Page 179 - Arabian Studies (II)

Development of Culture on the Coast of Oman 171

press, one finds that the majority of extant books of the period were
printed in Cairo. New lines of communication also brought to the
Gulf, with the mail, Cairo daily newspapers and literary magazines,
thus creating a political awareness within the educated groups on the
Trucial Coast. The establishment of a fortnightly maritime service
between Dubai and Bombay in 1902 intensified the influence of
both Cairo and Bombay in the Gulf. In 1924, the desert-route
between Damascus and Baghdad was opened, creating new links
between the Trucial Coast and Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Egypt.
One of the monthly nationalist magazines al-Fath was sent from
Cairo to its subscribers on the Trucial Coast by this desert-route to
Basrah, then by the navigation lines to Dubai.
The third factor was the role which Bombay played at the end of
the nineteenth century in the history of the cultural development of
the Gulf. It was now a large modern city, which, to the Arabs of the
Gulf, reflected European civilisation. Bombay remained the main
centre for medical treatment until the beginning of the Second World
War. Furthermore, it was the chief market for pearls, where all the
rich Arab merchants of the different Gulf states gathered after the
pearling season. Large Arab businesses had established agencies in
Bombay, and a small Arab community had grown up in the city,
among which were the well-known families of al-Bassam, A1 Ibrahim
and al-Qu$aibI. With the co-operation of his Arab colleagues,
Muhammad ‘All Zainal, a wealthy pearl merchant, built an Arab
school there. Arab visitors to Bombay, meeting in the city, quickly
became aware of the political situation in different parts of the Gulf.
It was to Bombay in 1915 that the British banished Talib Pasha
Naqlb from Basrah, as well as ‘Abd al-Wahhab ZayyanI from Bahrain
in 1923. Moreover, the important Arab reformers and writers -
Rashid Rida in 1912, Hafiz Wahbah in 1913, Muhibb al-DIn
al-Khatlb in 1915, Amin al-Raihanl in 1923 and ‘Abd al-‘Aziz
Tha‘alibl, the Tunisian nationalist leader, in 1923 and 1936 - all
spent some time there as guests of the wealthy Arab residents. In
Bombay during this period there was a printing press which
published traditional Arabic books, particularly the Qur‘an and
works of Hadlth, financed by the Nizam of Hyderabad. It was also in
Bombay that Shaykh Mani‘ b. Rashid found the printing facilities to
produce his map of the pearl fisheries of the Gulf.
About 1903 three important schools, the Taimiyyah school in
HIrah, the Ahmadiyyah school in Dubai and the Bin Khalaf school in
Abu Dhabi were established. The Taimiyyah school was financed by
‘All al-Mahmud, a wealthy and philanthropic pearl-merchant in !:
Sharjah, and was mainly concerned with religious teaching. The