Al-Ejli 2013). Before we go into the discussion of the history of the Arabian Gulf, it may be of interest to enumerate the various names of the Gulf.

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Names of the Gulf

The most ancient name of the Gulf was “the Sea of God’s Land”. This name remained until the third millennium B.C. when it was called the “Sea of the Grand Sunrise”. In the second millennium B.C., it was called “Sea of the Chaldean Homeland”. During that time the Chaldean Empire dominated the Middle East including most of the Gulf (Qal’achi 1992). The Assyrians, Babylonians and Acadians called the Gulf “the Southern Sea” or “the Lower Sea” analogous to the Mediterranean Sea that they called “the Upper Sea”. The Assyrians also called it “Narmerto” that means “the Bitter Sea”. It is reported that Alexander the Great called it “Persian Gulf” based on his Envoy Admiral Nearchus who in 326 B.C. led his fleet from India alongside the eastern shores of the Gulf. The Admiral noticed the Persians were residing at the nearby mountains. Hence, he thought the Gulf belonged to the Persians. This name was used by the Romans, Greeks and other Europeans for centuries. However, when the Roman historian Pliny used the name Arabian Gulf and stated that all people who resided in both eastern and western shores of the Gulf were clearly Arabian tribes, the Greek started to use the name Arabian Gulf (Qal’achi 1992). Nonetheless, the Arabs themselves called the Gulf other names such as “Basrah Gulf” in reference to the City of Basrah from which the Gulf starts. This name was widely used since Umar bin Al-Khattab, the second Caliph, made Basrah the main Islamic centre for the troops that carried Islam through the Gulf up to India. One can find the term “Basrah Gulf” appears in poems and writings of several renowned persons in the sixth century. Other names such as “the Gulf of Qatif” and the “Gulf of Bahrain” were used but by the residents of these localities. The Arabs before Islam called it “Arabian Gulf”. Several maps drawn by Europeans, except by British, used the term “Arabian Gulf”. Why has Iran since the twentieth century insisted to use the name “Persian Gulf”? Other gulfs, seas and oceans have their names fixed with no problem. Why is it that only this gulf had such serious controversy? The Iranians go to the extent that when the National Geographic puts the name Arabian Gulf below the name Persian Gulf, the Government of Iran barred their publications and representatives from entering Iran. The Government also barred The Economist from Iran because it used the term “Gulf” only. When Jean Pierre Fenon, Professor at National Institute of Eastern Languages and Cultures in Paris, wrote an article appeared in January 1990 issue of French Le Monde mentioned Arabian Gulf, the Iranian Embassy in Paris strongly protested as if there was great crime being committed. Prof. Fenone, however, presented a map drawn in the sixteenth century using the name in Latin “Sino Abarico” that means “the Arabian Sea”. Besides, he showed that there are several maps and documents in the National Library in Paris using the term “Arabian Gulf” (Al-Ejli 2013). The main reason behind the insistence of Iran, perhaps, is political. By calling it “Persian Gulf”, Iran will find a reason or excuse to claim the possession of the

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islands including the Kingdom of Bahrain. In fact Iran seized the three islands, Greater Tomb, Lesser Tomb and Abu Musa, from the United Arab Emirates. Residents of Bahrain with Iranian lineage always make disturbances and demonstrations against the Government of Bahrain hoping for Iran’s interference and takeover. A Lebanese strategic writer said, “The difference between the Arabs and the Iranians on the name of the Gulf is not literal expression, but a difference that reflects political and nationalistic conflict”. It contains some hidden strategy of who should have control over the Gulf; its waterways, islands, oil, strategic position, security and its wealth (Khalifa 2005). A French writer mentioned, “The gulf which is called ‘Persian Gulf’ is called so because of the strong and historical influence of Iran with the British and lately with the USA in support of the Shah” (Al-Ejli 2017b). Foucher perhaps was referring to the treaty between Iran and the British, which also brought forward the assassination of Khaz’al Al-Ka’bi to allow Iran to seize Arabistan in 1930 (Nippur 2007). The Arabs, however, have been occupying the Gulf for thousands of years. They consider the Gulf being for the Arabs. They need no proof more than being there. The Arabs had made no attempt to claim the eastern shores of the Gulf or Arabistan. We believe that they should. On what basis does Iran claim the Gulf being theirs while Iranians occupy one-third of its shores in spite of the fact that they seized it unlawfully (Al-Ejli 2013). The reader can see in the attached map of the Arabian Gulf the name “Sino Abarico” that means the Arabian Sea (Jullia 1667).

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History of the Arabian Gulf Before Christ

Unlike Mesopotamia, the Nile Valley and the Sind of India, where great civilizations took place historlically, the Arabian Gulf region is occupied by small communities, villages and small towns. They were mostly independent except for some protective tribal treaties. However, there were two kingdoms that rose to dominate most of the Arabian Gulf. The Kingdom of Hormuz expanded from the island of Hormuz to seize the current areas of the United Arab Emirates, Sultanate of Oman and all the islands in the Gulf. This Kingdom might have begun before the third millennium B.C. as the archaeological discoveries indicate (Al-Ejli 2017a). This Kingdom depended mostly on trade, fishing and agriculture. Hormuz Kingdom did not expand into the Arabian Peninsula, Mesopotamia or the Indus Valley. It perhaps did not find itself strong enough to fight them; hence it rather traded with them. The old saying states, “The cheek that could not bite, kiss it” may apply here. The other one was the Kingdom of Dilmun. Its homeland was the Islands of Bahrain. It dated back to the third millennium B.C. Other than fishing and some agriculture, Dilmon depended mostly on trade. Dilmun did not expand into Persia, Mesopotamia or even the Hormuz areas, but went into the eastern region of the Arabian Peninsula. Both Hormuz and Dilmun had their distinctive civilizations. Their trade reached the Romans and Greeks as archaeological excavations showed some pots, stamps and other articles that were similar to those of the Romans and Greeks. There was a great amount of trade with India, China and eastern countries. Archaeological discovery in Failaka Island and coastal areas of what is now Kuwait showed stamps and other articles that belong to the third millennium B.C. This indicates the existence of great civilizations in these areas (Al-Timimi and Malik 1998). We think that such conclusions cannot be made. First, historians did not refer to any empire or even a small kingdom in those areas. Second, communities who lived in Failaka or other Kuwaiti areas were mostly migrants who ran away from war or famine and lived on fishing and limited agriculture, offering services to traders going from East to West and vice versa. Hence, stamps, coins and articles from traders could stay with some people who offered services to traders. Finally, a civilization requires the existence of scientists, inventors and innovators supported by a strong leader, king or emperor and a prosperous economy such as what took place in Mesopotamia, the Nile Valley, the Romans and the Greeks. A community based on fishing and little services has never created a civilization in the history of the world. It should be noted that during ancient history, prosperous civilizations in Iraq, Egypt and India depended mostly on their own produce with some imports from each other. They used small boats as compared to current giant ships. Hence those small ships needed to stop more often than today’s ships for water, food and little rest. Therefore, several islands and coastal ports used to serve ship’s merchants with what they needed. Communities of these islands and ports were very friendly and hospitable to encourage merchants to stop again in the future. That is why they were not aggressive by nature or had no desire to attack any empire.

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British and Dutch documents show that the Kingdom of Hormuz as an Arabian kingdom dominated all areas that are currently the United Arab Emirates and the Sultanate of Oman as well as all the islands in the Arabian Gulf. It remained in power for thousands of years (Al-Timimi and Malik 1998). Written documents that belong to the Sumerians were discovered in Oman that belong to 3000 B.C. This indicates that the Sumerians, who lived in southern Iraq, were trading with the Kingdom of Hormuz. Sumerian merchants used to import copper, agricultural produce and lumber. They exchanged those articles with their agricultural and manufactured commodities (Al-Ejli 2013). Both Hormuz and Dilmun Kingdoms had their own merchants who used to bring commodities such as herbs, spices, olibanum, clothes, jewels, ceramic, teak, cedar and others from India, China and other eastern countries to sell them to merchants of Mesopotamia, the Mediterranean and Europe. It should be noted that these articles were of high value, thus making merchants of these two Kingdoms very rich and their economies prosperous. This was, perhaps, the main reason that encouraged the Portuguese and later the British to invade the Arabian Gulf in the sixteenth century and then after, which we shall discuss later.

2.3

History of the Arabian Gulf After Christ

During the period 320 B.C.–100 A.D., of which Alexander the Great appeared, the Arabian Gulf region was affected by the Greeks. They controlled the trade between the East and the West. Failaka Island, which is now part of Kuwait, was a Greek colony. The Greeks gradually lost control of the area that regained its independence as tribal entities. The Arabian Gulf islands and coastal ports continued with trade between the East and the West (Al-Timimi and Malik 1998). It should be noted that there were many wars that took place in Iraq, Persia, Egypt and other Mediterranean regions, but the people in the Arabian Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula stayed away from it. Hence, their trade continued with their caravans and ships. In the year 120 B.C., there was the collapse of Ma’arab Dam in Yemen. When it happened many tribes were forced to leave Yemen to the Arabian Peninsula and the Arabian Gulf area. Some of them even crossed the Gulf to settle in the eastern shores of the Gulf and its islands. In spite of the Greek’s occupation of Syria, Palestine, Egypt and Turkey, as well as the Persian occupation of Iraq, the Arabs remained in control of the trade on both land and sea. Gradually, many rich individuals or families had their own ships that were travelling through Tigris and the Euphrates and then the Arabian Gulf going to India and China or through the Arabian Sea and the Red Sea to East Africa and Europe. This feverish activity of trading between the East and the West under the control of the Arab sailors and traders continued for about seven centuries.

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In the year 628, Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) sent envoys to the rulers of Bahrain, Oman and the Emirates inviting them to Islam. They accepted the new religion and became Islamic bases, which assisted Islamic troops to spread Islam to the East (Al-Ejli 2013). Kuwait, however, joined the Islamic Nation during the rule of the second Khalifa Umar bin Al-Khattab when the Islamic troops defeated the Persian Empire in Iraq. As the Islamic Nation expanded to control all the area from North Africa and Spain in the west to the border of China in the east, East Africa, Southwest India, and Turkey in the north, trade flourished not only because of this vast area conquered but also because of the development of financial intermediaries. Merchants used to sell their products, give their funds to bankers and receive it at home. Islamic history books mentioned that Zubair bin Al-A’awam, the Prophet’s uncle, was among the pioneers in this banking practice. Moreover, Muslim merchants and sailors were very honest and trustworthy in dealing with other merchants regardless of their religion, as this is one of the major precepts of Islam. Abdul Salam’s father, Yassin Idrisi, who was a ship captain, told him that when they used to go to Malaysia and Indonesia, merchants gave them money to bring them some merchandise in their next trip. They trust them even though they did not have any means to get their money if the sailor did not show up next year. In fact, historians tell us that Islam spread in most Southeast and East Asia without having Islamic military occupying the region. However, in the sixteenth century, the situation changed when the Portuguese were able to reach India through the Cape of Good Hope. The Portuguese Vasco de Gama was the first to cross the Cape with his ship. In the year 1507, their fleet led by Alfonso de Albuquerque seized Muscat, Sahar, Khor Fakkan and Hormuz. Then in 1521, the Portuguese seized Bahrain. Hence, they practically were in control of the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Gulf and the trade therein (Anthony and Heartily 1980). It should be noted that the Portuguese treated the inhabitants of the Arabian Gulf area in an unmerciful inhumane way. Worse than that they used to seize merchant ships, take all their merchandise, mutilate the sailors’ bodies and then throw them in the sea. They occupied the Arabian Gulf and the Arabian Sea until the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman Al-Qanouni ordered his Admiral Beh to go with his fleet to fight the Portuguese. The war took place in the period 1538–1557. The Ottomans were able to drive away the Portuguese from the Arabian Gulf and the Arabian Sea and their adjacent coast and islands (Al-Ejli 2017a). After the expulsion of the Portuguese from the area, the British began with their plans to take over the Arabian Gulf, the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. However, the British did not send fleets or troops to seize the area, but they used gradual infiltration tactics. The Portuguese ships continued to navigate around the Cape of Good Hope to India; the Ottoman Empire had no objection as long as they would not hijack Arab ships. The British fleet entered into war with the Portuguese and defeated the latter in 1588. The British wanted to monopolize the trade with India and the Arabian Gulf. They brought their fleet into the Arabian Gulf using two excuses: to stop piracy and prevent slave trading in the Gulf (Al-Ejli 2013).

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It is interesting to note that the British did not object on the piracy of the Portuguese for decades. They closed their eyes on the European merchants taking Africans as slaves for a long time. They came to the Arabian Gulf posing as humane. Their ugly face was shown when they bombarded Ras Al Khaimah in 1806 because the Qasimi tribe did not enter into a treaty with them. The British even landed their troops to go after the Qasimi tribe. However, the latter continued their hit-and-run for quite some time. The British called the Qasimi ‘the fighting pirates’. This is why they call the coasts of the Emirates the Piracy Coast. Since the British had more advance weapons and artilleries than these Arabs, they had to have treaties with the British in 1820. The British changed the name from “Piracy Coast” to “Trucial Coast” (Anthony and Heartily 1980). The Netherlands also tried to foster a relationship with India and the Arabian Gulf region. There was some co-operation between the Dutch and the British fleets to strike their common rival: the Portuguese fleet. They destroyed the latter in 1635. But soon after that, the British and the Dutch became rivals themselves. A war began between these two rivals that continued until 1652. Then they got back as allies to face their new dangerous competitor in the trade with India and the Arabian Gulf entities: the French. French fleet reached India in 1664 and became interested in the Arabian Gulf region. The alliance of the British and the Dutch entered into war with the French from 1756 to 1763. The French withdrew from the area as they had internal turmoil. After the French Revolution in 1789 and when the country was back to normal, they began to think about the East. Napoleon led his troops with a plan to establish a huge empire to include Egypt, Syria, Iraq, the Arabian Gulf region and India. But the British found out about his plan and began to work diligently to stop him from carrying out his plan. The British used all means at their disposal to infiltrate into the region before Napoleon got control of Egypt. There remained three rivals in the Arabian Gulf region: the British, the Ottomans and the Persians.

2.4

The Ottomans and the Desired World Powers

As we mentioned earlier, the Ottomans fought a long war with the Portuguese in the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea and the Arabian Gulf. Although the Ottomans did not eliminate the presence of the Portuguese in the region, they minimized their danger to the commercial ships of the Muslim merchants. The other rival to the Ottomans was the Persian Safavids, because they discriminated against the Sunnis in central and southern regions of Iraq and they provoked the Ottomans to keep them from their allies: the Portuguese. The Persian Safavids sympathized with the Portuguese and had a treaty with them. In the early seventeenth century, the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Gulf played an important role in the struggle of world powers. At that time, the British entered the entire region after they had an alliance with the Iranian Shah Abbas I (1557–1628). That alliance helped the British to drive away the Portuguese from Hormuz Island at

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the southern entrance of the Gulf. On the other hand, the British enabled the Iranians in their aggression on the Arab area of what is now southern region of Iran and the entire eastern shore of the Arabian Gulf (Taquosh 2009). The British Government established commercial centres in most major ports of the Gulf. They used the East India Company for that purpose. This Company was established by British Royal Decree in 1600 and was terminated in 1858. The British were able to eliminate the competition of the Dutch and the French in the Arabian Gulf. They worked very diligently to make the Arabian Gulf as a British lake. The presence of the British in the Arabian Gulf had its political and military dimensions in addition to its pretended commercial aspect. In the year 1764, the British set up a consulate in Basrah after the East India Company had moved its commercial activities to there a year earlier. The British moved their warship fleet to the Arabian Gulf claiming to protect their commercial ships. During that time there was an influx of British tourists, scientific researchers and merchants coming to the area actually gathering information about the area and its people, especially tribe leaders and dignitaries. They were making studies about the habits, social relations, economic conditions, etc. Some of these were spies, but others were commissioned to make studies in their fields of specialty. These studies and reports were given serious attention by decision-makers. This information was based on documents Al-Ejli has copies from the Istanbul Document Centre. What the British were doing in the Arabian Gulf was dangerous and detrimental for the southern region of the Ottoman Empire. They considered that it was their duty to protect the Muslims of that area. Their leaders realized that they were in a long slumber while other powers were working continuously very hard to pull the rug from under the feet of the Ottomans. Now the Ottomans had to wake up in the second half of the nineteenth century. On the other hand, the British and its allies had their plan not only to expel the Ottomans from the Arabian territories but also to eliminate the Ottoman Empire entirely. Historically, the British mixed their political manoeuvring with military power after they had studied the region and its people deeply and established its trade ties. Thus they take their time to reach their ultimate goal. Other Europeans rush in with military fleets and take over an area that they had no knowledge of. They may treat people harshly that make their stay short as what we have seen the Portuguese did in the Arabian Gulf. Hence, European colonization has its self-destructive elements in it. British agents and employees of their consulates were instructed to develop intimate relations with chiefs of tribes and dignitaries. They were authorized to throw lavish dinners for them and give fancy gifts to the wives of their guests. They were giving special attention to the relations between tribal sheikhs and religious men. They exploit any differences they found among these sheikhs and religious men. They were excellent in using “divide-and-rule” tactic. As Bernard Shaw said, “When you see two fish are fighting, there must be an Englishman nearby”. As to the European leaders, the British pretended to be defenders of civilization. The British used their consulate in Bushehr to make contacts with sheikhs of the regional tribes and their constituents. Its employees were working very hard to gain them as friends. Its men covered both sides of the Arabian Gulf and the islands all the

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way from Muscat to Basrah. It should be noted that if the British Government desired to do something, it left it to its consulate to draw the plan, because it had the knowledge of the area and the people. While it was known that the Ottoman Empire used a highly centralized decision-making tool. The Turkish Museum is full of documents related to small and important matters being corresponded between the Sultan and minor administrators: The Turkish Field Marshal Nassrat Pasha pointed this out in a detailed report (Document No. 14/2256/126/11) about the British policy which was characterized with wickedness and deception, as he put it. He warned his Government of their danger in the region. He said: The British Government used to establish schools run by its consulates claiming their intention to spread civilization and eliminate illiteracy. They had a school in every village and city of the Ottoman Empire. It sent tourists to stay long period of time wandering around to write books and distribute them to people which distort Islam. These books were written in Arabic, Turkish and Kurdish languages. They tried to sway people from authentic religion of Islam. The Consulate gave its employees including high-ranked personnel long time employment; 20–30 years in the region to gain comprehensive knowledge and make intimate friendships with leaders of the region. They were required to submit daily, weekly, monthly and annual reports which were sent to certain department in the U.K. to be studied and make recommendations. The determination of the British wicked intention and sneaky schemes can be considered more dangerous than the Russians ideology and their antagonism to our Empire. The Russians were working in the open which indicate their courage. We can counterpart their actions. But the British used deception and duping under the umbrella of justice and civilization. They do not spare any trick to accomplish their plan.

Although this warning came somewhat late, it was good enough for the Ottomans to be careful with the British, especially that it came from a high-ranked officer. In 1867, the British sent a high-ranking delegation to Iraq and appointed a political personality instead of the Consul as they did in India. In order to protect that political person, they requested to send a military squad for that purpose. The politician was not appointed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but by the British Government of India. Hence, the Ottoman Empire was no longer a defensive barrier to protect the region. The British believed that the Ottoman Empire must be eliminated and torn off so that the British would control the Arabian territories and the Arabian Gulf in particular. In many books written by the British about the Middle East, the authors advised the Government to take over the region by all available means and ways. Mr. Curzon, the advisor of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, wrote a book on Iran recommending that the British Government should cooperate with Iran and let it expand through the Arabian territories. He also showed in his book his hatred of the Ottoman Government. He urged his Government to stop the Ottomans from expanding southward to control Al-Ahsa’a and down to Omani territory. Besides, the British circulated rumours among the Arabian tribes that the Ottomans were taking over their territories to exploit them and limit the freedom the sheikhs used to have. The British tried to convince those sheikhs that they were in danger of having the Ottomans conquer their areas and collect taxes from them as their saviours.

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We have just mentioned Mr. Curzon’s recommendation to his Government that it should cooperate with Iran to help each other’s expansion to control the Arabian lands. It should be noted that Iran was only interested in expanding its territory at the east coast of the Gulf because Iran was not a maritime nation. The British were, on the other hand, interested in the Gulf and its west coast. Hence, their interests were not in conflict. Besides, the British found it logical to ally with Iran, which had historical roots of antagonism with the Ottomans (Document No. 14/255/126/8). The British tried to trick Sh. Jassim Al Thani, the founder of Qatar, as they did with Sh. Khaz’al Al-Ka’bi we mentioned earlier. They invited him to their ship to negotiate a treaty with him. He refused to go but invited the British political Envoy in Bahrain, Francis Bevel Bride to his farm in Qatar in 1905. Sh. Jassim wanted to impress the British Envoy and to gain his respect. The British Envoy described his visit to Sheikh Jassim as follows (Al-Ejli 2013): I was surprise to see a beautiful garden well organized with its pomegranate trees and bout 300 palm trees. In his chamber sitting a respected Sheikh just what you read about in the old religious books. He had a beard with some white hair. His face was full of vitality. Hence, he looked much younger than his actual age. He had one of his six year old children in his lap. Even though he was very strong dominating personality, he had loveable good natured features. I noted that he showed hospitality to his guests. He was very knowledgeable about world politics. But he kept repeating that he was retiring, so their affairs do not concern him.

