$Unique_ID{COW02829}
$Pretitle{385D}
$Title{Persian Gulf States
Chapter 1A.   Historical and Cultural Setting}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Laraine Newhouse Carter}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{gulf
islam
arabia
al
arabs
states
tribal
oman
trade
century}
$Date{1984}
$Log{Figure 2.*0282902.scf
}
Country:     Persian Gulf States
Book:        Persian Gulf States, An Area Study: Introduction
Author:      Laraine Newhouse Carter
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1984

Chapter 1A.   Historical and Cultural Setting

     In mid-1984 world attention remained focused on the seemingly
interminable Iran-Iraq War, and foreign and local observers speculated that
the war might spread to the other oil-rich states on the Persian Gulf
littoral. Because of their financial support of Iraq's war effort and as a
result of Iranian threats, several of the Gulf states-particularly those with
Shia populations-worried as much about the possibility of internal subversion
as about overt attack. Bahrain had already experienced an Iranian-inspired
coup attempt in December 1981. This, however, was but one of several concerns
of the Gulf societies in 1984. Others included the drop in oil revenues, an
increase in Islamic fundamentalism, and the effect that both might have on the
expectations and aspirations of its citizen body. In the single generation
since the independence that brought them control of their future and the
burgeoning oil revenues, Gulf societies had changed from being largely
impoverished and underdeveloped to being affluent, increasingly educated, and
physically healthy. Although ruled anachronistically by paternalistic and
patriarchal tribal leaders, the citizenry had taken an ever-improving standard
of living as their right.

     Trade-not oil-was the first medium to bring life to the Arabian shore of
the Gulf. In the century before the discovery of oil and the subsequent use of
oil revenues for improving economic strength and for social welfare projects,
the Arab states that line the western littoral were at the most somnolent
point in their long and turbulent history.

     There is evidence that before human beings had migrated to the European
geographic area, indigenous traders of the western coast of the Gulf were
enriching the first civilizations of the Fertile Crescent both commercially
and culturally. Despite periods of decline, such trade appears to have
continued for millennia. Gulf trade was active during the ancient period but
extraordinarily so by medieval times. In the ninth century A.D. Gulf traders
were travelling to China and returning up Gulf waters to Basrah, facilitating
the exchange of ideas and goods among the great civilizations of the time. The
peoples of the Gulf coast, unlike the inhabitants of the interior of the
Arabian Peninsula, had always been exposed to outside influences. The cultural
and economic area to which the Arab Gulf states belonged was not at all
limited to Arabia but included the whole of the Gulf area. Arabs and Iranians
moved with nonchalance from one side of the Gulf to the other.

     One persistent factor in Gulf history is the constant rivalry between
merchant states and the desire for hegemony. Another factor, destined to be
more fatal to Gulf trade, was the interest in the area by outsiders-Europeans,
Ottoman Turks, the Wahhabis (see Glossary) of central Arabia, and the
Egyptians. After the entrance of the Europeans but before European power
reached its apogee in the Gulf, Hormuz-located near the Iranian coast-was for
a time the foremost trading center in the world (see fig. 1). A popular Arab
and Iranian saying is "If the world were a ring, Hormuz would be its jewel."

     Largely because of events in Europe, the British were able to outstay the
Dutch and slowly but effectively to build up power in the area. Tribal
animosities and rivalries and mutual piracy among Gulf states served British
interests, and by means of a series of exclusive treaties the British
eventually pacified the Gulf. Although local merchants were still active, they
were considerably circumscribed by these treaties. In the early years of the
nineteenth century, new Gulf powers, particularly the states of Kuwait and
Bahrain, were emerging and achieving great wealth through trade. Because the
states had few natural resources other than pearls and date palms, maritime
activity was not only the easiest way for Arab Gulf states to achieve wealth
but also virtually the only way they could survive. A dramatic change in
living conditions occurred, therefore, when European steamships and the
associated technology began to appear in the Gulf in the 1860s. Although the
Arabs were capable of hand-building ships that could carry several tons of
merchandise to China and back, they had not developed industrially and could
not begin to compete with the European vessels. Fossilized into their
political positions and isolated from much influence by British protectorate
treaties, the Arab Gulf states went into a decline and were revived only with
the discovery of oil.

