The Cultural Unity of the Gulf and the Indian Ocean: A Longue Durée Historical Perspective

Abstract

Visitors to the Middle East, and the Gulf region in particular, are often surprised by the ethnic diversity of its people. It is tempting to offer as an explanation for this the recent oil boom and resulting inflow of expatriate workers. Yet, the genetic imprint of East Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Indian subcontinent on the people of the Gulf long predates the oil era. The diversity of the Gulf and Indian Ocean populations reflects millennia of migrations between seafaring communities strung out along the shores of the region as far as Africa and the South China Sea. The more recent influx of expatriates primarily from the Asian subcontinent during the oil era serves only to underscore the continuity of links between the Gulf and Indian Ocean rim countries since ancient times. Overland trade routes fed into Indian Ocean trading ports and sea trade routes stretching, at certain periods of history, from China down through the Strait of Malacca to Ceylon, India, Arabia, and as far as the east coast of Africa, south of Zanzibar, to the gold mines inland of Sofala, in present-day Mozambique. Valuable merchandise such as gold, silks, precious stones, fine porcelain, and thoroughbred Arabian horses as well as commodities such as rice and cotton was transported along these routes.

The oceans and the seas unite, rather than divide, the peoples of the world.¹