From this statement, we can see that Sh. Jassim was successful in making the Englishman looked at him differently than the British normally looked at other sheikhs of tribes: as naïve, greedy and disrespectful. On the other hand, we can notice how the Envoy was observant as if he would have a test. A letter sent by an Ottoman spy working in the region (Document No. 18/553141.93.94) described some events at the beginning of the British infiltration in the Arabian Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula stating, “The British tried to utilize any event to create problems. In the Port of Aden, the largest port in Yemen, some bedouins killed the British Consul and robbed a large amount of money that was with him. The British sent several warships to the Port. After several hours of fighting that resulted into the destruction of about one third of the city, its people requested a ceasefire because they realized that they could not cope with the British. The latter demanded the equivalent of 50,000 Liras as compensation. They appointed a new Consul. He began immediately to practice trade and interfere in the Port’s affairs. He also built a house in the old wrecked castle. He asked to have a section of the Port for his ships to unload his cargoes or repair his ships. The Imam (Governor) of Sana’a refused the Consul’s request. He told the Consul that the Governorate was under the sovereignty of his highness the Ottoman Sultan and he as Governor cannot do anything without his order. The Consul replied that, ‘This is not true. You are an independent people’. He kept repeating this statement over and over. However, the Imam and his constituents remained firm in denying the Consul’s request”. The spy continued to say, “But if the villagers were not supported by the Ottomans, they may have accepted the Consul’s desire because they were poor, so he may bribe them with money. After the Consul completed building his house and a

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warehouse for his merchandise in the castle. He renovated the castle to become his own fortress. Sh. A’akeel the Governor of Dhufar had many slaves and Bedouins, but he needed a regular army from the Ottomans to support him against the British. Logically, the respected Ottoman Government should support the Governorate that we are talking about to ensure that these regions will remain under its sovereignty. People would have confidence in a guardian that they rely on. The British Consul’s hopes will be in vain. “The spy continued to say, “I would like to point out that the British Consul asked that all ship captains to raise the British flag when going into the Arabian Gulf via Aden. He claimed that he wanted to know if the ship is friendly or not! All captains raised the British flag whether they liked it or not. He also brought into the Island soldiers to enforce his demand. He was using all kinds of tricks to show the presence and domination of the British in the Gulf”. This is an example of the British versus the Arabian Gulf tribal chiefs. To start their manoeuvre up north, the British got the approval of the Iranians to run their ships through the River Karun, which runs from central Iran to pour in Basrah’s Shatt-al-Arab River. This gave them the monopoly of trade between Iran and Baghdad. Arab Sheikhs began to have their doubt regarding the British manoeuvring that they were not for justice, civilization, security or trade in the Arabian Gulf. They noticed that when they have a treaty, they had many hidden condition or clauses. Therefore, the sheikhs had to choose between British protection with its hidden conditions and the custodianship of the Ottomans under the Islamic banner. The problem was that most sheikhs were not religiously adherent. Otherwise the choice would have been easy. Each sheikh made his calculation on what side benefited him more. Such decision was taken by each sheikh individually, case by case, rather than collectively and consistently. The British realized the situation that each sheikh was independent of the other sheikhs in making his decision according to his own interest without abidance or consideration to religion, nationality or even affiliation to a mother tribe. The British had their contacts with each sheikh to hop in when he was in jeopardy to offer their help and advice. One of the most significant differences in the struggle between the British and the Ottomans was that the former had their consul or his representative in the area could make decisions and act immediately in urgent matters and then reported to higher authorities because they were of high calibre. For the Ottomans, on the other hand, decision-making was in the hand of the Sultan or his ministers. Even a governor whose jurisdiction extended twice the size of England had to report to his Government in Istanbul about an event and wait for their answer of what to do. We know how bad communication was at that time as compared to the present time. Such centralized administration, perhaps, due to the fact that most governors were not knowledgeable about the area and its people. In fact, some of the governors were sent out of the capital as punishment or other reasons. They were not interested in their job except on how much wealth they could collect legally or not.

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3 History of Arabian Gulf Countries 3.1

Introduction

In Part I, we discussed the history of the Arabian Gulf region in general. We shall now take the geography and history of each individual entity separately. We shall start with Kuwait and go southward until Oman and then Saudi Arabia. Since we are limited in space, we shall be brief and refer to some important events. We shall stop at the discovery of oil and/or the independence of each country.

3.2

Kuwait

Kuwait is a small entity located in the north-western corner of the Arabian Gulf. Its area is 17,818 km2 (7127 sq. miles). It is an extension of the Arabian Peninsula. Kuwait has arid climate. There is a great difference between winter and summer. While temperature reaches 120 in the summer, it gets to 21 in winter Fahrenheit. It has deep Kuwait Bay and many small bays in Failaka Island and other coastal areas. As we mentioned earlier, there were many waves of migration from Iraq, Iran and the Arabian Peninsula to the Arabian Gulf coasts and islands for thousands of years. One of the great sanctuaries for those migrants was the area that is called now Kuwait, especially Failaka Island and Al-Jahra’a. The former was good for receiving trading ships and the latter for its plenty of sweet water wells that used to provide dates and other fruits as well as vegetables. Based on excavation findings, settlement might have begun about the third millennium in Failaka and Al-Jahra’a (Al-Timimi and Malik 1998). Those migrants to Failaka and coasts lived on fishing, some vegetation that had short life cycles, serving passing-by ships and pearl industry as well as trade. Most of the area had wells depending on rainfall that was not much. Al-Jahra’a was the only exception of having sweet water all year round. That is why people used to plant palm tree, grapevines, fig trees, etc. (Al-Qanna’i 1988). The Kingdom of Dilmun that started in Bahrain around 3000 B.C. ruled Kuwait. Trade flourished during the Dilmun era, with Failaka and coasts of Kuwait serving as ship stopping station between Bahrain and the end of Tigris and the Euphrates. Trade at that time is indicated by remnants which belonged to Mesopotamian and Indus Valley civilizations (Ibrahim 1985). During the period 320 B.C.–100 A.D., the Greeks had controlled most of the Mediterranean area. Their trade increased between India and China of the East and Europe. Kuwait became a Greek colony. Excavations show the existence of pots, stamps and other Greek items (Al-Timimi and Malik 1998). Trade continued by Arab merchants between Iraq, Iran, Syria, Turkey and Europe, on one hand, and Oman, East Africa, India and China, on the other hand.

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During the golden era of the Muslim State (sixth to the fifteenth centuries), Muslim merchants controlled the East-West trade and within. Kuwaiti ports had their share in that trade. Some rich families had their own ships and pearl boats. These activities seized to exist when the Portuguese controlled the Arabian Gulf, Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. In the seventeenth century, a tribe named Bani Khalid migrated to Kuwait and controlled it. Later on came five families, Al-Sabah, Al-Khalifa, Al-Za’id, Al-Jalahma and Al-Mu’awda, to settle in Kuwait with the permission of Bani Khalid. These groups were migrants to Qatar, but gradually moved to Kuwait (Slot 1990). At the beginning of the eighteenth century, residents of Kuwait found themselves to be larger in number without leadership. Hence, heads of families gathered together and selected Sabah as their Amir (leader). He took their covenant to listen and obey him if he was right. These information and those to follow regarding Al-Sabah reign were taken from (Al-Qanna’I 1988). When Sabah died, his youngest son Abdullah succeeded him. He ruled for 70 years. During his reign, al-Khalifa left to Bahrain and began their ruling there. Another event happened during Abdullah’s ruling: the battle of al-Riqa. Bani Ka’ab decided to invade Kuwait by taking it over. The Amir of Kuwait prepared small boats as many as they had and filled them with armed fighters. Their plan was to go after each Ka’bi’s large ship, surround it and take it over. They were able to do that with most ships. The others fled away. The Kuwaitis gained ships, weapons and munitions. Abdullah was succeeded by his son Sabah II. When the latter died, he had several sons. They agreed to share the authority. The oldest, Abdullah, was the Amir. The other three divided the duties among them. When the new Amir died, the three brothers disputed again. With some mediation from friends, they agreed to have Mohammed the Amir, Jarrah for the finance and Mubarak for tribal affairs. But in 1897, Mubarak and his son killed the Amir and the other brother. Next morning Mubarak claimed that some stranger killed his brothers. He assumed the emirate. He went to the Ottoman Governor of Basrah, to who Kuwait belonged, and gave him a large sum of money as bribe. The Governor wrote to the Sultan saying that an unknown Bedouin killed the Amir of Kuwait and his brother and recommended Mubarak to be the Amir (Al-Ejli 2017b). Mubarak also gave to the Field Marshal of the Sixth Army large amount of money to support him with the Sultan (Document No. 91/29). Two battles took place during Mubarak’s reign; the first was with Abdul Aziz bin Rasheed in which Mubarak lost. The other was the Battle of Haddeeth (Gift). In 1910, Sa’adoun Al-Mansour raided Al Mutair tribe. He mistakenly took some Bedouin prisoners. Mubarak’s son Jabir told Sa’adoun about his mistake. The latter apologized and Jabir accepted the apology. When Jabir told his father, Mubarak was angry that he should not accept the apology. He prepared an army to fight Sa’adoun. The latter won the battle, and the Kuwaitis fled leaving everything behind for Sa’adoun’s army. That is why it was called the Battle of Gift.

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We wonder why Kuwaitis nicknamed Mubarak Al-Kabeer (Grand Mubarak). He became Amir by assassinating two of his brothers and dragged his people into two unnecessary failed battles (Onley 2009). The family of Al-Sabah kept ruling Kuwait exclusively until today. Kuwait was loosely part of the Ottoman Empire. It was administratively tied with the Governor of Basrah. The Governor of Basrah required Kuwait to send an army as part of the Midhat Pasha Campaign in the eastern coast of the Arabian Gulf. It became under the mandate of Britain in 1899 until its independence in 1961. The Kuwaiti economy began to grow since the mid-nineteenth century. Its economy diversified to include trade, pearl industry, ship building and repair, some agricultural and industrial activities for local markets. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, Kuwait had several family-based businesses that engaged in trade and pearl activities. They had their own ships. Kuwaitis surpassed other Arabian Gulf countries in trade because its merchants were very aggressive, they diversified their trade, they used to smuggle pearls, gold and other valuable items and they worked as one family collectively. Although the pearl industry was income produced in Kuwait, it was not as large as it was in other Arabian Gulf entities. Hence, when the Japanese Mikimoto Kokichi discovered cultured pearls, the Kuwaiti economy was not affected much as compared to Bahrain and Qatar. The Kuwaiti economy was more diversified than its sister entities. In the year 1913, British company received the privilege of exploration for oil based on the Britain-Kuwait Agreement of 1899. The effort was hampered by World War I and the 1929 crisis. In 1934, an American oil company came to an agreement with the British to work together. In 1937, the first oil well was found in commercial quantity. Oil activities were put on hold because of World War II. Crude oil export began to increase gradually in the 1950s. But in the 1960s, it began to rise at geometric progression rates (Al-Timimi and Malik 1998). In June 19, 1961, Kuwait became independent during the reign of Abdullah Al-Salem Al-Sabah and later on became a member of the United Nations. Soon after its independence, Kuwaitis elected a parliament starting a democratic regime (Anthony and Heartily 1980).

3.3

Bahrain

The main Island of Bahrain, which is the largest island, is surrounded by 33 islands. Some of these islands are large and inhabited, but others are small uninhabited islands. Total area of the kingdom of Bahrain is 765 km2 (306 sq. miles). The water between and around the Islands of Bahrain is very clear and not very deep. Hence, it has been the most suitable for pearl collecting for more than 5000 years. Pearls of Bahrain were known to be of the best quality. There is a theory that Bahrain was sometime in history part of the eastern Arabian Peninsula but was separated by natural causes. Archaeological

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excavations showed that Bahrain was inhabited before the third millennium B.C. The Kingdom of Dilmun was founded in Bahrain during the Bronze Age at around 3000 B.C. Dilmun was known to be the greatest trading centre because Bahrain is situated along the route between the Indus Valley (currently India and Pakistan) on one hand and Mesopotamia and then Turkey, the Mediterranean and Europe (Ibrahim 1985). During its prosperous time Dilmun enjoyed for 2000 years, it expanded north to Kuwait and west to Qatif, Al-Ahsa’a and Qatar. However, in the first millennium B. C., Dilmun’s trading activity was declining gradually especially when the Greeks stepped up their trade activities and took over Failaka Island of Kuwait. It should be noted that the volume of trade between the East and West was more or less stable. Hence, when there was a new trader, the share of others (Dilmun and Hormuz) would decline (Ibrahim 1985). Dilmun became a vassal of the Assyrian Empire in the eighth century B.C. Then it was annexed to the Assyrian Empire in 600 B.C. Between the 600 and 300 B.C., Bahrain became under the rule of the Persians. When Nearchus, the army leader sent by Alexander the Great, travelled from India through the Arabian Gulf, he passed by Bahrain in the year 326 B.C. In his report to Alexander the Great, he called Bahrain Tylos. He mentioned that it had good maritime position between the East and the West. He also drew the attention of its good pearls. During the 600 years (300 B.C.–300 A.D.), Bahrain was very prosperous. In the first century A.D., Pliny, a Greek historian, mentioned that Tylos was famous for its pearls. Its trade was vitalized because of the direct involvement of the Greeks and the Persians. The former had Failaka Island and the coasts of Kuwait, and the latter was ruling Bahrain (Al-Timimi and Malik 1998). The inhabitants of Bahrain appeared to have adopted the new Christian faith during the third and fourth centuries A.D. It is a fact that Nestorian sect of Christianity was well established in Bahrain and the east side of the Arabian Peninsula by the fifth century. In that area, there were five seats of Nestorian bishoprics; two of them were in Bahrain. That was before Islam entered the area (Shakir 2005). Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) sent in 628 several messages with envoys to leaders of the world and chiefs of entities inviting them to Islam. Among them was Al-Ala’ Al-Hadhrami who was dispatched to Bahrain’s ruler Munthir Al-Timimi. The ruler accepted Islam so as his people. Since then, Bahrain became an Islamic military base for the Muslim troops that were spreading Islam at the Indian subcontinent. The Bahraini assistance was desperately needed for those Muslims that came from Mecca and Medina who had no knowledge of maritime. Bahrain continued to play important role in the East-West trade for almost one thousand years. However, its role in trade started to diminish after the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope by the Portuguese in 1507. Trade between India and the West was shifted to route around South Africa. Besides, as we mentioned earlier, the Portuguese were hijacking merchant ships that belong to Muslims, confiscated their cargoes and killed people on them. Hence, Muslim merchants avoided the Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea and the Red Sea (Al-Ejli 2013).

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In 1521, the Portuguese invaded Bahrain and stayed there until 1602 when the Persians expelled them. During the existence of the Portuguese in Bahrain, they cruelly treated Bahrainis. They used to kill people for trivial reasons, prevented merchants from trading and took pearls at cheap prices. Therefore, when the Persians attacked the Portuguese, the Bahrainis assisted them (Al-Ejli 2013). Bahrain remained under the Persians’ occupation until 1783 when Al-Utbah tribe led by Mohammed Al-Khalifa expelled the Persians from Bahrain. They continued to rule Bahrain until now. However, Bahrain joined the Ottoman Empire as semiindependent but related to the Governorate of Basrah administratively. During the nineteenth century, the British raised their activities in the Arabian Gulf after they got rid of their competitors: the French, the Dutch and the Portuguese. They had a strong alliance with the Persians. They had a treaty with the Sheikh of Bahrain in 1820. They claimed to protect their ships from piracy. They did not share the protections of Bahrain territorial waters with the Sheikh. But they would be present all the time protecting their interests (Anthony and Heartily 1980). In 1861, the UK had another treaty with Bahrain which stated that the Sheikh agreed to refrain from prosecution of war, piracy and trading of slaves. The naïve Sheikh found nothing wrong with the treaty. But actually it was an admission of the Sheikh that he was practicing all that. Besides, the treaty gave the British to watch over the shoulders of the Sheikh to make sure he refrained from those acts. Hence, the treaty gave the British the chance to set foot in Bahrain to prevent other powers from doing so (Anthony and Heartily 1980). In the beginning of the year 1870, the British sent four warships to Bahrain. They removed its ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa, and exiled him to Bombay. They appointed his brother Ali as the Sheikh of Bahrain. The British, perhaps, used the 1861 treaty and fabricated incidence of piracy against their ship to accuse the legitimate Sheikh of attacking that ship. The reader will notice that they replaced Mohammed with his brother Ali so that they would not make of Al-Khalifa enemy. Besides, the new Sheikh would become their obedient servant (Ottoman Government 1334). When this news got to Istanbul from the Governor of Baghdad, the Government enquired from the British Embassy in Istanbul about the matter in Bahrain. The Embassy replied, “Lord Clarendon has no knowledge of this matter”. When the Ottoman Embassy in London enquired from the British Government, its answer was that they wanted to protect their ships, they did not know Bahrain was part of the Ottoman Empire and they thought it was within the Persian waters. In his reply to the British claim, the Ottoman Ambassador in London said, “Iran does not have any right in the Arabian islands in the Arabian Gulf including the Islands of Bahrain, but they have been part of Basrah Governorate since ancient times” (Bayat 2010). When the Ottoman Empire controlled Baghdad and Basrah, Bahrain became consequently part of the Ottoman Empire. When Sheikh Ali replaced his brother, the British made sure that Sheikh Ali would not resort to the Ottomans for protection. The British told the new Sheikh that their warships were against the pirates and any claimant of the sheikhdom. Incidentally, the British used the same method when they took over Muscat and the coast of

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Oman, but this tactic did not work with Qatar because Sheikh Jassim, the Amir of Qatar, was very cautious (Soyyigit 1990). The British by that time had exposed their intention of making the Arabian Gulf their possession. This was communicated to the Ottoman Sultan by a letter sent from the Governor of Baghdad. The Sultan’s reply on February 22, 1869, was apathetic and showed no seriousness of the matter. Actually, the reason was for the treaty between the Sultan and the British. The latter gave the Ottomans a loan of money and war materials during their war with Russia in 1856 (the Crimean War). One of the conditions of the loan was the Sultan must ignore any British activity in the Gulf and instruct his officials in the area accordingly. The British found the need of the Sultan for assistance as gold opportunity to tie his hands with the treaty. In order to stay in Bahrain, the British created antagonism between Sheikh of Bahrain and other sheikhs in the region. For example, they created a war between Bahrain and Qatif even though in the process their appointed Sheikh was killed and Bahrain blockaded Qatif for more than 6 months (Document No. 1667). The British later on stepped up their presence in Bahrain to make it a protectorate. In the twentieth century, oil companies were trying to excavate for crude oil. American company, related to Aramco, found oil in 1931. Bahrain never had but small quantity of oil as compared to Iraq, Iran and other Gulf countries. That is why Bahrain was not a member of OPEC, but a member of AOPEC. Bahrain took different economic route than the other oil-producing countries; it concentrated on trade and financial intermediaries. Since the last quarter of nineteenth century, many Indians, called Banyan merchants, settled in Bahrain as they were encouraged by the British. They were working in retail and wholesale trade as well as foreign trade. They brought with them the financial institution know-how. They promoted commerce and pearl trade. Their number increased to become about 25% of total inhabitants in Bahrain. Iran began to encourage their citizen to migrate to Bahrain. The Iranians now became majority in the country. The purpose is to take over the country through public unrest or election. In 1968, the UK decided to withdraw all its forces in the Arabian Gulf. This led Sheikh Isa bin Salman Al-Khalifa to proclaim Bahrain independence in August 1971. A Treaty of Friendship was signed between the UK and Bahrain terminating the status of protectorate and designated Sheikh Isa the Amir of Bahrain. It became later a member of the UN and the Arab League. In 2002, Bahrain adopted a new constitution under which it became a kingdom. Hamdan bin Isa Al-Khalifa became the first King. Later in the year, Bahrain elected the first parliament and municipal councils (Anthony and Heartily 1980).