     In the period before oil, Gulf Arabs fell back on their natural resources
(meager as they were) until the values of these, too, were threatened. In the
1920s the Japanese began producing cultured pearls, and the economic
well-being of Bahrain, Qatar, and much of the Trucial Coast area (since 1971
the United Arab Emirates-UAE) was reduced further. Arabs subsisted largely on
minor commerce and other dealings with the Europeans who called there. The
worldwide depression of the 1930s reduced traffic in the Gulf and consequently
reduced income for those who provided services. The people of Dubai, deciding
old ways were best, became active in smuggling gold to India.

     Oil and the change in British priorities, particularly after World War
II, altered the situation. The discovery of oil and the practical utilization
of wealth accruing from it were intially slow processes. Gulf Arabs were
awakening from a long sleep, and the lack of immediate reform was largely the
result of ignorance and underexposure to the kinds of positive social,
cultural, and economic change that money could buy. The Gulf has never been a
monolith, and the individual states moved at different rates depending on
custom and income. A curious reversal had taken place. Oman, Ras al Khaymah,
and Sharjah, once the most powerful of the Gulf entities, became the poorest.

     Once the states realized their affluent position and what it could do,
the traditional welfare system built into the tribal order served them well.
In 1984 none of the "welfare" states emerging in the modern Gulf was
socialistic; yet all that had oil money were extravagant, by any standard,
in spending for the benefit of their citizens. This was not an idea
introduced by the West; it was rather an expansion of the tribal belief,
reinforced by Islam, that no man is rich if a member of his clan is poor.

Pre-Islamic Arabia

The Civilizations of Prehistoric Arabia

     Archaeological investigations of pre-Islamic Arabia are still in an
embryonic state, and the results are hypothetical and controversial at best.
Through the mid-1900s few people had the physical endurance or the survival
techniques crucial to investigate the area. Scarcity of water, the
difficulties of desert transport, and, until the 1940s, hostile tribes made
systematic research a heroic undertaking., Further, very little was known
about present-day Arabia beyond its coastal settlements. Initial
archaeological discoveries are often the accidental finds of explorers eager
to investigate the isolated land and map its interior.

     The oldest evidence of civilized man in northern Arabia is artifacts
found 90 kilometers to the north of Dhahran on the coast of the Gulf (see
fig. 2). Dated to 5000 B.C., they are identical with those of the Al
Ubaid culture of Mesopotamia, the first people to cultivate and settle the
Fertile Crescent and the ancestors of the Sumerians, the first known people
to develop in high culture. If Al Ubaid culture originated in Mesopotamia,
then civilization reached Arabia from the north. If, however, Arabia was the
parent site, then the first known agriculturists in the region were migrants
from Arabia. This would substantiate the Sumerian myth that agriculture had
been brought to Mesopotamia by a "fish-man" from the Gulf.

[See Figure 2.: Ancient Arabia. NOTE-Cultural features were not necessarily
coexistent]

     From about 4000 to 2000 B.C. the civilization of Dilmun dominated
the eastern coast of Arabia from present-day Kuwait to Bahrain and extended
some 90 kilometers into the interior to the oasis of Al Hufuf. At its zenith
in 2000 B.C. Dilmun controlled the route to the Indies and was the trading
link between the civilizations of the Indus Valley and those of Mesopotamia.
The Mesopotamians regarded Dilmun as a holy place and its people as
extraordinarily blessed. In Oman and Abu Dhabi the remains of a civilization
have been found that might have been related to the one at Dilmun. In Abu
Dhabi, pre-Bronze Age stone buildings and settlements with elaborate tombs
suggest a peaceful people and advanced cereal cultivation.

     Arabia was only sparsely peopled in the interior. Until about 3000
B.C. the inland was sufficiently verdant to support both cereal agriculturists
and herding peoples in the north and hunting and gathering societies in the
south. As climatic conditions changed and the desert slowly encroached upon
land that had supported both animal and human life, the inhabitants were
forced to cling to the relatively few areas that had supplies of fresh water.
Ecological constraints induced much of the population to migrate to the more
hospitable lands to the north and northeast.

