The Gulf: A Portrait of Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and the UAE

Published in 1984, this is a really readable narrative covering many aspects of The Gulf - Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and United Arab Emirates. They are kept in context with Iraq and Oman, both of which have a large influence.
With chapters dedicated to Less recent history; the dividing of land (into countries); the discovery of oil; slavery and servants; trade and piracy; pearling and the sudden end to that industry; some ancient history and a look to the future.

This was a surprisingly easy to read book. There were plenty of interesting aspects for, which I have chosen to just write a sentence or two on each below.

Iraqi claims to Kuwait, and Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion foreshadowed in this book; and the arguments between Qatar and Bahrain over the island of Hawar, which sits just off the shore of Qatar, but is part of Bahrain. Similarly Iran claimed all of the islands - why else would it be called the Persian Gulf? was their argument!

I was also unaware the original prospector for oil in Bahrain, where it was first discovered in The Gulf was a New Zealander, Frank Holmes, a mining engineer. The slavery chapter compared modern day (1980s) with traditional slavery, with details of house servants (Filipino, Sri Lankan and Thai were common) and oil industry workers (many Indian and Pakistani).

Pearling had played a huge part (almost all) of the Gulf economy before oil, and the perfecting the method of mass producing cultured pearls in Japan ended the industry practically overnight.

The chapter on piracy returned to the 18th century and continued to the early 19th century, with lots of detail around British scouring the gulf destroying pirate ships, punishing towns which aided and abetted pirates, multiple agreements and treaty's and plenty of loss of life on both sides. Colourful, but particularly confusing with lots of dates, Arab names and place names all circling around.