ABSTRACT
Contrary to popular belief, economic prosperity in the Arabian Gulf region is not a new phenomenon. Gulf traders in their dhows long ago traveled far afield, down the east coast of Africa, to the Indian subcontinent, to the East Indies and to China. Gulf dhows sailed these routes constantly and have been credited with hauling the major share of trade between India, Africa and the Gulf over a period of many centuries. Pearling and fishing thrived in the narrow straits of the Gulf, thus adding to the gains from shipping and the caravan business which fueled a prosperity that lasted until the nineteenth century when the region began to have substantial contact with western colonialism.