Ancient Seafaring in the Gulf

     Some of the more tenacious and adventurous turned their backs on the
inhospitable land and founded thalassocracies (maritime supremacies), greatly
advancing the interchange of commodities and culture in the ancient period.
Although the Gulf apparently experienced various periods of relative decline
in its shipping activities, it was always numbered among the world's great
trade routes. At its northernmost point the Gulf terminates near the
confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Goods transported through the
Gulf from the south and later from East Africa and East Asia reached
Mesopotamia and Babylon-states that, although rich in fertile land, lacked the
stone, metals, and woods necessary to sustain advanced civilizations.
Seafaring trade on the Gulf to these areas is documented from the third
millennium.

     More precise data from the second millennium indicate that Mesopotamia
was then importing from three city-states in the direction of the Gulf:
Dilmun, which had its headquarters on Bahrain; Magan, on the coastal curve
of modern Oman lying on the Gulf of Oman; and Maluhha, which in very ancient
times was in the region of Sind and the Indus Valley but by the first
millennium was identified with Nubia in Ethiopia. Initially, Magan functioned
as Maluhha's entrepot. Typical Mesopotamian imports from Magan included
copper, diorite, ivory, red ochre (perhaps from the island of Abu Musa),
onions, bamboo, wood, and precious stones. "Fisheyes" (pearls) were also
listed. Since the best pearl banks are between the tip of Qatar and Sharjah,
it is likely that even at this early date pearling was a local industry.
Dilmun eventually became the entrepot for Magan and Maluhha. Dilmun's
commercial power began to decline in about 1800 B.C., perhaps as a result
of the invasion and devastation of the Indus Valley civilization, which
disrupted trade in the region for several centuries.

     Piracy flourished in the Gulf during Dilmun's decline, and Omani
seafarers and merchants perforce turned their attention to Dhofar, the
southern region of present-day Oman. Dhofar was one of only three producers
of the highly valuable aromatic gum resin, frankincense. Frankincense, an
essential element in certain ancient Jewish and pagan rituals, was burned
as an offering to the gods. It was used lavishly in cremation services and,
in Egypt, for embalming. For the funeral of Nero's wife an entire year's
harvest was reputedly consumed. Frankincense also has healing properties;
it was used an as antidote to poisons and to stop hemorrhages. From Dhofar
frankincense was exported by sea from the port of Sumharam (near present-day
Salalah) or transported by camel through the Hadhramaut and then usually up
the land route through the Hijaz (the western coastal area of present-day
Saudi Arabia).

     Gulf trade did not cease completely after Dilmun's decline. Alexander
the Great's admiral, Nearchos, wrote in his journal of an Arabian cape called
Maketa (Ras Musandam, or the Musandam Peninsula) from which cinnamon was
exported to the Assyrians. By the end of the third century B.C., Gulf trade
had revived slightly. Gerrha, opposite Bahrain on the Arabian mainland, had
become the most important commercial center in the area and was the local
entrepot for the fabulously wealthy kingdoms of southwest Arabia, among which
were Saba (Sheba) and Himyar. At that time Magan in Oman came to be called
Maazun by the Iranians, who were increasingly involved in Gulf trade. In A.D.
28 the Sassanians established their dynasty in Iran. During the Sassanian
period Iranian trade in the Gulf reached its apogee, and it did not decline
until the Arabs conquered Iran in the seventh century.

     By the third century A.D. northern Oman's coastal districts were under
Iranian control. In the fourth century the Iranians occupied Bahrain, a claim
that would be resuscitated during the reign of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and
under the rule of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. When King Khosrou I invaded and
occupied the Yemen in 520, southern Oman was included in the conquest. The
Iranians introduced the qanat (falaj in Arabic), an ingenious irrigation
system by which underground channels tap groundwater and carry it to fields
several miles away. In 1984 much of Omani agriculture was still dependent
on the system (see Agriculture, ch. 6).

     Oman never acquired the reputation the Yemen did because it was virtually
denied immediate access to the West by the vast Rub al Khali (Empty Quarter).
It is clear, however, that Omanis in the pre-Islamic period were as active in
long-distance sea trade between East and West as they were later and that the
Gulf Arabs, particularly Omanis, played a significant role in the development
of ancient trade.

