Britannica Educational Publishing - Persian Gulf States. Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates

PERSIAN GULF STATES

KUWAIT, QATAR, BAHRAIN, OMAN, AND THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

MIDDLE EAST

REGION IN TRANSITION

KUWAIT, QATAR, BAHRAIN, OMAN, AND THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

EDITED BY LAURA S. ETHEREDGE, ASSOCIATE EDITOR, MIDDLE EAST GEOGRAPHY

Published in 2011 by Britannica Educational Publishing

(a trademark of Encyclopdia Britannica, Inc.)

in association with Rosen Educational Services, LLC

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First Edition

Britannica Educational Publishing

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Laura S. Etheredge: Associate Editor, Middle East Geography

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Introduction by Monique Vescia

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Persian Gulf states: Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates/edited by Laura S. Etheredge. 1st ed.

p. cm. (Middle East: region in transition)

In association with Britannica Educational Publishing, Rosen Educational Services.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-61530-407-3 (eBook)

1. Persian Gulf StatesEncyclopedias. I. Etheredge, Laura.

DS247.A13P48 2011

953.6dc22

2010034558

On the cover (clockwise from top left): The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque at night, near Muscat, Oman; Kuwait city, Kuwait at night; the financial center of Manama, Bahrain; Doha, Qatar, skyline seen from the bay at sunset. Shutterstock.com.

On pages : This map of the Middle East focuses on five of the countries of the Persian GulfKuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates. NIMA. Courtesy of the University of Texas Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin

A man looks on as a vendor weighs out some grain in downtown Kuwait city, Kuwait, in November 2003. Yasser Al-Zayyat/AFP/Getty Images

S ituated between the eastern Arabian Peninsula and southwestern Iran, the Persian Gulf has for centuries served as an important avenue for travel and trade. The five Persian Gulf states that form the subject of this volumeOman, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirateshave distinct histories and characters yet share many fundamental similarities. With the exception of Oman, all five are relatively small, geographically speaking. Here, rich cultures managed to take root and to thrive in arid lands with limited or no sources of fresh water, where daytime temperatures in summer can sometimes reach a scorching 130 F, and where the shaml winds whip the desert sands into dramatic sandstorms. The harsh climate limits the possibilities for large-scale agriculture, so in many cases, food and food products are among the necessities that must be imported.

A shared Arab and Muslim heritage likewise binds the states of the Persian Gulf region. The slender minarets of mosques, silhouetted against the sky, are a common sight in the region, where religion permeates many aspects of daily life. From high in each tower, the call of the muezzin drifts over cities and villages, summoning the faithful to prayer five times a day. Sunni Muslims predominate in all the Arab states of the Persian Gulf region except in Oman, where Ib Muslims are in the majority, and in Bahrain, where Shite Muslims are the largest religious group. The other gulf states have significant populations of Shite Muslims as well.