3.4

Qatar

Qatar is a peninsula extending into the Arabian Gulf as a tongue followed by several islands. It is connected with the Arabian Peninsula from the southern part. The land

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of Qatar is flat with rocky surface, except for limy hills in the west and Mount Foyirit in the north. There are in the southern and central regions many swamps, ponds and pans that gather rainwater. The areas around these swamps are fertile. Total area of Qatar is 11,521 km2 (4608 sq. miles). It was formed mostly through the drying of shallow water of the Gulf that merged into the main land. There are many sand dunes along the coast. The heat of the sun on the surface turns it into lime layer making it unsuitable for plantation. There is in the north large area good for plantation including trees and palm trees. Qatar has long summer with temperature passing 120 F (38.9  C) in the shade. It starts to fall in September but remains warm with little rain. The country is affected by northwest and southeast winds. The former causes sandstorms, and the latter brings sea moisture causing humid weather (Al-Ejli 2013). Unlike Failaka Island of Kuwait and Bahrain, Qatar did not have stimulating features to attract migrants except to stay until they find a better place to go to. Some migrants came from Yemen after the collapse of the Ma’arab Dam or from Arabian Peninsula due to lack of rain. Around 1700, Al-Ma’adhid (sub-tribe of Bani Tamim) migrated to Qatar. They came from Al-Eshaiqir. Following Al-Ma’adhid Al-Thani, a related tribe migrated to Qatar from Al-Eshaiqir, too. The other group migrated to Qatar was from Basrah who fled the transgression of the Persians in 1776 when they made mass killing and destructed almost all homes. During the period 1770–1820, the sons of Mohammed Ali Pasha of Egypt carried out mass destruction in the Arabian Peninsula that led many tribes to migrate to Qatar (Al-Shuraifi 1999). The population of Qatar in the nineteenth century consisted of groups from different sub-tribes or place of origin. None of these groups was strong enough to lead the country or even defend itself. Representatives of all tribes or groups got together and selected Sheikh Jassim Al-Thani as their leader and spokesman for the people of Qatar. He was the perfect fit for tribesmen to have as leader. He was generous, brave and hospitable. He had very sharp mind. He was the richest person in Qatar as he owned several times the ship for pearls and fishing than all other owners combined (Al-Ejli 2017b). It should be noted that Qatar was poorly endowed with resources to pay for Government expenses and infrastructures and welcome internal and foreign guests. Sheikh Jassim was the only one who could do all that. In fact, events that followed the selection of Sheikh Jassim proved that he was the best selection. Qatar remained outside the Ottoman Empire, while the entire Arabian Peninsula, Yemen, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman were all under the Ottoman flag. Though Sheikh Jassim united all tribes in Qatar under his leadership, he was not left alone. The first attempt on his life was when Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa of Bahrain invited him with assurance of full protection. However, bin Khalifa arrested Sheikh Jassim and put him in a fortress. He managed to escape and was greatly welcomed by all tribes of Qatar as hero (Al-Ejli 2013). During the 1860s, there were several events and disturbances that took place in Oman, Bahrain, Nejd and other east coast regions of the Arabian Peninsula, except Qatar. Sh. Jassim was observing those events, but stayed out of them. The British

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invasion of Bahrain was the most threatening to Qatar for it is close and he thought that the British had their eyes on Qatar to set foot in the Arabian Peninsula. The British replaced Bahrain’s Amir with his brother Ali Al-Khalifa who became subservient to the British. Besides, The British could use Sh. of Bahrain and Sh. of Abu Dhabi who were under their control to attack Qatar. At the end of 1867, Sh. of Bahrain and Sh. of Abu Dhabi made a treacherous attack on Qatar. They levelled to the ground the cities of Doha and Al Wakrah, the largest ones in Qatar. People fled for their lives. The losses were estimated at 200,000 rupees that was huge amount at that time. Under these circumstances, Sh. Jassim decided to ally with the Ottomans to protect his country from such transgression to happen again. He knew that these sheikhs would not dare to do what they did without the planning and assistance of the British (Shubber 2010). After he had the backing of the Ottomans, Sh. Jassim devoted his efforts to the internal affairs. He called on the sheikhs for unity under the banner of Islam. As to the Ottomans, they lost Oman, which included Muscat and Abu Dhabi as well as Bahrain, when they were busy with their wars in Europe and Crimea. The British were busy having treaties with sheikhs of Oman and Bahrain. The succession of events and their effects on the Arabian Gulf region raised the political awareness that the Ottomans lost vast area to the British. Hence Sultan Abdul Aziz appointed the renowned administrator Midhat Pasha as the Governor of Baghdad and Basrah on February 27, 1869. He dispatched spies in the region to get him information. He designed a plan for his Campaign that involved Arab dignitaries, the Amir of Kuwait and Arab tribes from southern Iraq. His Campaign was from land and sea aiming at the eastern region of the Arabian Peninsula and Nejd (Saban 2005). The huge army led by Nafith Pasha took over Al-Ahsa’a, Qatif and other nearby entities. Sh. Jassim immediately sent letters to Midhat Pasha and Nafith Pasha inviting the army to Qatar as guests. Nafith Pasha sent Sh. Jassim four Ottoman flags to put one on his palace and the others in designated places. Hence, when a British ship came to Qatar asking for taxes for Sh. Isa Al-Khalifa, Sh. Jassim pointed to the Ottoman flag saying we are under this flag and no one else. The ship returned empty-handed. Sh. Jassim felt danger from Bahrain and the British (Document No. 44930). Hence, he requested from the Ottomans to send protection. They sent two ships with columns from Al-Ahsa’a to protect Qatar (Saban 2005). When the military operations ended, the Ottomans redefined the administration set up in the region. Al-Ahsa’a became a district to include Qatif, Haffoof, Qatar and the surrounding entities. However, one of the articles in the instruction excluded Qatar from having an Ottoman director, but given Sh. Jassim full authority to rule Qatar. The article also exempted Qatar from having other post run by Ottomans (Korshon 2010). While the situation in Qatar was stable, everywhere else began to deteriorate. The Government in Istanbul relaxed after the success of the Campaign. British started to infiltrate into the region and tried to conciliate high-ranked Ottoman officials in the region to control the Government from within. Besides, they started to encourage tribes and intellectuals to deviate from Islam that was the strong link with the

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Ottomans. The British created hatred between district directors as well as between the Governor of Basrah to Sh. Jassim. On May 22, 1892, 36 merchants from Nejd sent petition to the Cabinet in Istanbul complaining about bandits who keep robbing their caravans and killing their attendees. They named the bandits and mentioned Sh. Abu Dhabi who supported them with men. The Governor of Basrah Hafidh took this opportunity to claim falsely that Al-Ahsa’a and Qatar helped the bandits. The Governor wanted to get rid of Sh. Jassim and get the revenues of Qatar. He also would please the British (Document No. 1310/1M/16). Hafidh Pasha attacked Qatar with land troops and warships. When the army reached Al-Dira, Sh. Jassim found out that there were no Arab dignitaries with them. He suspected their action. Hafidh asked to meet with Sh. Jassim, who refused and sent his brother Ahmad. Hafidh arrested Ahmad. The tribes of Qatar fought with the Ottoman Army at the fortress of Al Wajbah. When Hafidh found that his army was losing, he escaped to a British ship. Sh. Jassim stopped the fight and gave the troops the chance to stay in Qatar or being escorted out of the country. The Battle of Al Wajbah was described differently by Sh. Jassim, Hafidh Pasha, the investigation committee and the Commander of the Sixth Army. Every one gave different version. However, the Government in Istanbul dismissed Hafidh Pasha and commended Sh. Jassim whose star was glared with the Sultan. He dispatched a letter to his friend Sa’eed Afandi, Chief of the dignitaries of Basrah, who sent a copy in telegram to the Sultan. The letter from Hafidh Pasha took 3 weeks to get to the Sultan (Document No 272/95). After the Al Wajbah battle, the Ottomans had a battalion in Qatar without any control over its administration. The tribesmen were watching the soldiers very carefully because they were not accustomed on having foreign forces in their territory. One day there were 12 soldiers and a first lieutenant walking in the market when they saw an Iranian and Arabian fighting. The soldiers interfered and began to beat both fighters. When people saw what the soldiers were doing, they attacked the soldiers. The officer was injured, two civilians were killed, and three were injured. The fight was with knives, sticks and rocks. The soldiers ran back to their fortress. People rushed to get their guns and started to shoot at the fortress, but the soldiers did not respond. The Qataris demanded to surrender the two soldiers accused of being the killers. The Ottomans gave the two killers who were chained awaiting authorization to trial them and compensated those who lost their merchandise. The Qataris were not satisfied with that, so they cut off the water from them. Sh. Ahmad, Sh. Jassim’s brother, went to calm the people. He sent a letter to the new Governor of Basrah Anees Pasha explaining what happened. Meanwhile, the 6th Army Commander took this opportunity to twist the incidence against Sh. Jassim, who was about 6 h away from the incidence. Sh. Jassim resigned his post to show his anger for falsely being accused of that incidence while he was far away from it. The Ottoman Government sent Naqeeb of Basrah to investigate the incidence. He cleared the name of Sh. Jassim from being involved in the market incidence. Sh. Jassim was able to impose his political

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pressure to be recognized as great leader in the region. The market incidence was obtained from Document No. 93/21. The Ottoman Empire and Great Britain had an agreement that included (Articles 11 and 12) the declaration of independence for Qatar under the leadership of Sh. Jassim and his descendants after him to rule Qatar. Article 12 disassociated Qatar from Bahrain in taxes and otherwise. Article 17 appointed committee to draw the borders of Qatar. The Agreement was signed by the UK and the Ottoman Empire representatives on July 29, 1913. It should be noted that Sh. Jassim died just 12 days before the signing of the Agreement: July 17, 1913. The full text of the Agreement is in Document No. 242/17. Early in 1906, Sh. Jassim appointed his son Abdullah Amir of Doha bypassing the other two sons Khalifa and Abdul Rahman. On March 8, 1906, 30 of Qatar chiefs of tribes and other dignitaries sent pledge of allegiance for Sh. Abdullah to Sh. Jassim to become their leader and the Amir of Qatar. Sh. Jassim called his sons and the rest of his family for a meeting and announced his son Sh. Abdullah to be his successor. Although the new Amir began to run the country, he continued to consult his father to learn from his experience until the death of Sh. Jassim. The Governor of Basrah proclaimed Sh. Abdullah Deputy District Director of Qatar in 1907. According to the Agreement between the Ottoman Empire and Great Britain under which Qatar became independent, it obligated Sh. Abdullah to terminate all relations with the Ottoman Empire by 1915. In order to assure Qatar security, Sh. Abdullah had a treaty with the British in 1916. Qatar remained independent under this treaty, but was considered protectorate of the UK. Besides, the protection of the Indian merchants and their trade was made Sh. Abdullah’s responsibility to avoid having British soldiers in Qatar (Document No. 242/17): In 1934, the UK requested to build an airport in Qatar so that British planes could use in case of emergency. Sh. Abdullah approved the request and the airport was completed immediately. In 1935, the British asked Sh. Abdullah to grant the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APCO) to explore for oil in Qatar exclusively. The Company started its work immediately to find oil in 1941. The oil operations stopped until 1949 because of the war and aftermath. During the period 1940–1949, Qatar suffered from economic severe hardship as a result of the following: 1. APCO closed its doors and released its Qatari employees. 2. World War II caused shortage of commodities worldwide. 3. There was a war between Qatar and Bahrain at Zibara which led Bahrain to stop trade with Qatar. 4. The pearl industry suffered a great set back when cultured pearl was discovered by the Japanese. In 1949, Sh. Abdullah relinquished his post to his son Sh. Ali because he became very old. Sh. Ali was very successful in the pearl industry before he became Amir. During his reign, oil export started and increased a lot. Hence, the country which was among the poorest in the world with almost nothing of social and physical infrastructures used oil funds to develop the country. Sh. Ali lifted his country from its poverty to richness and had his role in the Arab affairs.

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Sh. Ali became ill and had to go abroad often for treatment. In 1960, he abdicated his rule to his son Sh. Ahmed who was one of 11 sons and 4 daughters to Sh. Ali. Sh. Ahmed continued his father’s policy and made electricity and pure water free for all people. In 1970, Sh. Ahmed pronounced the constitution and established the Cabinet. In 1971, Qatar became completely independent after the withdrawal of the UK. In 1972, Sh. Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani made a peaceful coup against his cousin Sh. Ahmed. He was the Prime Minister. Sh. Khalifa established the Council of Advisors in 1972. In order to enhance education, Sh. Khalifa erected the University of Qatar. He established Planning Council in 1989 to channel oil revenues into development projects (Anthony and Heartily 1980). On June 27, 1995, Sh. Hamad, who was the Minister of Defence and successor Crown Prince, ousted his father while travelling in Europe. Sh. Hamad remained the Amir until his son Sh. Tamim took over when his father was travelling in Europe. Sh. Tamim is the current Amir of Qatar. It is quite unfortunate that the last four emirs came by coup against cousin or fathers. I do not understand if someone is named successor and was Prime Minister, why would he overthrow his cousin or father? The coup initiator had everything under his control except for the title. I strongly believe that it is a curse from Allah for deviating from the straight path set by the founder of Qatar Sh. Jassim in his will.

3.5

The United Arab Emirates

Currently, the United Arab Emirates (we shall refer to as UAE) is an independent country since 1971. It is in the lower region of the Arabian Gulf. Its total area is 83,657 km2 (33,463 sq. miles). It has 644 km (386 miles) of coasts on the Arabian Gulf and 90 km (54 miles) of coasts on the Gulf of Oman (Anthony and Heartily 1980). The UAE has varied land structure as follows (Yaghy and Mahmoud 2010): 1. The coastal region consists of salty soil formed by the retraction of the Gulf water that was between the numerous islands. The majority of people reside in this region. 2. The sandy desert region constitute about one-third of the UAE area. It has many oases that were built around water springs. 3. Pebbled plains located between the sandy desert and the eastern mountain regions. 4. The eastern heights region is a series of mountains, the highest of which is Heiss Mountain that is 1900 m (6333 feet) high. 5. The plains between the eastern heights and the Oman Gulf coasts are 20 mile long. The territorial water of the UAE is generally shallow. They are full of coral reefs. There are hundreds of islands; some are small, but others are big such as the Island of Abu Dhabi, Umm Al-Nar, Abu Musa and Lesser and Greater Tombs.

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Historically, the UAE’s history had been part of the history of Oman that we referred to earlier as the Kingdom of Hormuz. The latter ruled the area of what is now the Sultanate of Oman and the UAE during the third millennium B.C. (Al-Abdul Jabbar in Dara Periodical No. 1 year 39). But after the fall of Hormuz Kingdom, the region was ruled by local sheikhs of tribes, except Oman that had kings. During the early Islamic era, the UAE accepted Islam upon invitation from the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) peacefully. The UAE suffered from the Portuguese occupation, but the Arabian tribes gave the invaders a hard time. That was why the Portuguese avoided their region unless it was necessary to concentrate on Oman and Bahrain. It should be noted that the UAE sheikhdoms gave the British a lot of headache and took the British long time before they could control them especially Ras Al Khaimah and Sharja. The British named the UAE sheikhdoms as “Pirate Coast”. However, the British were much stronger and had more sophisticated weapons than the Arabian tribes. Hence, the latter gave in and accepted treaties with the British. Then they renamed these sheikhdoms “Trucial Coast” (Yaghy and Mahmoud 2010). The British did not stop with the treaties, but began to use them against other Arab entities. We have mentioned earlier the attack of Sheikh Abu Dhabi on Qatar that resulted into the complete destruction of Doha. Besides, Sheikh Abu Dhabi was supporting outlaws with men and weapons who were hijacking caravans in Nejd and Hejaz to create disturbances in those areas that were under the Ottoman’s rule. The British were behind these and many other incidences. However, this period was mostly peaceful as far as trade, pearl industry, ship building and repairing and other activities (Yaghy and Mahmoud 2010). Recent excavations in Abu Dhabi showed some pots, stamps and other articles that indicate the existence of trade relations with Mesopotamia, especially the Sumerians, as well as with the Greeks. The Greek historian Herodotus found great relation between the UAE region and the Phoenicians. In fact some historians speculate that the Phoenicians were originally from that region based on the similarity between the names of their respective cities, such as Sur, Arwad and others (Yaghy and Mahmoud 2010). Early in the fourth century A.D., the Emirates attacked Persian cities and ports. But the King of Persia Sapour II responded with great army to attack the Arabian Gulf coasts and Bahrain. He left the region with great losses and destruction. During this era, the UAE region became prosperous with their trading between China, India and Iraq, Syria to Europe and East Africa. In addition to moving merchandise from one area to another, trading pearls brought them huge profit. This era of prosperity in the UAE region continued during the Islamic domination of the region. In fact, trade had flourished even further because the Islamic Empire covered most of the known world. Besides, the Caliphs considered peace and security their prime duty. During the Abbassid Dynasty, all sciences thrived including what concerned maritime. Hence, navigation was made easier and less risky (Yaghy and Mahmoud 2010). However, when the Islamic Empire lost its power while Europeans got up from their slumber, the situation began to take new course. The Portuguese entered the

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region by force and dominated trade in the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Gulf. They occupied Oman, the UAE region and Bahrain (Al-Ejli 2013). During the domination of the Portuguese, the Arab sailors found it dangerous to sail in these waters, because they would be cruelly killed. Merchants turned to use land instead. The UAE region suffered great stagnation, especially ports. After the victory of the British-Dutch fleet over the Spanish fleet, the British became interested in taking over India. They fought their former allies, the Dutch and then the French; the British started their plan of infiltration into the Arab Gulf. The British gradually occupied Oman and then Abu Dhabi by pretending to protect them and keep the Gulf off pirates. By 1835, all sheikhs of the UAE region had signed treaties with the British. Economic activities began to improve gradually as ports resumed their trade, ship building and service to passing-by ships. However, when we talk about prosperity, it was relative to what happened during the Portuguese occupation. But standard of living was very low, where a handful of elementary schools and all other features were underdeveloped (Anthony and Heartily 1980). In 1971, the British decided to withdraw from the Arabian Gulf including the UAE region. Every sheikhdom declared its independence. Then Sheikh Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi and Sheikh Rashid Al Maktoum of Dubai contacted other sheikhs to form a union. After several meeting, the United Arab Emirates was declared on December 2, 1971, to include Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharja, Umm Al Quawain, Ajman and Fujairah. Ras Al Khaimah joined the Union on February 10, 1972. The UAE joined the Arab League and then the United Nations. It should be noted that most of the UAE people came from Yemen during various times. Hence, they were related by blood as being from the same original tribe. The following is a short view of each emirate (Yaghy and Mahmoud 2010): • Abu Dhabi is the largest emirate. Its area is 73,060 km2 (29,224 sq. miles), which is four times the area of Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar combined. It has 400 km (240 miles) of coasts on the Arabian Gulf. It has 200 islands, with Abu Dhabi Island being the largest. Abu Dhabi Island is the capital of the Emirate and the Union. Al Nahyan rules Abu Dhabi and assumes the presidency of the Union. • Dubai is considered the most beautiful emirate in the Arabian Gulf. It is called the “Bride of the Gulf”. Its area is 3900 km2 (1560 sq. miles). Dubai is of two sections; the northern one has all businesses, high-rise building and hotels, while the southern section has the Government buildings, customs and industries. Dubai’s ruler holds the position of Vice President of the Union. • Sharja is the third emirate in area: 2700 km2 (1080 sq. miles). It is located in the centre of the Union with coasts on the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, and each has a port. It has several islands including Abu Musa. • Ras Al Khaimah has 1700 km2 (680 sq. miles). Its coast on the Arabian Gulf is 64 km. long. It has many islands including Greater and Lesser Tombs, which has oil. It was confiscated by Iran together with Abu Musa Island. This emirate has plenty of sweet water that is used for agriculture. Its climate is the best in the

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Union. There are many castles, towers and fortresses that protected the emirate in its long war with the British. • Umm Al Quawain has an inland area of 780 km2 (312 sq. miles). It falls on the Arabian Gulf. It is known for its plenty of sardine fish that is exported dried. There is good fertile land around its City of Felj Al-Mu’alla. The Simia Island, with an area of 900 km2 which belongs to this emirate, is well-known for its rare birds and attractive sea shells. • Al-Fujairah is the only emirate that falls entirely on the Gulf of Oman with sandy coast that reaches 32 km wide. Its area is 1300 km2 (520 sq. miles). There mountains that fall after the sandy coast with valleys full of rainwater. This emirate is very hot and humid in the summer. • Ajman is the smallest emirate in the UAE with an area of 260 km2 (104 sq. miles). Most of the emirate land is sandy with few mountains. The emirate has plenty of sweet water and very pleasant climate. It is called the summer resort of the UAE. The people of the UAE used to be self-sufficient but under the poverty line before the discovery of oil. Situation became worse after the discovery of cultured pearls. It did not have any of the modern infrastructures such as schools and road and not even a post office. Their mail used to be delivered to Bahrain and then sent by boat to Abu Dhabi. When Sheikh Shakhbout, the Amir of Abu Dhabi before Sheikh Zayed took over, was asked to have postal services, his answer was, “we did not have postal services for hundreds of years why now”. In fact, he used to send oil royalties cash to Bombay for safekeeping. Later on, the sheikhs of the UAE used oil revenues to create big jumps in their economy and modern infrastructures.

3.6

Sultanate of Oman

Oman is located in the south-eastern portion of the Arabian Peninsula. Its total area is 309,500 km2 (123,800 sq. miles). It has 1700 km (1020 miles) of coasts on the Arabian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. The Strait of Hormuz separates the Arabian Gulf from the Gulf of Oman, as well as Oman from Iran. Oman’s topography varies from mountains to plains to sandy coasts. With this variation follow different climates and agricultural produce. But Oman’s climate in general is hot and humid near the coasts and warm and dry in the central regions (Ministry of Information Oman 1988). Oman depended on agriculture, fishing, pearl picking and trade for thousands of years. Rural economy was self-sufficient using traditional plantation, animal husbandry and handcraft industries and services. However, merchants used to come to those villages to buy some of their products to sell them to passing-by ships. This has been the situation since 6000 B.C. It let farmers maximize their production because there was demand for their products by merchants. The history of Oman goes back to 6000 B.C. as shown by excavations. There are evidences of trade between Oman and Mesopotamia, the Mediterranean and Greece on one hand and Oman and Indus and China on the other. Unlike other Arabian Gulf

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entities, Oman had many of its own products: wood, copper, stones and agricultural produce. Hence, in addition to serving passing-by ships, Oman had its own articles to ship to other civilizations (Al-Ejli 2017a). As we mentioned earlier, the Kingdom of Hormuz dominated the southern part of the Arabian Gulf since the third millennium B.C. Trade during the rule of this Kingdom was enhanced due to its protection of the ships. This continued for thousands of years because there was no foreign power to disturb the peace and security of the region (Al-Abdul Jabbar, Dara Journal No.1 year 39). After it accepted Islam during the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) era, Oman enjoyed even more protection and peace. The Omanis helped Muslims spread the new religion to the Indus. Ports of Oman were congested with ships coming from everywhere. The significance of Omani ports enhanced after the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope by the Portuguese in the beginning of the seventeenth century. Oman lost its role in trade between East and West with the operation of the Suez Canal in 1869. But the cruel treatment of the Portuguese to the sailors led merchants to prefer land transportation over maritime. The British began to sneak in the Arabian Gulf territories starting with Oman. They sent their Indian merchants to Oman to establish themselves in the market. The British were hoping to have any incidence involving Indians and Omanis in order to move in to protect the Indians. As we mentioned earlier (pp. 17–18), an Ottoman spy wrote to his Government saying (Document No. 18/553-141.93.94) how the British tried to utilize any problem in the Port of Aden to show their muscles and take it over. There is a memorandum from Ali Bey, another Ottoman spy; dated January 1888 we shall mention part of it (Document No. 14/366/126/9) “After the Imam of Muscat Turki bin Sa’eed replaced his father, his brother Abdul Aziz rebelled against the new Imam. He brought with him 18,000–20,000 Bedouins to claim the Imamate. The British brought in two ships to bombard and disperse the rebels. The British Consul went to Imam Turki asking him to sign a treaty with the British to protect him, but he refused”. When Imam Turki died, his three sons disputed for who should replace him. They agreed to have the oldest. The British spread rumour that his uncle Abdul Aziz was preparing to attack Muscat. The reader may see how the British were standing by to take every opportunity to get involved and have the leader sign treaty. When this manoeuvring did not work, they were ready to get their troops in the region like what they did in Oman later as well as Bahrain. In the year 1737, the Persians invaded Oman in their effort to control Strait of Hormuz; hence all ships would pass by their territorial waters. The British did not object because they had a treaty with the Persians. However, the Persians did not stay long, but 12 years later, they were driven away by the Omanis led by Beni Sa’eed. The latter continued to rule the entire Sultanate of Oman until today (Onley 2009). In 1913, the country was split in two parts; the interior part became under the rule of the Ibadite Imams, and the coastal area remained under Sultan Sa’eed bin Taimur. The main reason for the split was the Sultan taxed the interior without offering any services in return. The British played an important role in instigating the leaders of

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the interior to revolt against the Sultan. The latter did not recognize the Imam’s rule until 1920 when the British forced him to recognize the interior as independent entity. However, the Sultan regained control over the interior in 1959 (Anthony and Heartily 1980). In 1970, Qaboos made a bloodless coup against his father Sultan Sa’eed bin Taimur to become the Sultan until today. He also has the positions of Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and Head of Defence and Finance Ministries. Oman remained without democracy. It has very strict censorship of any publication. In 2011, there were demonstrations for the first time asking for democracy. The Sultan promised his people more jobs and benefits (Onley 2009). In 1964, oil was discovered, but extraction of crude oil began in 1967. Oman’s oil reserve, production and revenues are the lowest among Arabian Gulf countries. But with the existence of fertile land and water, Oman has improved its standard of living from the pre-oil era substantially. Oman invested great deal of its oil revenues in building its infrastructures practically from scratch. It also built many industrial projects, which were mostly related to oil. Farmers and fishermen began to use modern technology in their fields with great assistance from the Government (Al-Ejli 2017a).

