These small, simple pieces of pottery tell a huge story. They are made from clay sourced in Wadi Haqeel in Ras Al Khaimah and echo the culture, 900-years old tradition and industry of pre-oil life in the United Arab Emirates.
The Julfar Potters from Ras al Khaimah produced pots, using this clay for nine centuries. Sadly, the last pots produced using traditional methods and techniques were made in the 1950’s, the last potter died in 1995 and the story of the Julfar Potters is now all but forgotten.1
ANCIENT PEARL OF GULF – JULFAR
Julfar – a name known from historical sources as a settlement of the early Islamic period that became an important fifteenth and sixteenth century trading emporium linked to Hormuz. It was a large urban centre with a dense network of houses and streets. Julfar was considered as a secure anchorage for fleets operating off southeastern Arabia.
Portugal’s Duarte Barbosa, famous for his travel literature, wrote of the pearl trade from Julfar across the Indian Ocean in 1516, describing the port as: a very large place where there are many honourable people and great merchants and navigators who fish for seed pearls and many large pearls which the merchants of Ormuz come to buy.
THE RISE OF JULFAR
Excavations at Julfar have shown that the site developed from a small coastal fishing village in the fourteenth century to a large urban centre by the fifteenth century. The economic developments that lead to the urbanisation of Julfar can be related to the Hormuzi economic boom. At this time Hormuz became one of the wealthiest emporia in the Indian Ocean due to its position on the flourishing trade route that was reaching India and China.
Today I am on the hunt for clay that changed the life of Julfar and made it famous not only for the pearl fishing but also for Julfar ware.
Pottery was not prized like Gulf pearls but clay pots carried water that sustained sailors on dhows across Indian Ocean. Mountain tribes even built large vessels into the foundation of their homes for storage.2
WADI HAQEEL
At first glance 50 or so small stone houses look like any other abandoned mountain village. What makes it different though are thousands of shreds and pieces scattered on the ground.
Wadi Haqeel(25°49’06.6″N 56°02’46.8″E) used to be one of the commercial production centres with at least 20 kilns built of stone and carved into earth that can be seen to this day. The ware kilns are located to the east of Julfar, along the foot of the mountain range, roughly 8 to 10 km north-east of the modern city of Ras al Khaimah.
THE POTTERY OF JULFAR
Julfar ware is a handmade or slow-wheel-made unglazed, coarse earthenware with a dark orange or grey body and a rough, hackly fracture. It has a soft fabric that contains frequent distinctive red, white, and/or black platelets. The body can be plain or decorated with rust-red or purple paint sometimes on top of a whitewash or thin paint. The majority of the forms are cooking pots, while a certain amount of bowls, jugs, and storage jars were also manufactured.3
Hundred of dried-up branches of Al Asbaq tree were needed for five to six hours of baking. The clay was harvested from somewhere in the interior by Bani Shemaili elders, after a hike that took hours. This place’s climate was ideal for pioneering this craft.4
Julfar ware has been reported from a wide area across the western Indian Ocean from sites which include Kilwa, Tanzania, the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Frifelt, Yemen, the southern coast of Iran,and Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates.3
THE STORY IS NOW ALL BUT FORGOTTEN
The town of Ras al-Khaimah had already become the dominant port along this coast by the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century and the references to Julfar in the sources actually refer to the town of Ras Al Khaimah.
The Julfar ware industry, however, survived the changes that put an end to the prosperity of Julfar. Although the exact processes behind these alterations are as yet unclear, it is certain that the industry continued its production until the mid-twentieth century, flexibly altering its production and adapting to new economic environments. Conversely, it was this flexibility and its ability to adapt its products to new demands that enabled the industry to thrive for such a long period of time.3
Would you like to see how Wadi Haqeel looks like in a video?
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1 https://www.f-in-d.com/notebook/introduction-reviving-the-art-of-uae-pottery
3 https://www.jstor.org/stable/43782881?seq=1
4 https://www.thenational.ae/uae/pieces-of-an-ancient-jigsaw-puzzle-1.407030
