Beyond "Islamic Slavery". The Gulf Pearl Divers Between Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries as a Case Study

This paper aims to establish an adequate analysis framework for the salafiyya, a form of debt bondage used in the early 20th-century Arabian side of the Gulf to recruit seamen for the thriving pearling industry. As it will be argued, this system is part of a broader spectrum of working conditions between slavery and free labor, whose correct analysis requires a shift from clear-cut categories and generalizations, including the “Islamic slavery” framework. Due to its nature, the salafiyya could be regarded as a local response to two main issues, a region-wide demand for manpower after the abolition of the slave trade and a global-wide demand for exotic products. The definition of a proper context of analysis trespass the borders of the area studies and adopt a threelayer perspective, considering local, regional and global factors. The focus of the intervention should be on the social, cultural and economic specificities that influenced the development this form of bondage, avoiding parallelisms with other forms of slavery and quasi-slavery. This perspective is also necessary in order to filter the overgeneralizations and prejudicial perspective found in the main sources available, namely the British archival records. Finally, it allows to highlight the complex system of dependency established by the pearling industry.