The Islamic Law of Pearling: Ritual Obligation and Economic Practice in the Arabian Gulf, ca. 1910-1940
In the first half of the twentieth century, the legal landscape of the Arabian sheikhdoms was pluralistic and fragmented. The legal actors who settled disputes included local rulers, qāḍīs, pearl merchants, tribal shaykhs, and British officials. Drawing on fatwas and correspondence between religious scholars and notables in Baghdad, Cairo, Damascus, Doha, Kuwait and Manama, I examine how Islamic law shaped pearling – the region’s central economic activity – during this critical juncture.