Pre-Islamic Internal History

     Until the advent of Islam the dominant political and commercial powers in
the Arabian Peninsula were those of the south-Oman and the declining kingdoms
of the Yemen. Apart from the Omani and Iranian trade colonies on the Gulf
littoral and the Hijazi caravan stops that had turned into independent cities,
such as Mecca and Yathrib (Medina), much of the population of Arabia was
nomadic. In the first three centuries A.D. there were mass tribal relocations
throughout the peninsula. Oman and the lower coast with their embryonic local
industries and seafaring trade were the main objects of these migrations. The
reasons for the migrations are unclear. Certainly the collapse of the dam at
Marib, in the northeast of present-day Yemen Arab Republic (Yemen [Sanaa]),
which had irrigated otherwise untillable land, contributed to it. There was
also a great deal of social disruption. The population was increasing, and
attacks by beduin on the hadr (settled peoples) were becoming more frequent.

     Several northern beduin tribes moved south, much to the consternation of
the indigenous southerners, who were already pressed for survival because of
the paucity of local natural resources. It was about that time that traditions
about tribal origins began to take concrete form. The tradition that has had
the most serious political consequences for the Gulf concerned the difference
between northern and southern Arabs. The southern Arabs entered the Islamic
period with a clear sense of ethnic distinction between themselves and all
other Arabs that explained the differences of language, custom, and
physiognomy. Popular belief held and still holds that, although all Arabs are
descended from Sham ibn Nuh (Shem, son of Noah), the "pure" or southern Arabs
(Qahtani) are descended from Qahtan ibn Abir, or Hud, as he is often called,
whereas the northern Arabs (called Adnani; in Oman sometimes called Nizari)
are descended from Ismail (Ishmael) through Adnan. Although other Arab
nationals, particularly those of tribal societies, know or think they know to
which group they belong but are little concerned about it, the split is a
matter of importance to Omanis and to Arabs of the lower Gulf. Many feuds in
the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries can be traced to it.

     There is little definite or reliable information about the Gulf area from
the period of the decline of the great ancient peoples until the advent of
Islam. Some scanty information exists for Oman because it was the most
developed area of the littoral at the time. In the second century A.D. the Al
Azd tribe migrated to Oman. Future imams (see Glossary) took "al Azdi" as the
final part of their titles. The Al Julanda were rulers of Oman at the time of
the Azdite invasion and were vassals of the Iranians. The Al Azd, a large
force, ousted the Iranians for a brief period. In a short time, however, the
Al Julanda ruled again from the coast in cooperation with the Iranians, while
the Al Azd moved beyond the mountains, thus creating an internal division in
the country that prevailed until 1970.

     Also in the second or third century there was a major migration to Tuam
(Buraymi Oasis) of two Adnani tribes, the Bani Said and the Bani Abd al Qais.
The latter provided the ruling family for Qais, a major medieval Gulf port.

     Most of the Arabs of the peninsula worshiped an astral triad. In the
southern regions-Yemen and Oman-there were also Judaized Arabs, Christians,
and, as a result of the Iranian presence, Zoroastrians. Judaism came to the
Yemen via the Hijaz, when great numbers of Jews fled south after the
destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem by Titus in A.D. 70. Theophilus Indus,
the most important Christian missionary to southern Arabia, established three
churches: at Sanaa, at Aden, and on the Gulf, most probably at Sohar. John,
Oman's first bishop, was appointed in the fifth century; Stephen, the last
known bishop, was still living in Oman in 676.

The Arabian Social Structure

     The core of the social structure that characterized Gulf societies in the
twentieth century was well established by the seventh century. Only those
families that can trace their origins back to this period are considered
noble. Before the advent of oil the typical Gulf society had consisted of a
port town and its surrounding hinterland, which may have included scattered
farming settlements and nomadic herding groups. In both settled and nomadic
society, tribalism provided the framework for social organization. Each major
tribe was associated with a territory in which it enjoyed use rights to
agricultural land or pasturage and water. Settled tribes dominated villages,
and specific lineages within each nomadic tribe owned particular wells and
oases where lineage members gathered with their herds during the scorching
summer heat. Substantial segments of most lineages lived permanently on the
oases, tending the date trees and other food-bearing plants that grew there.
Because village farmers also traced ties to tribes, the line between nomads
and settled tribes was unclear in many cases and remains so.