3.7

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia occupies most of the Arabian Peninsula. It is the largest Arabian Gulf country with a total area of 2,250,000 km2 (900,000 sq. miles). Its land has varied topography. There are narrow plains along the Red Sea, followed eastward series of mountains of Hejaz and Asir, which reach more than 2000 m. East of the mountains, there are sandy deserts and rocky hills that occupy most of Saudi Arabia. In the eastern part of the country, there are coastal plains along the Arabian Gulf coasts. The climate of Saudi Arabia also varies with the variation of the land. In general the summer is hot and humid near coasts but dry in the centre, while winter is cold with rain that is in large quantity in the coastal plains and mountains, but it becomes rare in the Rub’ Al-Khali (the empty quarter). There is evidence that human habitation in the Arabian Peninsula dated to 125,000 years ago. Then human inhabitants moved to Africa through Bab Al-Mendab Strait and to Asia. Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) mentioned that Arabian Peninsula was full of forests and rivers and shall return back that way in future. Perhaps he meant the forests were during the Third Glacier Era. There were many civilizations that existed in the Arabian Peninsula such as (this information was obtained from the Internet): • Al-Magar is a prehistoric civilization that was founded in the centre of the Arabian Peninsula that is Nejd. They were the first to domesticate animals especially horses.

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• Dilmun Kingdom started in Bahrain and gradually expanded to Kuwait and the eastern region of Arabian Peninsula up to Nejd (Anthony and Heartily 1980). • Thamud civilization was located in Hejaz dated to the first millennium B.C. It was referred to in the Holy Quran as people of Prophet Saleh. They built their houses by carving them into the mountains in a highly sophisticated way. There are 9000 thamudic inscriptions that were recorded in south-west of Saudi Arabia. • Kingdom of Nabataea (In Arabic Al-Anbat) was located in the northern region of the Arabian Peninsula and included Greater Syria. They controlled trade in the Arabian Peninsula with lines through oases. • Kingdom of Lihyan was established in the north-western of current Saudi Arabia. It was dated sixth to fourth century B.C. • Kingdom of Kinda was a tribal association in Nejd headed by a king. Tribes joined this Kingdom for prestige or protection or being forced to join by coercion. In general, the Arabian Peninsula has been the home of numerous pastoral tribes for thousands of years. They were nomadic moving were there was water and pastures, except for the aforementioned civilizations. When there was a drought for 2 or more years in an area, the tribe migrated to the west coast of the Arabian Gulf or even crossed to the east coast with few tribes that settled in the north: Iraq, Syria, Jordan and Palestine. Their major activities were grazing their animals, raiding on each other’s and trading by caravans with Syria and Yemen. When Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) came with Islam, people of the Arabian Peninsula changed drastically. Instead of fighting among themselves, they went out to spread the new religion; Islam to Yemen, Oman and southeast to India; Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Syria, Palestine and Africa, etc. Then, even when the Umoweyate Dynasty took the Caliphate to Syria, Hejaz remained the canter of the Muslims’ attention. The Abbasids Caliphs were in control of the Arabian Peninsula. But when their Caliphs became weak, the Fatimid’s rulers of Egypt had their conflict with the Abbasids to control Hejaz especially Mecca and Medina. Then they were ejected by Salaheldeen Al Ayoubi. The struggle to control Hejaz went on until the Ottoman Empire ruled the entire Arabian Peninsula. Since the Ottoman Empire was very large, their rule was more of administrative than political and economic. Besides, the Ottoman governors sent to the Arabian Peninsula were inefficient and corrupt. Their main interest was to get money for themselves (Yaghy and Mahmoud 2010). The tribes and distinguished families had their control over the areas. In the beginning of eighteenth century, Saud bin Mohammed bin Muqrin became the Amir of Al-Dar’ieh (near Riyadh) until his death. There was some conflict between them as who would be the emir until they agreed to have Mohammed bin Saud as Amir. At the beginning of his reign, he met with Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Wahhab. The two persons laid down the foundation of the first Saudi State that ruled in 1727–1818. During that period four rulers governed Al-Dar’ieh: Mohammed bin Saud, his sons Abdul Aziz, Saud and finally Abdullah. It should be noted that Saud, the third ruler took over Hejaz including Mecca and Medina. During the rule of the forth Amir Abdullah, Mohammed Ali Pasha of Egypt sent his son with huge army

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that let the Amir to surrender and then was killed in Istanbul (Yaghy and Mahmoud 2010). The plan of Mohammed bin Saud, the founder of the first Saudi State, was to unify Nejd. It took 40 years to accomplish that because the tribes were not accustomed on being ruled by higher authority: king. Besides, there was the interference of Beni Khalid in the Nejd’s affairs trying to take it over from the Saudis. But the plan was completed during the second Amir Imam Abdul Aziz bin Mohammed in about 1826. As we mentioned earlier, the Saudi State continued until the Ottomans instigated Mohammed Ali Pasha of Egypt to eliminate the Saudi rule of Nejd and Hejaz. He succeeded in 1818. During the period 1819–1892, the second Saudi State ruled Nejd and extended their rule to include Al-Ahsa’a, Qatif and Bahrain. It included Qatar for a short period. This State was ruled by its founder Turki bin Abdullah followed by his son Faisal and then Khalid bin Saud the brother of the last Amir of the first Saudi State. He did not actually rule, but was fighting until Faisal bin Turki escaped his prison from Egypt to resume his second rule for 23 years. Faisal’s son Abdullah took over, followed by his son Saud and finally came Abdul Rahman bin Faisal bin Turki. With him ended the second Saudi State. The son of the last ruler, Abdul Aziz bin Abdul Rahman, founded the third and current Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Al-Qalam 2009). The second Saudi State did not actually start in 1819, but there were many wars and disputes between members of Saudi family as well as the attack of Mohammed Ali Pasha’s commanders who took over Riyadh and adjacent areas. He left four Garrisons each one in a city. Finally, Turki bin Abdullah, a member of the Saudi family, seized the opportunity of having two of the four garrisons in the area left; he entered Riyadh and gathered supporters. He was proclaimed the Amir and Imam of Nejd. He did not stop there, but annexed Al-Ahsa’a, Qatif and Bahrain. He was assassinated by his nephew Mshari. When his son Faisal heard of his father’s assassination, he rushed to Riyadh and captured Mshari. He became the Amir. When Mohammed Ali heard that the Saudis had new State, he sent a huge army. Amir Faisal found that he was unable to stand against it. He surrendered and was taken to Egypt. But he was able to escape and returned to Riyadh. People supported him. He started his second reign for 23 years. He spent some of his reign time to retake Al-Ahsa’a and Bahrain. In about 1892, Imam Faisal died. He was survived by several children. His two sons Abdullah and Saud had a dispute about who should succeed their father. Finally, Saud went to Al-Ahsa’a and Bahrain, while Abdullah remained in Riyadh (Document No. 1667 Folder 1). At that time Midhat Pasha the Governor of Baghdad and Basrah was preparing to subjugate the eastern part of the Arabian Peninsula, which we discussed with the history of Qatar. Saud found out that he was unable to stand against that huge army. He wanted to negotiate with Midhat Pasha. He sent his brother Abdul Rahman to Baghdad. The Governor refused the negotiation and held Abdul Rahman captive. The latter was able to escape to go to Bahrain and then Al-Ahsa’a. When Saud was defeated by the Ottomans, he went to Bahrain and then to Riyadh (Document No. 44230). After arriving Riyadh, Saud died. Abdul Rahman became the Amir for a short time as he relinquished the emirate to his brother Abdullah bin Faisal who

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became the Amir. But he was disputed by Saud’s sons. When Abdullah was defeated by the Saudi traditional enemy Ibn Rasheed, Saud’s sons seized this opportunity to go to Riyadh and captured their uncle Abdullah. These disputes and wars kept on. Amir Abdul Rahman bin Faisal left Riyadh to Kuwait taking with him his son Abdul Aziz. When Amir Abdul Rahman and his sons were in Kuwait, the Arabian Peninsula was disunited. The regions were governed as follows (Al-Qalam 2009): • Hejaz was under the control of the Ottomans, but administered by the Al-Ashraf (Nobles). • Asser, which is in the southwest of the Peninsula, belonged to the Ottomans, but administered by Mohammed Ali Pasha. • Jezan was ruled by Mohammed bin Ali Al-Idrisi, the grandson of the renowned Ahmad bin Idris Al-Idrisi. The ruler then sided with the Ottomans who made him the Governor. • The eastern region, Al-Ahsa’a and Qatif, was nominally part of the Ottoman Empire, but was the place for the outlaws, robbers and bandits. They never let caravans pass by including for the pilgrimage. • Nejd was under the control of Ibn Rasheed, the number 1 enemy of the Saudis. The young Abdul Aziz bin Abdul Rahman was observing the situation while in Kuwait. He was thinking of how he could reunite those regions under the Saudi reign. He and his father joined Mubarak, the Amir of Kuwait, against Ibn Rasheed in the battle of Al-Sareef. Ibn Rasheed won the battle. Amir Abdul Aziz thought of a plan to take over Riyadh, though his father discouraged him. The plan of Amir Abdul Aziz was to gather as many as possible of his relatives and friends and pick up some of the Ajman tribesmen to go to Riyadh. Ibn Rasheed heard of this plan. He threatened the Ajman tribe if they joined Abdul Aziz. He went with 40–50 men that could be considered suicide. Riyadh was ruled by Ajlan bin Mohammed for Ibn Rasheed. Abdul Aziz sneaked into Riyadh with seven men only to avoid raising suspicion. They waited for Ajlan to come home after dawn. They took him by surprise and killed him. In that day Abdul Aziz let a man announce the death of Ajlan and that Abdul Aziz was the ruler of Riyadh. People of Riyadh did not like Ibn Rasheed and his administrator; they all accept Abdul Aziz as their ruler. They knew that he was religious, kind and popular. The new ruler Abdul Aziz began to move southward to unify the rest of Nejd. He met with Ibn Rasheed several times in battles. Finally, the two met in the battle of Braideh in which he surprised Ibn Rasheed and killed him. Sharif (Noble) Hussein ibin Ali, who was ruling Hejaz, made an attempt to take over some of the Saudi territories, but failed because people rejected him. When Abdul Aziz heard of that, he advised the Shareef to go back to Mecca and stay there. Abdul Aziz also faced the problem with the grandsons of his uncle Saud. He met them in a battle and defeated them (Al-Qalam 2009). Abdul Aziz went on to retake Al-Ahsa’a and Qatif, which were ruled by his uncle Saud, but the Ottomans took them during Midhat Pasha Campaign. He chose this time because the Ottomans had problems in their European territories. Besides,

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people there were uneasy with the Ottoman administrators who were taking heavy taxes without even keeping security against the bandits. Therefore, it was easy to take over the eastern region. During World War I, the relations between the Abdul Aziz Al Saud and Shareef Hussein became worse. The latter prevented pilgrims from the Saudi territories to enter Mecca. The British assured the Abdul Aziz that the Shareef would not interfere in the Saudi affairs, or prevent Saudis from Mecca or assume leadership of the Arabs. However, the Shareef did not honour his promise. The British called for a meeting between the two in Kuwait. The Sareef did not go to the meeting. Instead, he declared himself the Muslim Caliph. Abdul Aziz and many other Arab leaders were very angered. Abdul Aziz sent troops to attack Hejaz starting with Al-Ta’if. When he took over Al-Ta’if, dignitaries of Mecca realized that the Saudi troops would be taking over Mecca. They requested from Shareef Hussein to relinquish his position to his son Ali and leave to Jeddah in his way to A’qaba. They also asked the Abdul Aziz to enter Mecca. Abdul Aziz tried to negotiate with Hussein, but failed. He then sent an army to Jeddah and blockaded it. Its people asked him to enter Jeddah without fight (Al-Qalam 2009). As for Jezan, It was governed by Al-Hassan Al-Idrisi for the Ottomans as we mentioned above. He thought that the best thing for him and his people was to side with the Saudis. He had a treaty with King Abdul Aziz who stated that Al-Idrisi would run the internal affairs under the umbrella of King Abdul Aziz (O’Fahey 1990). The last problem Abdul Aziz had was with the “Brotherhood”. These were not the Islamic Brotherhood of Egypt, but an extremist group who objected to the King using modern technology such as telegrams, telephones, and radio or even to have relations with the West. He had conference with them, but they did not honour their promises, but attacked some territories. He had another meeting with their leaders and threatened them to eliminate them if they did not adhere to his rule. He ordered them to disassemble their organization (Al-Qalam 2009). By 1932, Abdul Aziz completed the unification of the entire country named the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In 1930, the Kingdom had a treaty with the UK in which the UK recognized Saudi Arabia as independent country ruled by the Saudi family. King Abdul Aziz declared the establishment of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on September 23, 1932. Oil was discovered on March 3, 1938. The exploration continued after World War II until Saudi Arabia became the largest producer and exporter in the World and possesses the second largest oil reserve in 1976 (This and the following information was obtained from the Internet). After the death of King Abdul Aziz in 1953, his oldest son Saud became the King. When King Saud died in 1964, his half-brother Faisal assumed the reign. In 1975, King Faisal was assassinated by his nephew and replaced by Saud’s half-brother Khalid. There are rumours that King Faisal did not like any interference of the West in his country’s affairs. He was assassinated to be replaced by King Khalid who was more submissive to the West especially the USA. King Khalid died of heart attack in June 1982. He was succeeded by his brother King Fahd, who added the title of

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“Custodian of the Holy Mosques” to his name in 1986 to avoid using the term “Majesty” that should be only for God. He kept close relations to the USA and the UK by buying arms and equipment. In 1995, King Fahd suffered debilitating stroke and the Crown Prince Abdullah assumed the administrating duties of the King. Abdullah was hindered by King Fahd’s full brothers. During the time of Prince Abdullah’s acting King, there were many uprisings in Al-Ahsa’a and Qatif by the Shi’a and in other places. In 2005, King Fahd died and was succeeded by King Abdullah, who continued with limited reforms in response to the demand of demonstrations. Abdullah also made several changes in the way of modernization the administration, army and police. King Abdullah allowed women to vote and be elected in the municipal election of 2011. He allowed women to be nominated for the Shura Council (Advisory Council). The current King that followed King Abdullah is King Salman on January 23, 2015. Short time after his reign, he dismissed his successors #1 and #2, who were selected by the Saudi family. He appointed instead his son Mohammed. There have been always the sons of the founder King Abdul Aziz. They were succeeding each other according to their seniority by age. There have been so many events, disputes and uprisings as well as constructive changes and democratic development in recent decades that we skipped because of the limited space for the article. These also applied to other Arabian Gulf Countries.

References Documents Archives Directorate, Supreme Ordinance No. 1310/1M/16 BOA, Internal Ordinance, No. 44230 BOA, Internal Ordinance, Special Council, No. 1667, folder 1 BOA, Internal Ordinance, Special Council, No. 1667, folder 9 BOA, No. 242/17 Full text of the Ottoman-British Agreement July 29, 1913 BOA, Y.E.E., No. 14/255/126/8 BOA, Y.E.E., No. 14/256/126/11 BOA, Y.E.E., No. 14/366/126/19 BOA, Y.E.E., No. 18/553/141/93–94 BOA, Y.A. Res. No. 93/21 BOA, Y.A. Hus. 272/95 Ottoman Government, Foreign Ministry: the problem of Bahrain Islands (Istanbul: Document No. 1334

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Periodicals Al-Abdul Jabbar A. Trade Routes of Mejan during the 3rd and 2nd Millenniums B.C. Dara of King Abdul Aziz No. 1, year 39 Khalifa N (2005) Dar Al-Hayat Newspaper, August 14, 2005

Books Al-Abdul Qadir KA, Lockland RA (eds) (2012) Marine Atlas of Western Arabian Gulf; ecological habitat. Department of Ecological Protection, Dhahran Al-Ejli O (2013) Sheikh Jassim bin Thani. Founder of Qatar. Cinar Matbaacilik, Istanbul Al-Ejli O (2017a) Modern upswing of Sultanate Oman. Markaz Al-Raya, Cairo Al-Ejli O (2017b) Qatar: the journey of establishment: a documentary review of the political outlook of 19th century. Markaz Al-Raya, Cairo Al-Qalam (2009) Farris: history of Saudi Arabia. Mohammed bin Saud Islamic University, Riyadh Al-Qanna’i YI (1988) Pages of Kuwait history, 5th printing. Dar Al-Salassil, Kuwait Al-Shuraifi ID (1999) Al-Ma’adhid and Qatar. Doha, Qatar Al-Timimi A, Malik K (1998) Research in the history of Kuwait. Dar Al-Qurtas, Kuwait Anthony JD, Heartily JA (1980) Eastern Arabian States. In: Long DE, Reich B (eds) Government and politics of the Middle East and North Africa. Westview, Boulder Bayat F (trans) (2010) Arabia in the Ottoman documents. Center for history, Arts and Culture Research, Istanbul Ibrahim MK (1985) The kingdom of Dilmun. Center for the Arabian Gulf Studies, Basrah Korshon Z (2010) The Ottomans and Al-Saud in the Ottoman archives 1745–1914. Al-Dar Al-Arabia for the Mouso’at, Beirut Nippur K (2007) Journey to Arabian Peninsula and nearby entities (trans: A Al-Munthir). Al-Intishar Al-Arabi, Beirut O’Fahey RS (1990) Enigmatic saint; Ahmad bin Idris and the Idrisi tradition. Northwestern University Press, London Onley J (2009) Britain and the Gulf Sheikhdoms 1820-1976: the politics of protection. Center for International and Regional Studies, Doha Qal’achi Q (1992) The Arabian Gulf: the sea of legends. Printing Company for Distribution and Publication, Beirut Saban S (2005) Arabian Peninsula. King Fahd National Press, Riyadh Shakir M (2005) Encyclopedia of the Arabian Gulf history. Dar Osama for Publication and Distribution, Amman Shubber M (2010) Tribes and political struggle in British reports. Dar Al-Warraq, London Slot JB (1990) The origin of Kuwait. Kobenheaven, New York Soyyigit OZ (1990) Arsiv Belgeleri Isigi Altinda Katar Da Osmanli Hakimiyeti. Ph.D. Thesis, Istanbul Sultanate Oman (1988) Ministry of information: Oman in 1988. Muscat Taquosh MS (2009) History of the Safavids dynasty. Dar Al-Nafa’is for Printing and Publication, Beirut Yaghy IA, Mahmoud S (2010) Modern and contemporary Islamic history, 6th printing. Al-O’baikan Bookstore, Riyadh

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Map Jullia (1667) Map entitled “L’Empire des Turc” Paris, 1st edn. Copied with the permission of the Archives Administration, Istanbul

The Prehistoric Fishers and Gatherers of the Northern and Western Coasts of the Arabian Sea Paolo Biagi, Renato Nisbet, and Elisabetta Starnini

Abstract This chapter is a review of the prehistory of the fisher-gatherers who settled along the coasts of the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman. Previous research and studies have been centred mainly on the western coasts of the Indian Ocean. They have presented and discussed the general patterns and chronological frame of the coastal human adaptation since the early Holocene, and the recurrent presence of shell middens located close to mangrove environments. More recent research has been focussed on the northern shores of the Arabian Sea. From this region we have new evidence of the presence of fisher-gatherers communities that seasonally settled along the ancient coastline and islands of south-western Sindh and Las Bela (Balochistan) since the end of the eighth millennium BP indicating that early navigation already took place in that period. According to the archaeological evidence, the subsistence activities of these human groups were varied though seasonally based mainly on fishing and shellfish gathering. Broadly speaking marine and mangrove resources were widespread exploited along the two coasts of the Arabian Sea during favourable, well-defined periods of coastal adaptation following the varied environmental conditions and sea-level changes that took place since the beginning of the Holocene. Keywords Early-Middle Holocene · Arabian Sea · Shell middens · Fishergatherers · Navigation

P. Biagi (*) · R. Nisbet Department of Asian and North African Studies, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Venice, Italy e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] E. Starnini Department of Civilizations and Forms of Knowledge, Pisa University, Pisa, Italy e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 L. A. Jawad (ed.), The Arabian Seas: Biodiversity, Environmental Challenges and Conservation Measures, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51506-5_3

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1 Introduction The study of when, how, and why coastlines were settled in the past, the human adaptations to marine and mangrove environments and the exploitation of their natural resources, and early navigation are among some of the more interesting and important issues in world prehistory (Bailey and Parkington 1988; Plaziat 1995; Erlandson and Rick 2008). The scope of this paper is to review the archaeology of the prehistoric fishing-gathering communities that settled along the coasts of the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman roughly from the beginning of the Holocene to the Bronze Age, and analyse their cultural complexes (Fig. 1). At present we know little about the variability of the coastal settling of the early human groups and the way they adapted themselves to the seashore changing landscapes and environments of the Holocene (Terrell 2002: 12). Marine and mangrove resources undoubtedly played an important role in their diet, as is shown by the impressive amounts of discarded shells and fishbones (Fig. 2) accumulated in the shell middens (see f.i. Thomas and Mannino 1998; Andersen 2007; Álvarez et al. 2011), though we know that, at least from the seventh millennium BP onward herding and also hunting played an important role in their diet (Uerpmann and Uerpmann 1996, 2003; Biagi and Nisbet 2006). However, despite the improving quality of the research currently underway, we still known too little of settlement seasonality, mobility patterns, and subsistence strategy variability of most of the coastal groups, though the research at Umm al-Quwain in the United Arab Emirates suggests that fishing was mainly a winter

Fig. 1 Distribution map of the sites mentioned in the text: Umm al-Quwain (1), Ra’s Shakhs (2), RH-5 and Ra’s al-Hamrā sites (3), Bimmah (4), Wadi Shab, GAS-1 (5), Ra’s al-Junayz (6), Ra’s al-Khabbah (7), Ra’s ar-Ruways (8), Suwayh (9), Masirah Island (10), Shahi Tump (11), Lake Siranda (12), Daun Bay (13), Ras Gadani (14), Sonari (15), Tharro Hills (16) (drawing by P. Biagi)

The Prehistoric Fishers and Gatherers of the Northern and Western Coasts of the. . .

