Mapping Slavery in the Gulf

Overview of Slavery in the Gulf Region: Slavery in the Gulf region was deeply tied to its economic and social structures, with enslaved individuals forming a significant part of the labor force in various sectors. This distribution highlights the socio-economic hierarchies that perpetuated the practice of slavery in the region. Wealthy merchants and landowners often had large numbers of slaves working in their households, with some records indicating as many as 50 or more slaves in affluent families. For instance, in Bahrain, enslaved individuals were primarily employed in the pearl fishing industry. Their labor was crucial to the industry’s success, and their masters frequently rented them out for pearl diving. Enslaved laborers were also involved in agriculture, particularly in regions like Oman and along the Persian Coast, where seasonal labor needed surged during harvest periods.

How to explore this map: This map visualizes the documented locations of enslaved individuals based on historical records from John Gordon Lorimer’s Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman, and Central Arabia. The size of the pink dots represents the number of enslaved individuals at each location, with larger dots indicating regions where a higher number of enslaved people were recorded, and smaller dots representing areas with fewer recorded individuals.

How to interact: Click on the pink dots to learn more about the number of enslaved people and other details for each location. A popup will appear with the following information:

  • Region name and associated file
  • Wealth Category, which indicates the scale of slavery in three tiers (Category 3 ≤ 22,500 enslaved, Category 2 ≤ 2500 enslaved, Category 1 ≤ 400 enslaved)
  • GeoNames ID for further geographical reference
  • Latitude and Longitude of the location

You can find the data and calculations in the following document.

Notes on Data Decisions: The dataset was extracted from historical text entries referencing terms like “slaves” and “slave ownership” across various locations. Each location reveals the corresponding text file from Lorimer’s work. The following notes are informed interpretations and educated guesses based on historical texts and data compilation methods regarding slavery in the Gulf region. They aim to provide context for the decisions made during data gathering and representation.

Creator of this dataset: Khosiyat Oripova

License: Creative Commons 4.0 BY-NC-SA International
Creative Commons License

Suggested Citation: OpenGulf Project (2024). Overview of Slavery in the Gulf Region. https://github.com/opengulf/opengulf.github.io/blob/master/_pages/slavery.mdAccessed xxxx.yy.zz. 10.5281/zenodo.3955081

Last update: 02 November 2024