     In addition to having a territorial structure, a tribe is a complex
social unit. Tribal social structure is based on the ramification of
patrilineal ties between men. A tribe is a group of related families claiming
descent from a supposed founding ancestor. Within this overall loyalty,
however, descent from intermediate ancestors defines several levels of smaller
groups. In cases of conflict, groups of kinsmen mass at the appropriate level
of opposition. For example, the grandsons of brothers form two groups in
opposition to each other, but they form one unit in opposition to the
descendants of the brother of their common great-grandfather.

     Tribal societies consist of larger and larger groups bound by weaker and
weaker ties of loyalty. The basic unit of organization is the household. A
number of households, supposedly descended from an ancestor about five
generations in the past, form the lineage. Four to six lineages combine into a
clan, claiming descent from a more distant ancestor. The clan figures most
prominently in tribal politics. The tribe, which consists of about seven
clans, was formerly the military unit. Each of the fixed descent groups goes
by the name of its presumed founder, preceded by al (people of) or bani (sons
of).

     The positions of shaykh and amir, though the prerogatives of a particular
lineage, are not, strictly speaking, hereditary. The choice of the particular
individual who will assume leadership in case of a vacancy is made
consensually by the heads of influential families from among candidates who
have the requisite descent position. In the past the choice tended to go to a
man known for his courage, leadership qualities, and, when relevant, his luck
in battle. No one who lacks the requisite ancestry can aspire to tribal
leadership, but ancestry alone does not determine the outcome.

     Although the vast majority of the population in the typical Gulf society
was sedentary, tribalism remained extremely important in the mid-1980s. Most
people, whether nomads, villagers, or townsmen, claimed tribal affiliations or
at least recognized the validity of such affiliations as the framework for
society. The cities grew out of tribal agglomerations, and tribal ties carried
considerable weight in social life, even in cities. Many towns were organized
into tribal quarters, so that town geography represented social organization.

Islam: Emergence and Development

     Unquestionably the event of greatest social, political, and cultural
significance for the inhabitants of the Gulf and Oman was the conversion of
those populations to Islam late in the seventh century. The discovery and
production of oil centuries later transformed the marginally productive
medieval city-states of the Gulf at a speed probably unprecedented in history;
Islam has remained the bedrock of the societies, however, and modern economic
concerns function to a large extent within the legal and cultural framework
that is Islam's legacy.

     From a religious standpoint the west coast of the Gulf is one of the most
varied regions in the Muslim world. Almost every form of Islam currently
practiced is represented along the Gulf; from the puritanical austerity of
Ibadism to the ornate mysticism of Persian-style Shiism (see Glossary),
virtually the entire theological and liturgical gamut is present. In addition,
such non-Muslim religions as Hinduism and Christianity count significant
numbers of adherents in this heterogeneous cluster of societies.

     To state that the Gulf area abounds in religious forms is not to state,
however, that each individual society contains the entire spectrum. Political
and historical forces, some arising during the early centuries of Islam, have
distributed the various denominations among the present-day states in such a
way that most political entities display a distinctive array of religious
groups. In general terms, however, it is safe to say that Islam is the
dominant spiritual, cultural, and, many cases, political influence among the
societies of the Gulf.

     In 1984 the pervasive influence of Islam in the Gulf societies appeared
to be intensifying. A resurgent Islam appeared as a response to a variety of
political, economic, and psychological factors affecting Gulf societies in the
1980s. Ulama (see Glossary) and fundamentalist groups pressured governments to
make changes implementing a greater measure of Islamic law in their societies.
At the same time, the religious rifts that emerged in Islamic society during
its early period appeared to be deepening and to be taking on a stronger
political coloration than they had in centuries.

Conversion in the Gulf

     In the sixth century Mecca was preeminent among the caravan cities that
dotted the Hijaz. It owed its status to several factors: the presence of a
major pagan pilgrimage center, the Kaabah; an intellectual center, Ukaz,
nearby; and the fact that the tribe of the Quraysh, which controlled the town,
was sufficiently large to be able to ensure safe passage north to the
merchants who patronized them. Recently nomadic, the Quraysh found that the
values that had sustained them in the desert, particularly generosity, did not
transplant to the more affluent urban setting. In sixth-century Mecca, orphans
were starving to death, widows were forced into prostitution, and those from
more powerful clans within the Quraysh were able to terrorize weaker ones with
relative impunity. Only the rudimentary tribal law, urf, offered minimal
restraint in a basically lawless society.