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Fig. 2 Characteristic surface aspect of the Omani shell midden of Bimmah covered with fishbones (photograph by E. Starnini 2002)

practise within the complex subsistence economy of the coastal populations throughout a Neolithic period of ca 1500 years (Mashkour et al. 2016). According to the archaeological evidence, fishing has always been considered a hazard as remarked by some authors. Therefore, aware of the arduous and dangerous nature of offshore fishing, it has often been considered “a low-priority mode of subsistence when alternative forms were available” (Galili et al. 2004: 97). The same authors analysing the scarce evidence of the emergence and importance of fishing in the Levant during the early Holocene reached the conclusion that “One of the explanations offered is that [. . .] fishing was a low preference mode of production, to which Neolithic communities turned only once the quantity and/or quality of terrestrial resources were reduced or impaired” (Galili et al. 2004: 93). Therefore, it seems that only in a period of crisis or in peculiar constraining environments such as desertic, arid, and hyperarid coastal lands, fishing offers an alternative and/or supplementary protein source to terrestrial resources. In his seminal work, JM Acheson (1981) reviewing maritime anthropology explained that this field is usually subdivided in three main areas of investigation, respectively, focussing on modern fisheries, shipboard life, and prehistoric marine adaptations, each one scarcely considering the others, despite the fact that they can illuminate particular issues of mutual importance. First of all, the author observed that fishing poses similar problems all over the world (Acheson 1981: 275) and that the main contributes to the topic deal in particular with the way that human communities adapted to survive exploiting marine environment, a dangerous and alien realm in which man is poorly equipped to survive (Acheson 1981: 276).

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Moreover, the same author points out that we should never forget that man always enters seawaters only with the support of artificial devices, among which are boats and vessels, and when both weather and sea conditions allow. Another important observation is that fishing gears never appear in hunting devices used out of the water and that the yield of this activity is unpredictable.

2 Environmental Conditions, Natural Resources, and Coastal Constraints Groups of Middle Holocene fisher-gatherers settled, though with different modalities and selecting different locations, on either sides of the Arabian Sea and the AraboPersian Gulf since the second half of the eighth millennium BP up to the Bronze Age (Vita-Finzi and Copeland 1980; Potts 1990: 57–58; Amirkhanov 2006; Biagi 2006; Carter 2006; Boivin and Fuller 2009; Boivin et al. 2010) (Fig. 1). They were faced with common problems due to the severe environmental and climatic conditions of the inland, and the more accessible resources of the shores, with their mudflats, salt marshes, and wadi estuaries. Littoral environments were widely exploited almost everywhere geohydro-chemical conditions allowed the growth of coastal forests. This is shown by the occurrence of prehistoric shell middens with typical mangrove floral and faunal remains along over 2000 km of the eastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula and at least 400 km between the shores of Las Bela in Balochistan and the Indus Delta in Sindh (Beech 2004; Tengberg 2005; Biagi et al. 2016, 2017). To discover the sites and reconstruct the way prehistoric groups adapted to the close and spatially limited environments reported above during a time span of several millennia, different methods are used. They vary from systematic surface surveys, to sophisticated interdisciplinary approaches to investigate their material culture and bioarchaeological remains. Their scope is to achieve firm data on human adaptation to environmental and climatic changes, subsistence strategies, and the exploitation of natural resources trough time. There are striking differences between the shell middens of the eastern coasts of the Arabian Peninsula and those of Lower Sindh and Las Bela in Balochistan (Biagi 2011). Some of the Arabian middens consist of multistratified sites. They yielded evidence of circular or C-shaped habitation structures (Cleuziou 2005; Cavulli and Scaruffi 2011), rubbish pits and different types of fireplaces (Biagi and Nisbet 2006). Complex graveyards with ordinary and secondary depositions have also been excavated (Santini 1987; Salvatori 2007; Munoz 2008). The material culture remains consist of different types of fishing implements, among which are hooks (Charpentier and Méry 1997; Charpentier 2002) (Fig. 3), net sinkers, querns, anvils, hammerstones (Clarke 2009), and chipped stone tools with a variety of typological characteristics according to the activities carried out at the sites. Some of the Omani middens are huge. They were resettled and seasonally inhabited throughout a time span of ca 1000 years as is shown by radiocarbon dating and the thickness of their

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Fig. 3 Fishing gear from Omani shell middens: fish-hooks pre-forms and finished items made from Pinctada margaritifera marine bivalve and bone (1–3 and 5 from Ra’s al-Khabbah; 4, 6 and 7 from RH-5 at Ra’s al-Hamra) (photographs by E. Starnini 2002)

sequences (Fig. 4). They consist of overimposed layers of marine and Terebralia palustris mangrove shells, fish, turtle and domesticated bones, ash, charcoal, and blown sand, which in a few cases have been accurately radiocarbon-dated (Uerpmann 1991; Biagi 1994, 1999; Zazzo et al. 2012, 2016).

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Fig. 4 The shell midden of RH-5 on Ra’s al-Hamrā headland (Sultanate of Oman) with overimposed archaeological structures (top) and thick stratigraphic sequence (bottom) (photographs by P. Biagi 1986)

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Fig. 5 Concentration of anvil stones in the shell midden of Daun-1 (Las Bela, Balochistan) (photograph by P. Biagi 2004)

The shell middens of Las Bela in Balochistan are very different. They consist of shell heaps of different size, thickness, and shape composed of fragments of Terebralia palustris and Telescopium telescopium mangrove gastropods (Soemodihardio and Kastoro 1977; Haque and Choudhury 2015). Other species are also present, mainly bivalves among which is Anadara rhombea, while fish, turtle, and other bones are absent as are charcoals. So far none of them yielded evidence of graves or cemeteries. The sites of the Bay of Daun (Las Bela) have yielded evidence of many stone anvils grouped together with cup marks on both faces (Fig. 5) and a few atypical hammerstones (Biagi et al. 2012: Fig. 7). Other types of stone implements are rare, though a few net sinkers have been recorded. Together with a few large-sized fishes otoliths (Girod pers. comm 2018), they show that fishing was practised at some sites at least on a small scale. The chipped stone assemblages are represented by very few artefacts often made from dark red Gadani chert whose outcrops are located ca 25 km from the sites (Biagi et al. 2013). The tools consist of bladelet artefacts among which are different types of geometric microliths. Most of the middens of Daun and Lake Siranda (Las Bela) seem to be short time occupations; they are generally smaller but more dense and frequent. This is the case for the palaeo-mangrove of Siranda, with over 75 sites scattered along the coasts of the slowly reducing basin. This impression is reinforced by the absence of any type

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of man-made structure. The shell middens are most probably seasonal stations located close to mangrove forests in order to exploit the great variety of their products. The only exception is the impressive shell mound of SRN-29 along the south-eastern shore of Lake Siranda, which might have acted as a central place, surrounded by many other middens with different dimension and characteristics (Fig. 6). Most of the Las Bela sites have been radiocarbon-dated between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age by specimens of mangrove and marine shells (Biagi et al. 2012, 2016, 2017). The above picture seems to have abruptly changed during the Bronze Age. This is shown by the discovery of a fisher-gatherer settlement at Sonari, along the northern edge of Cape Monze (Ras Muari), close to the Hab River mouth in Sindh (Fig. 7, top). The site of Sonari yielded evidence of a few rectangular stone-walled structures systematically oriented in east-west or north-south direction, whose floor is covered with Meretrix marine bivalves (Fig. 7, bottom). The presence of numerous net sinkers (Fig. 8) and a great amount of marine and mangrove shells show that fishing and molluscs gathering were two of the most important activities practised at the site, which flourished during the fifth millennium BP, according to many AMS radiocarbon dates obtained from mangrove and marine shells (Biagi et al. 2020). At present we know that the summer monsoon affects surface and thermocline Arabian Sea circulation, causing changes not only in the periodic fish migrations but also in the local climate, currents, and tides. Based on δ18O peaks measured on plankton from the continental margin of Pakistan, changes in the hydrographic properties of the Arabian Sea from 9000 to 7200 BP were correlated to changes in the South Asian Monsoon (Staubwasser et al. 2002). Eustatic changes in the sea level, based on the reconstruction of ancient shorelines, determined an ingression of the sea over many hundred kilometres in the Gulf between 12,000 BP, when “the Strait of Hormuz opened up as a narrow waterway” and the flooding of the lowlands began, and about 5500 BP “when sea levels rose above their present level by perhaps 1 or 2 m” (Lambeck 1996: 54–55). The important effects on this changing landscape, the sudden formation of a new sea invading the ancient deltas of the Tigris and Euphrates, would have played a major role in the human geography during the early Holocene (Cleuziou 2005). Correspondingly, important climatic modifications occurred, as already recognised along the coasts of the Emirates and Oman by means of multi-proxy approaches. They show that the arid period following the Last Glacial was replaced by a phase of increasing precipitation during the early to mid-Holocene (Preston et al. 2015). This change in latitude of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), at present limited to the southernmost region of the Arabian Peninsula, has been reconstructed for the whole Holocene using detailed oxygen-isotope profiles obtained on stalagmites from Oman and Yemen (Neff et al. 2001; Fleitmann et al. 2007). These show a shift in the wind regimes over the Indian Ocean from the early Holocene southwards as a response to solar insolation causing a decrease in precipitation and shortening of the summer monsoon phases (Hilbert 2014). Regarding the Makran coast of Iran, Quaternary beach deposits are found at 6 and more metres above the present sea level. They are not consistent with eustatic

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Fig. 6 The shell midden of SRN-29 along the south-eastern shore of Lake Siranda (top) and its surface covered by fragments of T. telescopium and T. palustris mangrove shells (Las Bela, Balochistan) (bottom) (photographs by P. Biagi 2013)

movements and can be better explained as caused by neotectonic activity (HosseiniBarzi and Talbot 2003). This is undoubtedly true also for the eastern part of the northern Arabian Sea coast of Sindh from Cape Monze to Karachi (Sarwar and Alizai 2013). Remote-sensing and GIS studies have pointed out the impressive rate

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Fig. 7 The Bronze Age fishermen site of Sonari on Cape Monze (Ras Muari) in Sindh (top) and rectangular structures with Meretrix marine bivalves on its floor (bottom) (photographs by P. Biagi 2014)

of motion between the Arabian and Asian plate along the Makran coast that are characterised by a recent, high seismic activity. Whole sections of the coast have been interested by a strong uplift, as shown by the occurrence of raised beaches close

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Fig. 8 Net sinkers from the fishers site of Sonari (Cape Monze, Sindh) (photographs by E. Starnini 2018)

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to the seaside. The entire Makran coast is affected by recent (Quaternary and Holocene) tectonic activity that shaped the territory in multiple forms (huge mud volcanoes, strong earthquakes, coastal uplift with raised beaches, faulting occurring in younger sediments, river terraces) (Snead and Frishman 1968; Snead 2010). An uplift of ca 100 m has been suggested along the western section of the Makran coast, gradually reducing to 2–3 m in the Indus Delta (Reyss et al. 1999; Snead 2010). Sediment accretion and crustal movements are thought causing an uplift of about 1.5 mm/year also on Iranian Makran (Schlüter et al. 2002). The impressive fan of Indus has moved southwards for hundreds kilometres in the course of Holocene, as shown by geomorphologic and radiocarbon-based archaeological data (Wilhelmy 1968; Flam 1987, 1999; Giosan et al. 2006, 2012; Biagi et al. 2016; Biagi 2017). This movement was, and still is, partially controlled by the presence of a complex system of channels, along with one of the more extended mangroves in the world (Amjad et al. 2007). Important local transformations took place in the morphology and habitat of many prehistoric sites because of the aforementioned changes along the shores of the whole Arabian Sea (Bailey 2004). In particular, changes in runoff, river discharge, and groundwater level (Tamburi 1973) have frequently originated mud-salted flats and sabkhas along the coastal areas, where formerly mangroves flourished. This is the case for several prehistoric sites (palaeo-lagoons) located along the coasts of Oman among which are Ra’s al-Hadd, Suwayh, Ra’s al-Khabbah, and Ra’s Ruways (Berger et al. 2005, 2013). In Pakistani Balochistan, a similar spectacular situation is known from Lake Siranda, a vast sabkha depression at present surrounded by dunes on its western and southern sides that cut its connection from the sea. Little is known of the early history of the lake. Most authors believe that it was formerly part of the present Sonmiani lagoon (Miāni Hor), sharing with it its dominant environmental aspects, and that it functioned as a tidal lagoon in the not-too-distant past. According to R.E. Snead, this depression was previously connected with Sonmiani from which was later separated by sand dune formations, later stabilised by vegetation (Snead 1969: 34). The lake, ca 14 km long and 3 wide, is located in the southernmost part of Las Bela Valley. Fed mainly by summer monsoon rains, the lake is often dry. In the 1950s its maximum depth was 1.5 m in the winter and 3 m in the summer (Pithawalla 1952: 33). Along its present borders, but also in more central spots, evidence of the exploitation of mangrove molluscs (Terebralia palustris and Telescopium telescopium) by prehistoric gatherers is shown by an impressive number of shell middens. They have been radiocarbon-dated between 7200  35 (GrA-54,290) and 5065  40 BP (GrA-55,817), when the basin had already lost its openings with the sea (Biagi et al. 2016, 2017) (Fig. 9), showing that also this coast of the Arabian Sea was scarcely populated (or unpopulated?) prior to the eighth millennium BP as already observed for Arabia (Preston and Parker 2013). The emerging picture shows that early-mid-Holocene coastal populations of fisher-gatherers accessed to a number of selected and various environments. They provided excellent resources in terms of foodstuff (fish, molluscs, birds, and

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Fig. 9 Distribution map of the AMS-dated shell middens discovered along the coasts of Lake Siranda (Las Bela, Balochistan) (drawing by P. Biagi and R. Nisbet 2017)

terrestrial mammals), raw material (salt, timber- and firewood, fibres, dyes), and freshwater. In spite of their apparent homogeneity, mangroves shelter a number of animal and vegetal species, as well as seagrasses (Kathiresan and Rajendran 2005). The latter, sometimes covering very large surfaces adjacent to mangroves, play a role as a major source of primary productivity in areas where other producers are not abundant (Hogarth 1999). In the course of time, both climate and tectonic movements have produced changes in the coastal environments and their biotic sources. In Sindh and Las Bela (Pakistan), apart from the aforementioned case of Siranda, part of the mangroves growing between Sonmiani and the Hab River (Gadani, Phuari, Daun, and Sonari) extinguished in prehistoric times, though some (f.i. Sonari) only in the last few centuries (Biagi et al. 2020). Along the eastern coasts of the Arabian Peninsula, many mangroves disappeared, probably due to a deficit of freshwater input from inland (Berger et al. 2013, 2019). Some others lost part of their biodiversity: the case of Rhizophora, one of the typical mangrove trees, is noticeable. This tree that is still growing in the mangroves of the northern Arabian Sea coast is no longer found in today monospecific (Avicenna marina) Arabo-Persian Gulf mangroves (Fig. 10), but still present along the Arabian coasts of the Red Sea. However, Rhizophora was a consistent element along the eastern coasts of Arabia peninsula, and its wood was exploited by the prehistoric communities up to historic times (ninth to thirteenth century AD) (Gale 1994; Tengberg 2005).

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Fig. 10 The mangrove swamp of Qur’m, at Muscat (Sultanate of Oman) (top), and Miāni Hor (Las Bela, Balochistan) (bottom) (photographs by P. Biagi 1986 and 2013)

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There is growing evidence along the Oman coast (Ja’alan) of a dry period around 5400 BP, following some centuries of a wet climate. The abandonment of the previous shell middens is seen as a consequence of this climatic crisis, which “would lead to the reduction of mangroves, before their death at the end of the third millennium cal BC” (Charpentier et al. 2016: 353). A similar, more or less contemporaneous climatic stress seems to have occurred along the Indus Valley, as well as along the shores of the Arabian Sea, where a 4.2 ka BP drought is suggested to be one of the causes of the decline of both Mesopotamia and Indus Civilizations (Staubwasser et al. 2003; Farooki et al. 2013; Dixit et al. 2014; Sarkar et al. 2016; Giosan et al. 2018). However, the effect the new conditions played in reshaping economy, social organisation, and land use of the ancient huntergatherers is unknown.

3 History of the Research During the second half of the 1970s, modernisation caused serious damage to much of the coastal landscape of the Arabian Sea countries. The process accelerated when the Sultanate of Oman, the U.A.E., and in general the Gulf countries developed and intensified oil and gas extraction and discovered recently a strong interest towards the tourism, dramatically increasing the road construction and urbanisation of the coasts. This process resulted in the destruction or damage of countless archaeological sites (for Oman, see Durante and Tosi 1977; Uerpmann and Uerpmann 2003). However, most of the Gulf countries developed in parallel a protection policy towards their cultural heritage, promoting rescue excavations prior to destruction (Crassard and Drechsler 2013), with the help of foreign archaeologists (Fig. 11). It should be emphasised that, during those times, the Gulf countries did not have a class of native archaeologist, and the first professionals became those who had been sent abroad to study thanks to scholarships provided by the government of the different states. Consequently, during the last century, relatively little archaeological information was published by the Gulf countries prior to the 1980s and even less in Arabic. For instance, the first international conference on the archaeology of the United Arab Emirates was organised in Abu Dhabi only in 2001 (Potts et al. 2003). Our knowledge of the first fishing-gathering communities of south-eastern Arabia is indeed uneven depending on focus and intensity of research. To make an example, until the beginning of the 1980s, the archaeological map of the U.A.E. was still blank with the exception of a few sites (Vogt 1994: 113). Soon after, systematic investigations began in connection with oil boom. With the help of French and German archaeologists, several coastal sites were discovered and excavated. They showed that human occupation took place from the mid-Holocene to the fifteenth to eighteenth century AD, though the prehistoric archaeology of the Lower Gulf littoral is mainly a typical “archaeology of shell middens” (Vogt 1994: 116).

