Hesperios Knit Library Artifact

Bahrain

An island nation, Bahrain has a long tradition of ship building. For centuries, shipwrights in Bahrain have been crafting dhows made entirely from wood with “lantern-shaped” sails. The methods of making dhows are often passed down through a family, and some boats are made today using essentially the same techniques that have been used for hundreds of years. Dhows are found across the Arab world and through parts of India. The boats have served a variety of purposes throughout the centuries but in Bahrain they were often used for pearling—an enormous revenue source for the region until the advent of cultured pearls.