     In 570 A.D. the prophet of Islam, Muhammad, was born into the tribe of
the Quraysh but into a weak clan, the Hashim. Muhammad's father died before
his birth, and his mother, Aminah, died when he was six. Muhammad was
apparently a sensitive child, humiliated by his low status and by the many
privations he suffered as an orphan. He was raised by his grandfather and
later by an uncle, Abu Talib, whose son, Ali, would figure prominently in the
most significant split in Islam.

     Muhammad began to work in the caravan business, quickly earning a
reputation for dependability and fairness. At the age of 25 his employer, a
wealthy widow named Khadijah, who was 15 years his senior, proposed marriage.
The only child who would outlive the Prophet was Khadijah's daughter, Fatima.
Muhammad's business trips took him as far north as Syria and as far south as
the Yemen, where he met many Christians and Jews. Muhammad was impressed by
these people, who possessed holy books that appeared to sustain them in alien
environments as well as to offer them ethical guidelines for regulating their
lives.

     Muhammad's discomfiture concerning the moral malaise of Mecca encouraged
him to meditate on these problems. In 610, at the age of 40, when Muhammad was
meditating in one of the caves near Mecca, he heard the voice of the angel
Gabriel, instructing him to preach the revelations that God, through the angel
Gabriel, would give him. The religion Muhammad preached was Islam, which means
submission to the will of God. As Muhammad explained it, Islam was not a new
religion but rather the continuation and the fulfillment of the
Judeo-Christian tradition.

     Because Mecca's economy was based in large part on the thriving
pilgrimage business to the Kaabah shrine and to numerous pagan religious sites
located there, Muhammad's vigorous and continuing censure of polytheism
eventually earned him the bitter enmity of the town's leaders. Ultimately, the
Quraysh boycotted Muhammad and his first converts to the extent that they
could no longer obtain food supplies. This prompted the removal of the
embryonic Muslim community to Yathrib, which came to be known as Medina (from
Madinah al Nabi-the Prophet's city) because it became the center of his
activities. This move, or hijra (see Glossary), known in the West as the
hegira, marks the beginning of the Islamic era and of Islam as a force in
history; the Islamic calendar, based on the lunar year, begins at the time of
this move in 622. The Islamic calendar dates from the hijra because it was in
Medina that for the first time the Muslim community could openly practice its
faith. In Medina Muhammad continued to preach, eventually defeated his
detractors in battle, and consolidated both the temporal and the spiritual
leadership of all Arabia in his person. He entered Mecca in triumph in 630,
smashed the idols in the Kaabah-announcing that "truth has come and falsehood
has vanished"-and proclaimed that henceforth the Kaabah, stripped of its pagan
accoutrements, would be a symbol of the one God. Muhammad returned to Mecca
to make the pilgrimage (haj) shortly before his death in 632.

Tenets of Islam

     Because of the connection with the Judeo-Christian tradition, Islam
shares much of its theology: a belief in one God, creator of heaven and earth;
angels; devils; heaven; hell; final Day of Judgment; a resurrection of the
body; a divine life of the soul; and individual responsibility for salvation.
Most of the prophets of the Old and New Testament are prophets in Islam as
well. Particularly revered are those who are considered hanifs, true
monotheists who preceded Islam, such as Abraham, Moses, Solomon, and Jesus (in
Arabic, Ibrahim, Musa, Sulaiman, and Isa, respectively). Jesus, although not
considered divine, is regarded as a particularly important prophet, who,
according to the Quran, was more powerful than Muhammad because he could heal
the sick and raise the dead. Jesus' mother, also highly regarded, is the only
woman mentioned by name in the Quran. Muhammad is the "seal of the prophets,"
meaning there will be no more after him.