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Fig. 11 Rescue excavations underway at the shell midden of Ra’s al-Khabbah/Qubba, Sultanate of Oman (photograph by E. Starnini 2002)

At present information is available for the sites of the south-eastern edge of the Arabo-Persian Gulf, where the lagoon of Umm al-Quwain has shown evidence of Neolithic shell middens with exported Ubaid pottery and domesticated animal bones. These finds contribute to the knowledge of both the history of navigation along the southern shores of the Gulf and the interpretation of the complex subsistence economy pattern of their inhabitants, which can be compared in some ways with that of RH-5 at Muscat (Uerpmann and Uerpmann 1996, 2003; Mashkour et al. 2016). All the shell middens and shell scatters discovered along the northern coast of the Arabian Sea of Lower Sindh and Las Bela (Balochistan) (Biagi 2011, 2013; Biagi et al. 2012, 2013, 2017) were unknown until the beginning of the 2000s. This fact contrasts with a wider, though rather different amount of data available from the coast of Oman already in the same years where pioneer research started during the late 1970s (Beech 2003; Uerpmann and Uerpmann 2003; Berger et al. 2005, 2013; Cleuziou 2005; Charpentier et al. 2016). Shell middens seem to be scarcely represented or even absent along the western coast of the Emirates, while the Dubai-Sharjah territory marks the beginning of a rather dense though intermittent distribution of middens stretching as far as the northern coast of Ras al-Khaimah (Uerpmann and Uerpmann 1996) along the western shores of the Musandam Peninsula where only one protohistoric shell midden is known at Ra’s Shakhs (Biagi 2003). Late Islamic shell middens are considered to mark the end of the local shell gathering (Vogt 1994: 117) that was

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still a common practise in Ras al-Khaimah during the 1950s, although in those years, this activity did not play a substantial role in the daily diet of the local inhabitants. The history of research in Oman is somewhat similar. The first sites were discovered occasionally during the second half of the 1970s, when the urbanisation of Ra’s al-Hamrā headland took place at Muscat, at the southern end edge of the Batinah coast, where the Qur’m mangrove swamp opens at the mouth of Wadi Aday (Durante and Tosi 1977; Biagi and Nisbet 1993) (Fig. 12). In those years most of the shell middens of the cape were destroyed with the exception of sites RH-5, RH-6, and RH-10 that were later systematically excavated by the Italian Archaeological Mission and yielded an impressive amount of data as well as a first chronology frame of the coastal settling of the region (Figs. 13 and 14). This situation can be compared with that of Lower Sindh, where urbanisation and industrialisation concur to the systematic destruction of all the archaeological sites of the coast and the interior, in particular where flint outcrops exploited during the Indus period for tool-making are present, as they are nowadays seemingly to decorate private residence walls in Karachi (Biagi and Nisbet 2011). Unfortunately, also some of the shell middens of Las Bela, those of Daun, for instance, are currently in danger and will soon disappear. In the case of Sindh, no action of preventive and rescue archaeology has ever been taken by any of the local and government authorities and research centres, among which are universities, despite the precise archaeological rules and regulations of the country inherited by the former British

Fig. 12 Aerial view of Qur’m mangrove swamp at Muscat, Sultanate of Oman (photograph by R. Salm 1990)

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Fig. 13 Aerial view of the cape of Ra’s al-Hamrā at Muscat, Sultanate of Oman with excavations underway at the shell middens RH-5 and RH10 (top), and shell midden RH-6 during excavation (bottom) (photographs by R. Salm 1990)

administration. Soon this situation will lead to the complete loss of all the archaeological sites of this region of the north Arabian Sea coast that represents an invaluable part of the archaeological heritage of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

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Fig. 14 The coastal site of GAS-1 at Wadi Shab in the Sultanate of Oman, between the road and the coastline, on the terrace where the car is parked (photograph by P. Biagi 1992)

Moreover, it will cause the disappearance of any source of information regarding the history of human adaptation to coastal environment.

4 Resources Exploitation In one of his papers, M. Beech (2004) analysed the fishbone assemblages from sites excavated along the coasts of the Arabo-Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. He provided us with the first comprehensive and informative synthesis of the exploitation strategies of the marine resources in the above two regions. According to his results, there is comparatively little evidence of major changes in the selection of any particular fish species through the time (Beech 2003). This pattern is explained by the same author as probably due to the adoption of similar fishing strategies by coastal communities in different, if not by the use of the same, fishing grounds within the region. The same author interpreted the variability pattern reported above as due to different factors, among which are the recovery methods employed during excavation, size sample, state of preservation, exploitation of different local/regional habitats, or the specialised exploitation of certain resources at particular locations in different periods of the year (Beech 2003: 302).

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The scenario shows that Early Holocene hunter-fishers-gatherers selectively foraged the coastal shallow waters rich in easy-to-catch small pelagic fish (anchovies and sardines). The composition of the bone assemblages shows that sharks, in some cases up to 2 m long, were also caught. Fishing in shallow waters is reported from sites radiocarbon-dated to the tenth and ninth millennia BP, though it is rarely documented along the coasts of the Arabian Peninsula during this period (Charpentier et al. 2016). According to the available evidence, the range of captured marine fauna is much larger from the seventh millennium BP onwards than during previous periods. Fishing affected a huge range of species, some of which are pelagic, tuna in particular. The Sultanate of Oman yielded evidence of some dwelling sites focussed on specialised fishing, in particular small- and large-sized sharks, among which are those discovered at Suwayh-1 (Charpentier et al. 2016). In Arabia, sea mammals like dolphins were at times the focus of extensive fishing. Recently, selective fishing of dugong has been documented in the Arabo-Persian Gulf (Méry et al. 2009), though the general impression is that Arabian communities did not hunt cetaceans, but collected their bones from dead individuals recovered along the seashore.

5 Seafaring The discoveries made at the Neolithic, seventh millennium BP site H3 at As-Sabiyah, at the northern end of Kuwait Bay, have shown that already in this early period navigation was undoubtedly practised at least along the southern coast of the Arabo-Persian Gulf (Lawler 2002; Carter and Crawford 2010). This impression is reinforced by the distribution of Neolithic Ubaid painted potsherds all along the same coast up to the western shore of the Musandam Peninsula (Uerpmann and Uerpmann 1996), though at present we have no evidence of its spread towards the open oceanic waters east of the Strait of Hormuz. This might indicate that Neolithic navigation was limited to the easier, shallow waters of the Gulf, which in fact acted as a closed sea also in recent times (Potts 1990). Evidence of open sea fishing has been recorded from a settlement discovered in the Akab Islands in the Emirate of Umm al-Quwain, starting from the sixth millennium BP (Charpentier et al. 2016; Beech et al. 2017). The discovery of many tuna bones and the presence of shell fish hooks suggest that open sea fishing with boats was practiced in the islands beyond the exploitation of the shallow water resources of the local lagoon. However, fishing was undoubtedly practiced also in sheltered mangrove swamp waters, as shown by the study of the molluscs and crab remains. Our knowledge of ancient seafaring along the northern cost of the Arabian Sea is more limited. It is shown by the discovery of marine and mangrove shells on the top of rocky outcrops in the present Indus River alluvium, formerly islands in the sea (Blanford 1880), located not far from the present coastline of Sindh and the Indus Delta. From the limestone terrace of the Tharro Hills near Gujo, we have evidence of

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Neolithic occupation radiocarbon-dated from oyster shells to the first century of the seventh millennium BP (Biagi 2011: 528). Moreover, recent surveys carried out by the French Archaeological mission in Masirah, the largest island of the Sultanate of Oman (Charpentier et al. 2013), led to the discovery of many prehistoric settlements, the most important of which are the Neolithic site of Ra’s Dah, the oldest of the entire Oman, and the Early Bronze Age sites of Jebel Sfaiq and Marsis A. The further investigations of these sites might shed light “. . .on the arrival of the famous “black boats of Magan”, loaded with products from far away 4500 years ago, as well as that of other, earlier boats, made of reeds or even logs. Eight thousand years ago, Neolithic populations would have easily crossed the 20 km that separated the island from the continent. This history of the first Neolithic peoples seeking new territories has yet to be written” (Charpentier et al. 2013: 12). More data are at present available regarding navigation between the two coasts of the Arabian Sea during the Bronze Age Indus Civilization as shown by the port structures, ship-related finds, material culture remains, fishing implements, and seals typical of this aspect in many sites of the Oman Peninsula among which is Ra’s al-Junayz (Potts 1990; Méry 1996; Vosmer 1996; Ray 2003). The typology of the boats can be suggested thanks to the discovery of bitumen slabs at Ra’s al-Junayz site RJ-2 (Vosmer 1996: 227) with sub-actual ethnographic parallels, since we know that simple vessels made of canes and cords were still manufactured along the Batinah coast of Oman just a few decades ago (Fig. 15).

Fig. 15 An Omani fisher repairing a traditional shasha boat made from reeds at Barca, along the Batinah coast of the Sultanate of Oman (photograph by P. Biagi 1989)

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6 Social Aspects of the Exploitation of Marine Resources Since decades anthropologists have been involved in the study of fishing societies (Acheson 1981), considering the ethnographic body and discussing in particular the basic issue of management of fishing territories, despite the difficulties to provide an exhaustive picture especially for extinct societies (Durrenberger and Pálsson 1987). The clue question is whether or not the access to the exploitation of the sea resources in prehistory was free or ruled and regulated and if ancient groups of fishermen operated or not a systematic distinction among concepts of ownership, territoriality, access, and control of sea territories (Nadjmabadi 1992). We can suggest that some form of regulation of fishing was introduced only when fished resources became part of a complex system with many components, among which are increasing demand, processing, shipping, distribution, policy, and others. It probably happened around the middle of the fifth millennium BP, during the Bronze Age Mature Indus period, when we can foresee both intensification of trade and the emergence of complex urban societies interacting between and across the Gulf and the Indian Ocean (Ray 1999; Méry et al. 2012; Charpentier et al. 2013). Among demanded goods and raw materials, there where unique shell species like Turbinella pyrum, Fasciolaria trapezium, and pearl oysters who live in well-defined habitats. They were exploited for the production of specific crafts among which are inlayed objects, beads, pendants, and bangles (Ray 2003). The existence of a complex hierarchy of interaction spheres governing the gathering and distribution of such a resource along the coasts of the Arabian Sea has been postulated for the Indus Civilization (Kenoyer 1983), though increasing evidence provided by the research carried out along the coast of Las Bela during the last decade would point to a Neolithic age for the beginning of this exploitation (Biagi et al. 2016). Regarding fish, there is evidence of extra-regional trade at Harappa, in Punjab, starting from the early Bronze Age Kot Diji phase to the end of the Indus Civilization (Belcher 1994, 1998: 391). It shows that intra-regional trade between coastal and interior riverine sites involved both marine fishes (jacks—carangids; marine catfish—ariids; and, mackerel—scomberids) and shells (Belcher 1991, 1998). It has been postulated that marine fishes probably were traded dried/salted from a coastal community settled over 850 km to the south and were brought in with other marine products including shellfish (Kenoyer 1983).

7 Inferring Fishing Gears and Methods from Material Culture Remains Following an ethnoarchaeological approach, attempts have been made at the reconstruction of fishing nets employed during the Bronze Age Indus Civilization (Belcher 1999). The large quantity of fishbones recovered from the Chalcolithic to

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Indus period mound of Balakot in the Kurkhera Plain of Las Bela in Balochistan, gave the opportunity to infer fishing strategies through the detailed analysis of this unique bone sample, concluding that nets were probably employed to capture most species (Belcher 1997). Thanks to the results of the research conducted along the Makran coast, we know that already by the end of the sixth millennium BP, the relationships between the inhabitants of the interior and those of the coastline were well established in term of trade and food supply, and that they intensified during the following fifth and fourth millennia BP (Desse-Berset and Desse 2005). These relationships are confirmed also by the discovery of the remains of an exceptionally well-preserved carbonised net made from leaves’ fibres, most probably a local palm, from a context radiocarbon-dated to the first half of the fifth millennium BP by the French archaeological expedition at Shahi Tump in the Kech Valley of Balochistan, ca 120 km from the coast (Thomas et al. 2012). Due to many reasons, it is impossible to know if it was ever employed for fishing or not. The net was found in association with large oceanic shells employed for making jewellery or containers as grave goods, together with many sea fishbones from both domestic and funeral contexts. Among the latter is a more than one metre long sawfish rostrum (Desse-Berset and Desse 2005). The data reported above show that fish and fishing played an important role to the inhabitants of the Kech Valley as a source of food and also as a symbolical item. In Oman, the leaves of desert palms are traditionally used along the Jazir coast and in Dhofar to make fishing nets of various dimensions (Richardson and Dorr 2004: 369; Thomas et al. 2012). We can suggest that fishermen used this raw material in the past as well as cotton. The utilisation of cotton nets can be inferred from ethnographic parallels. We know that lime made from shells was used in the last centuries in Makran as a mean for water-proofing this type of fishing nets (Hughes-Buller 1907: 203; Siddiqi 1956: 65). Other characteristic archaeological indicators of fishing are the net sinkers that consist of flat pebbles with two opposed notches along the long sides, around which a string can be firmly tied. These objects are often reported in the literature as “net weights,”, “notched pebbles”, “fishing weights” or “notched weights”. Net weights are other common items from some of the sites of the Arabian Sea coasts (Uerpmann and Uerpmann 1996: 134), where different fishing traditions might have been practised by different fishing-folks and/or as adaptive response to particular (marine, estuarine, riverine) environments and fish species (Siddiqi 1956: 69–71). Net weights or net sinkers made from small-sized wadi or beach pebbles of flat, oval-to-spherical shape, with pecked or sawn notches or an engraved perimetral groove (Vogt 1994: 124, Fig. 9.5, nn 8–11) have been uncovered in large numbers from several middens of the coast of Ras al-Khaimah (U.A.E.), Jazirat al-Hamrā, for instance, together with stone tools used for grinding, hammerstones, and anvils. The Oman Sea is considered as one offering the major quantity of marine resources of the planet because of a favourable upwelling, and its coastal waters show a large diversity of marine fauna, both invertebrates (crustacean, echinoderms, molluscs) and vertebrates (Desse-Berset and Desse 2005). Still today those available

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in proximity of the shoreline, both seasonal and permanent, permit the natives to fish simply posing their nets perpendicular to the shore without the use of a boat. Stone net sinkers were collected from some of the sites discovered along the northern Arabian Sea coast, among which is Sonari (Fig. 8). The Sonari specimens are generally lighter than those of the Gulf of Oman Bronze Age Umm an-Nar period (Beech 2004: 63 and Fig. 33). They can be compared with a group of medium-sized sinkers from the Middle Holocene shell midden of Ra’s al-Khabbah (KHB-1) in the Sultanate of Oman (Cavulli and Scaruffi 2011: 31). Net weights are recorded as one of the material culture component connected with fishing also in the Indus Valley (Belcher 1993, 1994: 136), although typologically they are very different from those recovered from the shell middens of both the Arabian Sea coasts.

8 Discussion Due to geopolitical constraints, during the last century, relatively little archaeological information was published on the Gulf countries prior to the 1980s. At present, after the increasing oil exploitation and consequent urbanisation, modernisation, and industrialisation of the countries, a body of archaeological information is available to the international audience that favours the reconstruction of the most ancient history of these territories. The intensive surveys and the excavations carried out during the last 40 years along the coasts of the Arabian Sea have radically changed our view of the archaeology of this important region of south Asia, whose prehistory was almost unknown until the 1980s at least as regards the early and Middle Holocene periods, during which we assist in a dramatic increase of the number of coastal settlements, mainly shell middens (Rose 2010: 864). This fact was most probably due mainly to climatic ameliorations and the establishment of more suitable living conditions in some well-defined zones of the coastline (Kennett and Kennett 2006; Preston and Parker 2013: Fig. 2) characterised by shallow bays and lagoons around which fishergatherers seasonally established their camps close to mangrove forests along both sides of the Arabian Sea (Berger et al. 2005, 2013; Biagi et al. 2017, 2020). Though we have very little evidence of contacts between the two coastlines, at least from the beginning of the Holocene onwards, when the morphology of the Hormuz Strait was already comparable to that of the present (Kennett and Kennett 2006: Figs. 1–2), shell middens of the late eighth millennium BP are known in very similar geographic and environmental locations both along the coast of the Sultanate of Oman and that of Las Bela in Pakistani Balochistan. However, they show different traits that are remarked, for instance, by the strong technological and typological differences we can notice between the Holocene chipped stone assemblages of the Arabian (Uerpmann 1992) and Las Bela coastal sites (Biagi 2013). Part of the subsistence economy of these communities relied on both mangrove and marine mollusc opportunistic gathering as well as fishing, hunting, and herding,

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according to the different seasons during which the sites were settled and their environmental characteristics. Fishing was nonetheless of major importance at some Omani coast sites, as reported by the abundance and variability of fishing gears from middens and settlements of different ages, from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age, among which are different types of hooks (Charpentier 2002) and net sinkers (Uerpmann and Uerpmann 2003). Evidence of coastal seafaring is attested also along the coast of the Arabian Peninsula at least since the eighth millennium BP from the sites recently discovered in the Masirah Island (Charpentier et al. 2013) and the very beginning of seventh millennium BP from the coast of Sindh (Biagi 2011). Whether this early seafaring is connected with fishing is difficult to say on the basis of the present data. However, fishing was undoubtedly practised by the Neolithic community living on the Masirah Island (Charpentier et al. 2013: 7), while so far, we have little evidence of this practise from the shell middens of the northern Arabia Sea coastline during the same period. The importance of the archaeology of the mythical land of the Ichthyophagoi (McCrindle 1972) relies on the fact that between 7000 and 4000 BP, the transition from small sedentary communities to the earliest complex state-level societies and cities of the Ubaid and Uruk periods took place in the upper Arabo-Persian Gulf. According to D. J. Kennett and J. P. Kennett (2006), this evolution cannot be explained without assuming that environmental changes played a significant role in this phenomenon. Therefore, the reconstruction of the events and archaeology of the human groups settled along the southern shores of the Gulf is very important as is their eventual role played in the seafaring network connecting south Arabia and the Indus Valley with south Mesopotamia. Despite arid environment ecological constraints that compelled the coastal populations to adopt a mixed foraging and foodproducing strategy comparable to that described by B. D. Smith (2001) as low-level food production, they undoubtedly witnessed the expansion of maritime trade along the margins of the Arabo-Persian Gulf, which occurred within the aforementioned transition period. Acknowledgements This chapter has been written with the aid of an Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) grant, with thanks. The authors are very grateful to all the colleagues and students who took part in the Italian Archaeological Missions in the Sultanate of Oman and Sindh and Las Bela (Pakistan) since the mid-1980s.

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Part II

Environmental Aspects

The Biogeochemical Features of Kuwaiti Water in the Northwestern Arabian Gulf: Current State of Knowledge and Future Turki Al-Said, Amit Sarkar, and Rakhesh Madhusoodhanan

Abstract The Northwestern Persian/Arabian Gulf (here after northwestern Arabian Gulf, NWAG) of Kuwait is a distinguished natural environment where hydrography and biogeochemistry change biannually due to unique climatic conditions. Furthermore, this region receives runoff from major river systems in the entire Arabian Gulf. In recent years, the NWAG is subjected to severe anthropogenic stress due to rapid coastal urbanization, dumping of untreated sewage, release of brine from desalination plants, and reduction in riverine discharges. The environmental scenario in this landlocked sea is exacerbated due to its close proximity to the fast-warming Arabian Peninsula and sluggish water exchange with the Indian Ocean. These conditions could threaten the functioning of the NWAG ecosystem under global warming and ocean acidification-related climate change scenario. In the present synthesis, available data were reevaluated to gain insight into the current status of the NWAG in terms of its surface biogeochemical characteristics. Keywords Northwestern Gulf of Kuwait · Biogeochemistry · Anthropogenic stress · Climate change

1 Introduction and Background Intensive research pertaining to hydrography and biogeochemistry of the Arabian Gulf has started during the mid-1960s as part of the first International Indian Ocean Expedition (IIOE). High-resolution observations were carried out onboard R. V. Meteor covering 133 stations primarily along the Iranian coast (Grasshoff 1976). In well accordance with the earlier winter estimates, salinity remained at ~40.5 and temperature at 19  C in the inner Gulf. Most importantly detailed data sets were generated during this expedition on dissolved oxygen, nutrients and pH, and the T. Al-Said (*) · A. Sarkar · R. Madhusoodhanan Environment and Life Sciences Research Centre (ELSRC), Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, Salmiya, Kuwait e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 L. A. Jawad (ed.), The Arabian Seas: Biodiversity, Environmental Challenges and Conservation Measures, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51506-5_4

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circulation pattern. Oxygen was super saturated (>100%) to support marine life and also gave an idea of strong overturn and short residence time of water in this basin. Phosphate (PO43 ) concentrations were between 0.1 and 0.4 μM. An inflow of phosphate rich water (tongue of water having PO43 concentration > 1 μM) from the northwestern Indian Ocean was also identified. Nitrogenous nutrients (NO3 , NO2 and NH4+) were in surplus, but silicate (SiO44 ) levels were extremely low and identified as the limiting nutrient during this campaign. However, these observations were restricted along Iranian coast only and do not reflect the status of nutrients in the shallow NWAG. Studies carried out onboard R. V. Atlantis during 1977 covered more geographical area and provided the firsthand information on seawater carbonate system in the Arabian Gulf (Brewer and Dyrssen 1985). The physical conditions and circulation patterns were very similar to that reported during the IIOE cruise. Despite the low SiO44 concentrations, the surface water was found to be nitrogen limited (NO3 levels were below detection) during this expedition. Massive carbonate loss via CaCO3 precipitation was recorded from this region. From the salinity-alkalinity relationship and comparison with Indian Ocean equivalent surface salinity, it was calculated that Arabian Gulf water losses ~62.5 μM kg 1 of CaCO3. Massive organic removal of CO2 via primary production was also reported. More scientific research emerged from this region after establishment of the ROPME (The Regional Organization for the Protection of Marine Environment) during 1979 aimed to protect the basin from anthropogenic perturbations. ROPME was initiated to implement Kuwait action plan to protect and develop coastal areas of the Arabian Gulf and signed by eight surrounding member states: Islamic Republic of Iran, Kingdom of Bahrain, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Republic of Iraq, State of Kuwait, State of Qatar, Sultanate of Oman, and the United Arab Emirates. ROPME has hastened oceanographic research activities in the entire gulf including the territorial waters of the member countries (five major cruises since 1992–2006, www.ropme. org). Biogeochemical features of the NWAG^ off Kuwait are important being the region of dense deep water formation which flows out of the Gulf (Fig. 1) as subsurface currents into the northern Arabian Sea (Swift and Bower 2003; Al-said et al. 2018a). Any significant variability in water column biogeochemistry of this region therefore affects the Northern Indian Ocean. Because of extreme aridity of terrestrial land, most of the population of Kuwait has been colonized in the coastal area with a doubling time of 30 years (Al-Mutairi et al. 2014). These settlements and the supporting industrial establishments have ultimately put the ecosystem functioning of NWAG under tremendous risk. Moreover, this region receives direct discharges from Shatt-al Arab river system (SAR) which has reduced substantially due to recent damming of the major rivers supplying the SAR, causing significant environmental changes in the NWAG. In this chapter, physico-chemical information on the surface waters of the NWAG off Kuwait published over the past few years are reevaluated and ideas synthesized. Major research gap areas were identified and proposed for future scientific ventures.

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Fig. 1 Schematic map of North Western Gulf of Kuwait (NWG)

2 Hydrography: The Physical Settings Being an arid environment, changes in the sea surface temperature (SST) and salinity are dependent on regional climate features. In Kuwait, the climate is characterized by hot summer during June to September (or first week October) when air temperature rises up to as high as ~51  C with an average of 41  C with extreme diurnal variability (~22–31  C). In winter (November to February) temperature drops to 0  C with an average of ~13  C (Al-Yamani et al. 2004). Annual mean temperature was reported to be 23.8  C and salinity 39.6 (Al-Yamani et al. 2004). The first measurements of temperature and salinity in the NWAG were carried out onboard R.V. Atlantis during March 1977. During this study, SST ranged between 19 and 20  C and salinity ranged between 40.48 and

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40.51 (Grice and Gibson 1978). Subsequently, the first comprehensive synthesis of biogeochemical parameters was published in 1999 by Rao and Al-Yamani, in which they have analyzed data collected from 1985 until 1990. Since, the primary goal of their study was to find the relation between light availability and phytoplankton biomass, the authors did mention that temperature (>15–1 μM) in summer 2015. These two studies were conducted in the same area in a gap of two decades. If there was anthropogenic nutrient loading into this basin, higher concentrations of nutrient would have been seen in the later study. In fact, NH4+ levels were low in all the studies and rarely crossed 1 μM. We believe there are major sink of anthropogenic nutrient in this region which could be through sedimentary reductive processes or fast removal by biological activities in the pelagic realms. Furthermore, significant decrease of nutrients in this region could be attributed to reduction of Shatt Al-Arab discharge over past few decades. Al-Said et al. (2018b) provided first information on micronutrients (bio-reactive trace elements) in the surface waters of the NWAG based on their field observations carried out in 2015 summer and winter seasons. Before this study, no other studies were available on the spatial and temporal variation in dissolved micronutrients from the entire Arabian Gulf. The study focused on the total dissolved fractions of five bio-essential trace elements, viz., copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), cobalt (Co), zinc (Zn), and iron (Fe). The trace metal concentrations were comparable with those from other tropical marine areas but showed considerable spatial and temporal variability. The values ranged from 3.94 to 27.17 nM for Cu, from 7.80 to 34.80 nM for Ni, from 0.51 to 1.34 nM for Co, from 5.14 to 33.17 for Zn, and from 0.44 to 31.86 nM for

Fig. 4 Nitrate deficit (N*) and silicate deficit (Si*) during summer and winter of 1997–1998 (a–d) and 2015 (e–h)

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Fig. 5 Spatiotemporal distribution of trace elements in NWG

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Fe. Dissolved Ni was predominating in this region in both the summer and winter having maximum concentrations (~35 nM) around riverine discharge area (Fig. 5). Availability of dissolved cobalt was lowest and didn’t show any significant spatiotemporal variations. Dissolved Cu and Zn both have increased considerably in winter with maximum concentrations around coastal and riverine discharge area. These elevated concentrations were hypothesized to be linked with sedimentary resuspension followed by winter mixing. Statistical calculations revealed Cu, Co, and Ni played crucial roles in seasonal biological production along with salinity and availability of NH4+. Offshore water exhibited higher dissolved iron during summer and near the coast during winter. This variability suggests sources, and sinks of iron in this region changes with the seasons as the physical and biological processes in this region also changes.

5 Chlorophyll a and Productivity Biologically, NWAG was identified as very unique system (Rao and Al-Yamani 1998). This region is fairly productive with annual chlorophyll a concentrations falling in the range of 0.52–3.25 μg l 1 as reported earlier by Huq et al. (1981). Strong temporal variations were reported with 0.56–2.06 μg Chla l 1 in the month October to as high as ~9 μg l 1 in autumn (Huq 1977; Huq et al. 1978). The concentrations were even higher along the coast (10–13 μg l 1, Jacob et al. 1982). This basin suffers sporadic coastal algal blooms, and during such events chlorophyll a concentrations can shoots up to 55.4–262.7 μg l 1 (Rao et al. 1999). At one instance it reached 1212 μg l 1 during a bloom of Nitzschia in 2002 (Al-Yamani et al. 2004). Al-Yamani et al. (2006), reported ranges of 0.44–4.39 μg l 1 in summer and 0.95–9.2 μg l 1 in winter of 1997–1998. They also reported high chlorophyll concentration (~23 μg l 1) during spring (April 1997). Satellite (AVHRR, SeaWiFS, and MODIS)-based chlorophyll a distribution maps also supported this region being the most productive in the entire Arabian Gulf (Nezlin et al. 2007). Seasonality was reported to be strongly correlated with SST, PAR (photosynthetically available radiation), and wind stress curl. Also remote forcing like El-Nino and North Atlantic Oscillation events were linked to the chlorophyll a variability in this region. A decadal shift in phytoplankton community was observed in this region which is linked to salinity increase during 1999–2013 (Fig. 6). Apart from community level changes, chlorophyll a concentrations decreased steadily by 0.03 μg l 1 per year over time (Al-Said et al. 2017). During 2015, chlorophyll a ranged 0.33–7.37 μg l 1 in summer and 0.86–6.99 μg l 1 in winter. Although ranges were very similar during both the seasons, average winter concentration (3.42 μg l 1) was almost double to the average summer value (1.88 μg l 1). Chlorophyll a data averaged across the seasons over the last two decades shows a decrease of 0.05 μg l 1 and 0.08 μg l 1 per year during the summer and winter periods, respectively. Unlike chlorophyll a measurements and phytoplankton composition studies in this basin, direct measurements of primary production by means of carbon fixation are very scanty.

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Fig. 6 Long-term (1999–2013) decrease in average chlorophyll a concentration sat two stations in Kuwait waters

Primary productivity measured using14C technique, in the riverine outflow areas, ranges between 5.44 and 10.3 μgC l 1 h 1 (Al-Saadi 1989) in summer and 18.5–52.3 μgC l 1 h 1 in winter (Hadi et al. 1989). Al-Yamani et al. (2006) reported wide spatial and seasonal variability in primary productivity (14C based) in Kuwaiti waters. During their study, carbon uptake rates varied from 31.67 to 653.31 μgC l 1 day 1. Productivity attained peak (453.4 μgC l 1 day 1) around riverine out flow areas and gradually decreased toward south where it was only ~40 μgC l 1 day 1. Considerable seasonal variations were reported with lower carbon uptake in winter. In the NWAG, with changing biomass over time, seasonal alterations in biological fixation of carbon is expectable; however, lack of recent measurements hinder quantifying such changes.

6 Impact of Anthropogenic Perturbations and Climate Change in Kuwaiti Waters Being, a shallow, landlocked marginal sea, the biogeochemistry of the NWAG off Kuwait is highly vulnerable to anthropogenic activities and climate change-related global warming and ocean acidification. Over the last few decades, several environmental changes were noticed in this region. One of the major phenomena is the decadal change (2000–2013) in salinity. Al-Said et al. (2017) reported salinity increased by ~3 units over the time which also affected the phytoplankton community composition. Reduction in freshwater influx from the SAR system was assigned the principal factor responsible for elevated salinity in the NWAG. It can also be seen in the data collected during summer cruise (August 2001) of R V Al-Quds in northern ROPME sea area. Highest density of Kuwaiti waters in winter due to increase in salinity will adversely affect the hydrography within and beyond the Arabian Gulf since it is the region of deep water formation. This will also affect the carbon cycling and nutrient biogeochemistry of this region which has already reflected on the reduced fish landings in Kuwait (Sheppard et al. 2010; Al-Husaini et al. 2015).

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Fig. 7 Increasing SST (a) and decreasing trend in pH (b) between January 2007 and December 2010 in Kuwait territorial waters (Uddin et al. 2012)

Unlike salinity increment which is due to regional perturbations, SST also increased in this basin which is linked to increase in global CO2 concentrations due to fossil fuel burning. Uddin et al. (2012) show strong inter seasonal and interannual variation in Kuwait Bay SST but with a steady increase between the years 2007 and 2010 in (Fig. 7a). Al-Yamani et al. (2017) also observed several intra- and interannual shifts in salinity and SST but with a steady increase since 1980s. Increasing atmospheric CO2 is a major concern for oceanographic community around the globe since the pH of seawater is also decreasing simultaneously in a process popularly known as ocean acidification. Uddin et al. (2012) reveal that the pH of NWAG has decreased considerably with a concomitant increase in temperature (Fig. 7b) between 2007 and 2010. Apart from the climate change-related atrocities, excessive loads of nutrients in coastal waters can cause eutrophication, producing harmful algal blooms (HABs) which progressively turn the system oxygen deficient and make it difficult for life to sustain. In the beginning of the oceanographic research in the Arabian Gulf, the

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basin was either NO3 or SiO44 limited. But, discharges of partially treated/ untreated domestic sewage in the Gulf became a major concern in recent years. A recent estimate shows that the population of Kuwait has grown 27 times compared to 1950s. Such large-scale urbanization has negatively impacted the coastal waters. Devlin et al. (2015) suggest significant increase in nutrient levels in Kuwait Bay, however, with a decrease in chlorophyll a concentrations over the past 30 years. Notwithstanding this fact increased HAB occurrences, and fish kill incidents are noticed in recent years (Al-Yamani et al. 2004; Sheppard et al. 2010). Only one bloom of Phaeocystis was recorded in the late 1980s (Al-Hasan et al. 1990) which has become more frequent since the 1990s including blooms of toxin producing Karenia and Gymnodinium which led to massive fish kills in 1999 (Al-Yamani et al. 2004). TOC concentrations in the NWAG were higher, but impact of anthropogenic perturbations is not clear since there was no base line data. However, it is clear from the spatial distribution (highest values in polluted bay water) that autochthonous TOC may be produced by biological production fuelled by anthropogenic nutrient loadings in the coastal areas. The NWAG is well oxygenated due to shallow depths, very well-mixed water column during winter and short residence time. Hypoxic conditions in the Arabian Gulf were found off Qatar (0.86 ml l 1 oxygen) over an area exceeding 7000 km2 (Al-Ansari et al. 2015). Very recent study revealed low oxygen in the shallow areas of Kuwait Bay (Al-Mutairi et al. 2014). It has been proposed that high TOC in this region through degradation of the organic carbon must be contributing to the formation of hypoxia. Furthermore, semi-labile components are expected to conserve and gets exported to the neighboring Arabian Sea by the out flowing Arabian Gulf deep water that flows along the western Arabian Gulf contributing to the expansion of the denitrification zones in perennial oxygen minimum zones (OMZs) in the northwestern Indian Ocean (Al-Said et al. 2018a).

7 Concluding Remarks and Future Recommendations The ocean science community has undertaken the challenge of exploring the Arabian Gulf domain and over the past few decades has made remarkable advancement in the understanding of the physics, biology, and chemistry of the Arabian Gulf waters. We now have a fair understanding on the salinity changes in the system which is largely attributed to the cumulative effect reduction in riverine freshwater discharge due to excessive damming of major rivers supplying Shatt Al-Arab river system and the brine release from desalination plants. Decadal changes increment of SST was 0.5 to >1  C which has impacted the system adversely. Surface dissolved oxygen didn’t show any considerable changes over time. However, pH, an important component of carbon dioxide system, showed steady decrease over the years pointing to ocean acidification scenario. But this reduction is more prominent in summer season. Probability of high organic carbon load in the NWAG contributing to the expansion of OMZ in the northwestern Indian Ocean is discussed.

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Macronutrient levels were not found in deficit except at few stations and are subjected to seasonal variations. Although trace elements levels were also not bio-limiting, the demand for these micronutrients varied both spatially and temporally, with a possible change in phytoplankton community composition. Effect of sediment resuspension followed by winter mixing can elevate concentrations of few elements. Spatial variability reveals different sources of metal ions. Phytoplankton biomass showed considerable reduction over time with chlorophyll a concentrations showing decreasing trend by 0.05 (in summer) and 0.08 μg l 1 per year (in winter) over last two decades. However, there exist several short comings, and several new questions have emerged from the above synthesis that should be answered by future research. The biogeochemistry of CO2 and other climatically important gases such as N2O, CH4, and DMS is not well-known from this system despite we spoke about decadal decrease in pH which largely dependent of carbonate chemistry of the water. Carbonate chemistry is largely dependent on its solubility and biological pumping. Decadal shifts in SST and salinity bound to change the pCO2 in the water and so is the reduction in phytoplankton biomass affecting the efficacy of biological pump. The fate of fixed carbon flow through different trophic levels and its sequestration was never studied. Therefore systematic investigations on carbon fixation and particulate element fluxes should be given priority. The Arabian Gulf has been identified as a moderately productive region that supports 50% carbonate precipitation. CO2 sequestrations in this part of the world are majorly dependent on ocean carbon uptake due to deserted terrestrial ecosystem. Changes in ocean pH will affect the biotic components and ecosystem functioning which in turn regulate the atmospheric carbon dioxide. Effects of ocean acidification on phytoplankton community and other calcareous organisms need to be assessed from this region based on both laboratory and field-based micro/mesocosom experimental studies. This system receives domestic sewage and industrial waste. However, from the present synthesis, we do not see high macronutrient levels in the water. Moreover, NH4+, an important composition nitrogenous waste, were never higher than >1 μM. In this context, the role of nanosized flagellated phytoplankton sequestering ammonium needs to be investigated in detail. If anthropogenic nutrients don’t end to the sea, they must undergo rigorous processing and get modified in the sediment of the massive intertidal zone of the NWAG. Therefore sedimentary reductive nitrogen processing needs to be studied thoroughly. Strong spatial and temporal variations in trace metal concentrations arise intuitions on their multiple sources and utilization in Kuwaiti waters. It was hypothesized that due to high wind-induced mixing of bottom sediments, sedimentary fluxes are strong in winter. Moreover, due to its close proximity to the desert, frequent sandstorm in this region bring aerosol nutrients into this system. These sources are needed to be quantified based on dedicated oceanographic surveys, benthic flux experiments, and analysis of atmospheric dry/wet deposition (dust and rain). Speciation studies of trace metals must be carried out to understanding their bioavailability and effect on phytoplankton community composition and biomass. Information on phytoplankton productivity is very rudimentary in this region. Stable isotope studies with 13C- and 15N-based productivity

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measurements should be carried out. These measurements will give insight into primary, new, regenerated, and exportable production in the Arabian Gulf basin. Successful answering of the above concerns will open opportunities to understanding how biogeochemistry and physical processes in the Arabian Gulf waters have contributed to the regional climate and its variability and how the ecosystem of the Arabian Gulf will change over the next century.

References Al-Ansari EM, Rowe G, Abdel-Moati MAR, Yigiterhan O, Al-Maslamani I, Al-Yafei MA, Al-Shaikh I, Upstill-Goddard R (2015) Hypoxia in the central Arabian Gulf exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of Qatar during summer season. Estuar Coast Shelf Sci 159:60–68 Al-Hasan RH, Ali AM, Radwan SS (1990) Lipids, and their constituent fatty acids, of Phaeocystis sp. from the Arabian Gulf. Mar Biol 105(1):9–14 Al-Husaini M, Bishop JM, Al-Foudari HM, Al-Baz AF (2015) A review of the status and development of Kuwait’s fisheries. Mar pollut bull 100(2):597–606 Al-Mutairi N, Abahussain A, El-Battay A (2014) Spatial and temporal characterizations of water quality in Kuwait Bay. Mar Pollut Bull 83(1):127–131 Al-Saadi HA (1989) On the influence of the sewage drainage from Basrah City on the phytoplankton and related nutrients in the Shatt al-Arab estuary, Iraq. Arch Hydrobiol 114:443–452 Al-Said T, Al-Ghunaim A, Rao DS, Al-Yamani F, Al-Rifaie K, Al-Baz A (2017) Salinity-driven decadal changes in phytoplankton community in the NW Arabian Gulf of Kuwait. Environ Monit Assess 189(6):268 Al-Said T, Naqvi SWA, Al-Yamani F, Goncharov A, Fernandes L (2018a) High total organic carbon in surface waters of the northern Arabian Gulf: implications for the oxygen minimum zone of the Arabian Sea. Mar Pollut Bull 129(1):35–42 Al-Said T, Madhusoodhanan R, Pokavanich T, Al-Yamani F, Kedila R, Al-Ghunaim A, Al-Hashem A (2018b) Environmental characterization of a semiarid hyper saline system based on dissolved trace metal-macronutrient synergy: a multivariate spatio-temporal approach. Mar Pollut Bull 129(2):846–858 Al-Yamani F (2008) Importance of the freshwater influx from the Shatt-Al-Arab River on the Gulf marine environment. In: Protecting the Gulf’s marine ecosystems from pollution. Birkhäuser Basel, pp 207–222 Al-Yamani FY, Bishop J, Ramadhan E, Al-Husaini M, Al-Ghadban AN (2004) Oceanographic atlas of Kuwait’s waters. Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, Kuwait Al-Yamani F, SubbaRao DV, Mharzi A, Ismail W, Al-Rifaie K (2006) Primary production off Kuwait, an arid zone environment, Arabian Gulf. Int J Oceans Oceanogr 1(1):67–85 Al-Yamani F, Yamamoto T, Al-Said T, Alghunaim A (2017) Dynamic hydrographic variations in northwestern Arabian Gulf over the past three decades: temporal shifts and trends derived from long-term monitoring data. Mar Pollut Bull 122(1–2):488–499 Brewer PG, Dyrssen D (1985) Chemical oceanography of the Persian Gulf. Prog Oceanogr 14:41–55 Darmoian SA, Lindqvist K (1988) Sediments in the estuarine environment of the Tigris/Euphrates delta; Iraq; Arabian Gulf. Geol J 23(1):15–37 Devlin MJ, Massoud MS, Hamid SA, Al-Zaidan A, Al-Sarawi H, Al-Enezi M, Al-Ghofran L, Smith AJ, Barry J, Stentiford GD, Morris S (2015) Changes in the water quality conditions of Kuwait’s marine waters: long term impacts of nutrient enrichment. Mar Pollut Bull 100(2):607–620 Dileepkumar M (2006) Biogeochemistry of the North Indian Ocean

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Grasshoff K (1976) Review of hydrographic and productivity conditions in the Gulf region. UNESCO Tech Pap Mar Sci 26:39–62 Grice GD, Gibson VR (1978) Report B, general biological oceanographic data from the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Gruber N, Sarmiento JL (1997) Global patterns of marine nitrogen fixation and denitrification. Glob Biogeochem Cycles 11(2):235–266 Hadi RAM, Al-Mousawi AH, Al-Zubaidy AJM (1989) A study on the primary productivity in the Shatt Al-Arab estuary at Basrah, Iraq. J Biol Sci Res 20:593–606 Hansell DA, Carlson CA, Repeta DJ, Schlizter R (2009) Dissolved organic matter in the ocean: a controversy stimulates new insights. Oceanography 22:202–211 Hashimoto S, Tsujimoto R, Maeda M, Ishimaru T, Yoshida J, Takasu Y, Koike Y, Mine Y, Kamatani A, Otsuki A (1998) Distribution of nutrient, nitrous oxide and chlorophyll a of RSA: extremely high ratios of nitrite to nitrate in whole water column. In: Offshore environment of the ROPME Sea area after the war-related oil spill: results of the 1993–94 Umitaka-Maru Cruises. Terra Sci. Tokyo, pp 99–124 Huq MF (1977) Preliminary studies on the phytoplankton of North-West Arab Gulf II. Phytoplankton population dynamics. Bangladesh J Bot 6:109–121 Huq MF, Al-Saadi HA, Hadi RA (1978) Preliminary studies on the primary production of northwest Persian Gulf during post-monsoon period. J Oceanogr Soc Jpn 34(2):78–80 Huq MF, Al-Saadi HA, Hameed HA (1981) Studies on the primary production of the river Shatt Al-Arab at Basrah, Iraq. Hydrobiologia 77(1):25–29 Jacob PG, Zarba MA, Mohammad OS (1982) Water quality characteristics of selected beaches of Kuwait. Ind J Mar Sci 11:233–238 Nezlin NP, Polikarpov IG, Al-Yamani F (2007) Satellite-measured chlorophyll distribution in the Arabian Gulf: spatial, seasonal and inter-annual variability. Int J Oceans Oceanogr 2 (1):139–156 Rao DV, Al-Yamani F (1998) Phytoplankton ecology in the waters between Shatt-Al-Arab and Straits of Hormuz-the Arabian Gulf. Plankton Biol Ecol 45:101–116 Rao DV, Al-Yamani F, Lennox A, Pan Y, Al-Said TF (1999) Biomass and production characteristics of the first red tide noticed in Kuwait Bay, Arabian Gulf. J Plankton Res 21(4):805–810 Sheppard C, Al-Husiani M, Al-Jamali F, Al-Yamani F, Baldwin R, Bishop J, Benzoni F, Dutrieux E, Dulvy NK, Durvasula SRV, Jones DA (2010) The Gulf: a young sea in decline. Mar Pollut Bull 60(1):13–38 Swift SA, Bower AS (2003) Formation and circulation of dense water in the Persian/Arabian Gulf. J Geophys Res Oceans (C1):108 Uddin S, Gevao B, Al-Ghadban AN, Nithyanandan M, Al-Shamroukh D (2012) Acidification in Arabian Gulf–insights from pH and temperature measurements. J Environ Monit 14 (5):1479–1482 www.ropme.org/350_Overview_EN.clx)

Some Physical Oceanographic Aspects of Kuwait and Arabian Gulf Marine Environment Subramaniam Neelamani, Yousef Al-Osairi, Khaled Al-Salem, and Karim Rakha

Abstract Arabian Gulf is one of the important marine water body. Arabian Gulf has more than 800 offshore oil and gas platforms, and it is increasing every year. About 25,000 tankers/year move out with oil from the Gulf. For cost-effective design of all type of marine facilities, a clear understanding of physical oceanographic parameters, such as waves, tides, currents, seawater turbidity, temperature, salinity, etc., is needed. Such critical physical oceanographic parameters of Arabian Gulf, Kuwait territorial waters, and some of the specific area within the Kuwaiti territorial water are reported in this manuscript. Such information is also essential for sustainable development and integrated management of coastal projects in this region. The Arabian Gulf is a shallow water body with maximum water depth of about 100 m, and the average water depth is about 35 m. The total surface area of the Arabian Gulf is about 226,000 km2, and it holds about 8000 km3 of seawater. The wave climate is mild to moderate. The tidal variation can reach up to 4.0 m, especially in the northern part of the Gulf. Current velocity exceeds 0.7 m/s in few locations like Strait of Hormuz and the northern part of the gulf. The annual average wind speed is in the range of 3.0–7.0 m/s, and the dominant direction is from northwest. The seawater in the northern part of the Arabian Gulf has almost zero transparency, whereas the transparency reaches 100% within a distance of about 150 km towards south. The seawater salinity of the water varies from 35 to 50 ppt due to strong evaporation and less freshwater flow into the Gulf. The seawater temperature varies in between 10 and 35  C and is the hottest sea on the earth. Keywords Arabian Gulf · Waves · Currents · Tide · Seawater temperature and salinity · Turbidity · Extreme waves and winds

S. Neelamani (*) · Y. Al-Osairi · K. Al-Salem Coastal Management Program, Environment and Life Sciences Research Center, Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, Safat, Kuwait e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] K. Rakha Principle Coastal Modeler, Warrington, UK e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 L. A. Jawad (ed.), The Arabian Seas: Biodiversity, Environmental Challenges and Conservation Measures, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51506-5_5

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1 Introduction The Arabian Gulf (Fig. 1), a marginal sea in a typical arid zone, is an arm of the Indian Ocean. It lies between the latitude of 24 N to 30 N and longitude of 48 E to 57 E. It is relatively young and has formed during the last 3000–6000 years due to melting of polar ice sheets (Riegl and Purkis 2012). The gulf covers an area of 250,000 km2. It is 990 km long, and its width ranges from 56 to 338 km. It has a total volume of 7000–8400 km3 of seawater (Emery 1956; Purser and Seibold 1973; El-Gindy and Hegazi 1996). The entire basin of the Gulf lies upon the continental shelf. The average water depth of the Arabian Gulf is about 35.0 m. However, depths more than 107 m occur in some places near Iranian territorial waters. The gulf’s water depth increases in the southeast direction. Very little freshwater enters into the Gulf from Shatt Al-Arab from Iraq and Karun rives due to dam construction across these rivers (Sheppard et al. 2010). The Gulf is connected to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea through the Strait of Hormuz, which is about 56 km wide and with an average water depth of 107 m. Strait of Hormuz allows water exchange between the Arabian Gulf and Arabian Sea.