     All acts prohibited by Christianity are also forbidden in Islam, with the
exception that a man may marry up to four wives at one time, providing he can
support them well and treat them equally. Gambling and usury are forbidden to
Muslims, as is the ingestion of intoxicating substances, pork, carrion, or
blood (meaning that all meat must be well cooked).

     A Muslim stands in a personal relationship to God. The ulama are those
who are distinguished by their knowledge of Islamic law (sharia).
Additionally, the performance of the five pillars of the faith is a religious
duty; for Sunni (see Glossary) Muslims they are the recitation of the
testimony of faith (shahada); daily prayer (salat); almsgiving (zakat);
fasting (sawm); and the pilgrimage (haj). Shia (see Glossary) Muslims add holy
war (jihad) and "good thoughts, good words, and good deeds."

     The shahada (literally, testimony) succinctly states the central belief
of Islam: "There is no god but God and Muhammad is his messenger (prophet)."
The shahada, recited in Arabic, is repeated on many ritual occasions.
Pronounced with sincerity in the presence of Muslim witnesses, it converts
the reciter to Islam. Salat, ritual prayer, enjoins the believer to pray
after proper ablutions, when the call to prayer is intoned by the muadhdhin
five times a day. Approximately prayer times are before dawn, late morning,
mid-afternoon, before sunset, and evening. Prescribed prayer attitudes and
prostrations accompany the prayer, which is always recited in Arabic and
facing the direction of Mecca (the qibla). Because there is more merit in
praying together than alone, men will frequently pray in a mosque (in Arabic,
masjid, place of prostration). They must do so for the Friday noon prayers,
at which time there is a sermon. The great majority of Gulf women pray at
home. Shia Gulf women, however, frequently go to their maatam, or study
centers, for prayer and religious readings during the many Shia holidays.

     Zakat is a charity tax of approximately 2 percent of one's wealth paid
during the month of Ramadan for the upkeep of charitable institutions. Muslims
are also encouraged to make sadakat, or free-will gifts. Additionally, many
properties contributed by pious individuals to support religious and
charitable activities or institutions have traditionally been administered as
inalienable religious foundations (waqfs; sing., waqf).

     The ninth month of the Muslim calendar is Ramada, a period of obligatory
fasting in commemoration of Muhammad's receipt of God's revelation, the Quran.
This is not a penitential fast but is performed to strengthen the believer's
compassion and generosity by personally experiencing hunger, thirst, and other
deprivations. Throughout the month all but the sick, the weak, pregnant and
nursing women, soldiers on duty, travelers on necessary journeys, and children
are enjoined from eating, drinking (including water), smoking, and sexual
intercourse during the daylight hours. Those excused are obliged to endure an
equivalent fast at their earliest opportunity. A festive meal breaks the
daily fast and inaugurates a night of feasting and celebration. Because the
months of the lunar calendar revolve through the solar year, Ramadan falls at
various seasons in different years. Although fasting is a considerable test
of discipline at any time of year, a fast that falls in summertime imposes
severe hardships on those who must do physical work or travel in the desert.
Frayed tempers and poor work performances are annual concomitants of the fast.
In all Gulf states the workday is restricted to six hours a day for Muslims,
and most businesses close during the afternoon hours, opening again after the
daily fasting is completed. The first day following the end of Ramadan is
celebrated as a religious holiday, the Id al Fitr.

     Finally, at least once in their lifetime all Muslims should, if possible,
make the haj to Mecca to participate in special rites held during the twelfth
month of the lunar year. The rites relate to the story of Abraham's sacrifice
and the tribulations of Hagar (Abraham's Arab concubine) and Ismail
(Ishmael-Abraham's first-born son) in the wilderness. In Islam it is Ismail,
the son by Hagar, whom Abraham offers for sacrifice. On the tenth of the
month, pilgrims (hajis) sacrifice and cook an animal, give half to the poor,
and consume the remainder in honor of Abraham's sacrifice. The day of
sacrifice is the most important religious holiday for Muslims, called in
Arabic Id al Adha, the Great Feast, or Id al Qurban, the Feast of the
Sacrifice. The day celebrates the compassionate God who requires nothing
difficult of man. The haj as a whole serves to remind hajis that Muslims come
from all ethnic groups and economic conditions. Because the haj rituals can
only be performed in Arabic, the language acts to unify Islam's diverse
members.