Fig. 1 Arabian Gulf (Source: Google map)

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Significant information on the Arabian Gulf is reported in the book titled Oceanographic Atlas of Arabian Gulf by Al-Yamani et al. (2004). In the Arabian Gulf, in general the dominant wind direction is northwesterly (Elshorbagy et al. 2006). Arabian Gulf is a commercially active due to import of all type of goods from around the world and export of hydrocarbons. Most of the countries located around the Arabian Gulf use the seawater for desalination purposes and for cooling purposes of thermal power plants. Many high investment coastal and offshore projects are built (or being built) in the Arabian Gulf waters such as palm Jumeirah, palm Deira and world shaped water fronts in Dubai, Durrat Al-Bahrain—a jewelry shaped water front development; Hasabi and many water front projects in Bahrain, Qetaifan project in Qatar, Manifa oil field and Half moon bay in Saudi Arabia, Mubarak Al-Kabeer port, Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah Causeway, Sabah Al-Ahmad sea city in Kuwait, a number of submarine pipeline and offshore oil and gas platforms, projects for development of tourism industries etc. The Arabian Gulf contains around 674 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, representing approximately two-thirds of proven, conventional world oil reserves and 1923 Tcf of natural gas reserves (35% of the world total). Oil and gas are the main economic source for the countries around Arabian Gulf (Kubursi 2015). Gulf already has more than 800 offshore oil and gas platforms and 25 major oil terminal (Sale et al. 2011), and it keeps increasing. About 53,000 ships pass the Straits of Hormuz into the Gulf every year (Al-Yamani et al. 2015). Safe and cost-effective design of offshore oil drilling platforms and other marine facilities are essential for sustainable growth of this region. Optimal design of marine facility depends on the design environmental parameters like wave, current, wind, cyclone, earthquake, tide, temperature, salinity, etc. The sustainable and holistic development of the coastal and marine infrastructure for the countries surrounding the Arabian Gulf is challenging. The following are the main reasons: • Arabian Gulf is surrounded by dense population, and the coastal population increases every year. • The seawater temperature and salinity are high compared to other seas and ocean. • The freshwater flow as well as the rainfall is very low. • The natural oil seepage inside the Arabian Gulf is a hazardous phenomenon. • Severe earthquakes of more than 9.0 in Richard scale is possible at Makran region outside the Arabian Gulf and the possible Tsunami. • Uncertainty in the relative sea level rises. • High natural and man-made turbidity level in the seawater at many locations. • High toxin concentration of seabed materials due to industrial waste disposal. • Periodic dust storm and dust fallout (and associated elements) into the gulf. • Periodic oil spilling into the Gulf during loading/unloading, accidents, and ballast waste discharge. • Periodic fish kill and red tides at many locations due to harmful algal bloom (HAB).

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• Lack of enough research institutes to deal with Arabian Gulf issues and poor scientific co-operation between the countries surrounding the Gulf. • Lack of good quality measured field data and exchange mechanism. • High water consumption (400–550 L/day/head). • High volume of seawater utilization for desalination and power plant cooling. • Increased heat input from power plants into the Gulf. • Over exploitation of living organisms and decrease in commercial fish stock. • Many high volume dredging activities for development of new living space. • Deteriorating water quality due to partially treated waste water from industries and houses. • Solid waste dumping especially plastics. • Lack of awareness of the effect of ocean pollution on human and marine health. • Proposals for construction of nuclear power plants. • Significant coastal morphological changes experience by the construction of many coastal and marine infrastructures. • Slow dispersion of pollutants due to lack of accelerated dynamics of seawater at many parts within the Gulf due to less wave and currents. Most of the countries around Arabian Gulf have master plans for the year 2030 in which proposals for many coastal and marine infrastructures are planned. Kuwait is planning for developing Boubyan and Failaka Island, and construction activities are in progress for Silk City on the coast. A clear understanding of the met ocean parameters and especially physical oceanographic parameters of the Arabian Gulf is needed for holistic and sustainable development of marine projects. This chapter is prepared by keeping these aspects in mind. Details of the physical parameters of the Arabian Gulf are provided. More focus is given for such information for the Kuwaiti territorial waters.

2 Some Physical Oceanographic Aspects of Arabian Gulf 2.1

Precipitation, Evaporation, and Flow of Seawater in and out of Arabian Gulf

The average annual precipitation into the Arabian Gulf is about 34 km3. The annual average river discharge into the Arabian Gulf is about 110 km3 (Reynolds 2002). The average annual evaporation from the Gulf is estimated as 360 to 1250 km3 (Reynolds 1993). The water flowing from the Arabian Sea into the Arabian Gulf neutralizes these net losses of seawater due to evaporation, precipitation, and river flow.

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General Topography of the Countries Around Arabian Gulf

The general topographic feature of the Arabian Gulf region is as shown in Fig. 2. The eastern side of the Gulf is Iran with Zagros Mountains. The western part of the Arabian Gulf is covered with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, and UAE. The Northern side of the Gulf is covered with Iraq and the North West by Kuwait. These countries are generally arid or semi-arid and covered with desert type lands with average annual precipitation ranging from 80 to 130 mm. The change in land topography of the countries in the western part of the Arabian Gulf is mild and moderate unlike the eastern part with Zagros Mountains.

2.3

Bathymetry of Arabian Gulf

The bathymetry map of Arabian Gulf is provided in Fig. 3. The water depth is in general shallow on the western side of the Gulf. The water depth reaches to 100 m on the Iranian side of the Gulf, especially on the southeastern part of Iran. The water depth becomes deeper at the entrance to the Arabian Gulf. The water depth in the northern part of the Arabian Gulf is very shallow. For example, with respect to low

Fig. 2 Topographic and bathymetric map of the Arabian Gulf Region

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water level, the water depth around Boubyan and Failaka Islands are about 2.0–3.0 m only.

2.4

Tidal Variation in the Arabian Gulf

Rakha et al. (2007a, b, 2009) have carried out a detailed hydrodynamic study for the Arabian Gulf and Kuwaiti territorial waters. The maximum range of the water level in the Arabian Gulf is shown in Fig. 4. The highest tidal variation in the Arabian Gulf occurs at the northern part of the gulf. The highest tide is about 4.0–4.5 m around Boubyan Island in Kuwait.

2.5

Wind Speed and Direction

In the Arabian Gulf, the dominant wind speed occurs from northwest. The wind speed and direction in Kuwait is represented using a typical rose diagram (Fig. 5) by using the measured wind data from 1.1.2012 to 31.12.2012 by Kuwait National

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Metrological Network. The second dominant wind direction is from Southeast. The extreme 10-min average wind speed for 100-year return periods can exceed 30–35 m/s (Neelamani et al. 2013).

2.6

Maximum Tidal Current in the Arabian Gulf

The magnitude of tidal current inside the Arabian Gulf is shown in Fig. 6 (Al-Salem 2006; Rakha et al. 2006). The tidal current is mainly due to tidal fluctuation within the Gulf. Current speed at the entry point of the gulf, Strait of Hormuz, can exceed 0.7 m/s. Similarly, the tide-induced current exceeds 0.9 m/s in the northwestern part of the Arabian Gulf, especially around Boubyan Island.

2.7

Maximum Wave Heights and Periods Inside the Arabian Gulf

The hindcasted wave heights validated with measured wave heights at some locations of Kuwaiti territorial waters are used for the estimation of the 100-year return

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period wave heights for the whole Arabian Gulf (Al-Salem and Rakha 2005). Figure 7 shows the contour plot of the 100 Year Significant Wave Heights in the Arabian Gulf. This assessment is based on Weibull distribution. Off the coast of UAE, 100-year return wave heights can exceed 6.5 m. Figure 8 provides the 100-year return wave periods for many locations within the Arabian Gulf. Off UAE coast, the wave period can exceed 7.0 s. The wave periods are bit shorter (3.0–7.0 s) for the northern part of the Arabian Gulf.

3 Some Physical Oceanographic Aspects of Kuwaiti Territorial Waters Kuwait is developing many coastal and marine projects in the near future, and a detailed knowledge on the physical oceanographic parameters are important. The details on tidal variation, current velocity, wave height and wave period, and other information off Kuwaiti coastal area are provided in this section.

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Fig. 8 Mean wave period in the Arabian Gulf for 100-year return period (Rakha et al. 2006)

3.1

Tidal Variation off Kuwaiti Territorial Waters

The difference between the magnitude of the high astronomical tide and low astronomical tide for Kuwaiti territorial water is provided in Fig. 9. Inside Kuwait bay, the value can exceed 3.5 m. The tides in Kuwait are semi diurnal and mixed.

3.2

Tide-Induced Current in the Kuwaiti Territorial Waters

Figure 10 reveals the maximum tide-induced currents within the Kuwaiti territorial waters. The entrance into Kuwait bay has current speed exceeding 0.7 m/s. Around Boubyan Islands, during spring tide, the current velocity exceeds 0.9 m/s.

3.3

Maximum Significant Wave Heights in the Kuwaiti Territorial Waters

Figure 11 provides the details of maximum significant wave heights in the territorial waters of Kuwait. This information is based on 12 years of hindcasted data

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(Al-Salem 2006). The wave heights were hindcasted based on the marine wind speed data during the period 1.1.1993 to 31.12.2004. The source of wind speed data was European Center of Mean Weather Forecast (ECMWF). The measured wind speed data and the ECMWF data are compared, and the ECMWF data is upgraded before using it for hindcasting. Waves of more than 3.5 exist only in the offshore region of the Kuwaiti territorial waters. Around Boubyan and Failaka Island, the wave heights are much less than 1.0 m for more than 10 months in a year.

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Wave Period in Kuwaiti Territorial Waters

Figure 12 shows the wave period in Kuwaiti territorial waters. Wave periods more than 6.5 s exist only in the offshore region. Closer to the coastal area, the wave periods are in the range of 2.5–5.5 s only. More data and information on waves, currents, tides, etc. can be obtained from Al-Salem and Al-Rashed (2016).

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Water Transparency in Kuwaiti Territorial Waters

Though the distance between the northern and southern coastal area of Kuwaiti territorial water is less than 170 km, the transparency of water varies from 0 to 100% from north to south. Figure 13 shows the transparency of water on the eastern side of Boubyan Island. Boubyan Island is within 30 km from the Shatt Al-Arab estuary. For the past many hundreds of years, the Tigris and Euphrates rivers have discharged sediments into this estuary and are drifting towards Kuwaiti territorial waters due to

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anticlockwise global rotation of the seawater. Hence, the northern part of Kuwaiti territorial water is always turbid. Figure 14 is a typical picture of the seawater in the southern coastal area of the Kuwaiti coast. The total suspended sediments in the southern seawater body are less than 10–20 ppm.

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Fig. 13 Seawater transparency in the Boubyan coast, northern part of Kuwait

3.6

Seawater Turbidity Around Boubyan Island in Kuwait Based on Field Measurements

Measurements of seawater turbidity for five different locations around Boubyan Island were carried out for about 12 months, from March 2015 to February 2016. All these five locations are around the Boubyan Island. The instruments are deployed for the measurements, and the locations are shown in Fig. 15. The turbidity data (as well as other data for salinity, seawater temperature) gathered were analyzed, and the outcomes are reported by Neelamani and Al-Osairi (2017a, b, c). Some vital information on the seawater turbidity is provided here. A typical measured medium density turbidity time series near the Port area is shown in Fig. 16. During spring tide (when the currents are high, of the order of 0.8 m/s), the maximum medium density turbidity reached about 1300 FTU. The probability density analysis is carried out on the turbidity time series for all the locations using 1-year measured data. Figure 17 shows the probability density of measured turbidity. It is found that near Warba Island area the turbidity peaks near 275 FTU, whereas near Sabiya coast guard are it peaks near 160 FTU. The probability of non-exceedance of the measured turbidity is revealed in Fig. 18. Near Sabiya coast guard area, almost 90% in a year, the turbidity is less than 250 FTU. Whereas near Warba Island, this level of turbidity occurs for less than

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Fig. 14 Seawater transparency in the South coast of Kuwait

38% of the time in a year. For other locations, it is in between 56% and 74% in a year for turbidity level of 250 FTU. This information will be useful for designing different marine structures such as marina, port, and harbor in this area for sedimentation analysis as well as for marine life-related studies, which depend on sediment concentrations for their growing and multiplication.

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Fig. 15 Locations around Boubyan Island for deployment of instruments

Table 1 shows the minimum, maximum, mean, median, mode, and standard deviation of the measured seawater turbidity for all the five locations. Turbidity of more than 58,000 ppm is recorded near Warba Island, which could be due to the disposal of the dredging materials by the ports near Warba island area as well as ship propeller agitations. The lowest value of the maximum turbidity value is recorded around Sabiya coast guard area due to coast guard restrictions for boat movement and related lesser agitation of the seawater.

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Boubyan Port 7 43,098 404 224 250 1192

Failaka 8 48,069 708 157 150 2431

Sabiya coast guard 14 10,293 199 125 150 231

Sabiya military 35 20,887 331 215 250 440

Warba 102 58,008 412 295 250 745

4 Conclusions A clear knowledge of the physical oceanographic parameter is essential for sustainable development of coastal projects. Such information for Arabian Gulf, Kuwait territorial waters, and some of the specific area within the Kuwaiti territorial water is

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provided in this book chapter. The data for this analysis is gathered through different research projects carried out in Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, Kuwait, during the past 35 years. The Arabian Gulf is relatively a shallow water body with maximum water depth of about 100 m near Iran side. The wave climate is mild to moderate. The tidal variation can reach up to 4.0 m, especially in the northern western part of the Arabian Gulf. Current velocity exceeds 0.7 m in few locations like Strait of Hormuz and the northwestern part of the gulf. The main wind direction is northwest. The annual average wind speed is in the range of 3.0–7.0 m/s. The 10-minute average extreme wind speed for 100-year return periods is in the range of 30–45 m/s in Kuwait. Gust speeds exceed 60 m/s during certain season. The seawater in the northern part of the Arabian Gulf has zero transparency, whereas the transparency reaches 100% within a distance of about 150 km towards south. The seawater salinity of the water in this Gulf varies from 35 to 50 ppt due to strong evaporation and less freshwater flow into the Gulf. In a year, the seawater temperature varies in between 10 and 35  C. The turbidity of the seawater can cross 50,000 ppm near Warba Islands, and care should be taken while designing ports, harbors, and marinas around this area. Acknowledgements The authors wish to acknowledge Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research for the logics and support to carry out the research and Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS) for sponsoring the research projects. For preparing this manuscript, the knowledge developed from the KFAS sponsored research projects was used. Thanks to the staff of Coastal Management Program for their support during the field data collection and associated tasks.

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Low Oxygen Zones Predict Future Condition of Fish Under Climate Change Issam Humaid Al-Rasady, Jessica J. Meeuwig, and Michel R. Claereboudt

Abstract Oxygen concentrations are predicted to decline under climate change scenarios. To assess the possible effect of low dissolved oxygen levels on fish condition, we evaluated the condition of fish in the Northwest Arabian Sea, a region of persistent oxygen minimum zones (OMZs). Condition of fish was inferred from the coefficients of length–weight relationships (LWR), comparing LWR coefficients for 53 species sampled across the Northwest Arabian Sea OMZ to the coefficients reported for these species from non-OMZ regions. Regional effects of oxygen depletion were also examined by comparing coefficients from LWR of seven fish species in four different regions of the Northwest Arabian Sea across a latitudinal gradient. The estimated values of a, the body form coefficient, were significantly higher in the Northwest Arabian Sea than in non-OMZ regions. However, there was no significant difference in b, the allometric growth rate, observed in the Northwest Arabian Sea with those observed elsewhere. Regions showed significant difference in allometric growth rates for five of seven investigated fish species, with Drepane longimana, Pagellus affinis, and Pomadasys commersonnii showing decreasing trends from north to south, while Argyrops spinifer and Carangoides equula showed the opposite trend, and Cheimerius nufar and Plectorhinchus schotaf showed no discernable trend. Fishes from the Northwest Arabian Sea had larger body forms (as indicated by the LWR coefficient a) compared to conspecifics in non-OMZ regions but showed increased allometric growth rates (as indicated by the LWR

I. H. Al-Rasady (*) School of Biological Sciences and the UWA Oceans Institute, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia Marine Sciences and Fisheries Center, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries Wealth, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman J. J. Meeuwig School of Biological Sciences and the UWA Oceans Institute, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia M. R. Claereboudt Department of Marine Science and Fisheries, College of Agriculture and Marine Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Al-Khod, Sultanate of Oman © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 L. A. Jawad (ed.), The Arabian Seas: Biodiversity, Environmental Challenges and Conservation Measures, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51506-5_6

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coefficient b) with declining oxygen on a regional basis. Climate models predict expansion of OMZs globally, and fishes in the Arabian Sea showed unexpected responses in relation to the OMZ. Consequently, the conditions of the fishes need to be studied in Arabian Sea using empty weight during different seasons, regions, and depth strata and configure its relation to the environmental factors and compare the results with same fishes from non-OMZ. Keywords Length-weight relationship · Northwest Arabian Sea · Body form · Allometric growth rate

1 Introduction Climate change is predicted to have significant consequences for marine ecosystems and the fisheries they support (Brander 2010; Cheung et al. 2009), with oceans functioning as a natural carbon sink, absorbing approximately half of all anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) (Le Quéré et al. 2007). Analysis of available time series has revealed changes in distribution, abundance, and production of fish species that correlate with climate-related environmental variables (Rijnsdorp et al. 2009). There is also evidence suggesting that species change the timing of their life cycles in response to ocean warming and have shifted their geographic distributions toward higher latitudes (Chen et al. 2011). Moreover, climate change may also lead to a reduction in mean body size as predicted by the temperature-size rule, under which individuals experiencing higher temperatures will have smaller body sizes (Walters and Hassall 2006; Feary et al. 2010). The synergistic effects of climate change on fish are also driving concern with respect to fisheries production (Halpern et al. 2008). One predicted impact of climate change is increased areal extent of persistent oxygen minimum zones (OMZs) (Diaz and Rosenberg 2008). Of particular concern are the substantial reductions in formation rate and/or density of certain key water masses that lead to changes in the dissolved oxygen levels via reduction in the ventilation rate and biogeochemical cycling and changes in overturning timescales (Matear 2003). Climate change scenarios also predict outgassing of oxygen from the ocean into the atmosphere and large declines in the dissolved oxygen concentrations in the ocean by the end of this century (Keeling et al. 2010). The Arabian Sea covers an area of approximately 3,862,000 km2 with depths ranging to 2990 m. Mean environmental conditions are 24
C temperature and 4 ml1 O2, but these conditions vary strongly by season and are driven by the monsoon. For instance, during periods when the OMZ occurs, oxygen levels typically decline to