The Arab states of the Persian Gulf

The Arab states of the Persian Gulf are made of the kingdoms of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, the sultanate of Oman, the states of Kuwait and Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. These six countries form the members of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf.

It is useful to view the Arab states of the Persian Gulf as a group because they share similar economies and a similar culture.

Economy

The Arab states of the Persian Gulf all have significant revenues from oil and gas and have considerably small local populations. This has raised their respective per capita incomes to higher than those of their neighbours. To meet the labour shortages they host large numbers of temporary non-citizen economic migrants from South Asia and Southeast Asia (mostly the Philippines and Indonesia). In the past there were also significant numbers of immigrants from Jordan (mostly of Palestinian origin) and Egypt.

In addition, pearl diving and the pearl industry was the main economic activity of many of these countries (particularly Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait). The pearling industry collapsed in the 1930s after the development of cultured pearl methods, especially in Japan.

Culture

The Arab states of the Persian Gulf share a regional culture that is sometimes referred to as "khaleeji (gulf) culture". They all speak the Gulf dialect of Arabic and share similar music styles (sawt, fijiri, ardha, liwa etc.), cuisine, dress, etc. Most Arabs living near the Persian Gulf also trace their ancestry back to Arab tribes.

All of the Arab states of the Persian Gulf are hereditary monarchies with little or no political representation. Only Bahrain (Majlis al-Nuwab) and Kuwait (National Assembly) have legislatures with popularly elected members.

Further reading

• Historical Dictionary of the Gulf Arab States
• J. E. Peterson (1998), The Arab Gulf States: Steps Toward Political Participation, ISBN 0-275-92881-0
• Anoushiravan Ehteshami and Steven Wright (2007), Reform in the Middle East Oil Monarchies, ISBN 978-0863723230
• F. Gregory, III Gause (1994), Oil Monarchies: Domestic and Security Challenges in the Arab Gulf States, ISBN 0-87609-151-6
• Atif A. Kubursi (1984), Oil, Industrialization and Development in the Arab Gulf States, ISBN 0-7099-1566-7
• Gordon Robison (1996), Lonely Planet: Arab Gulf States, ISBN 0-86442-390-X

See also

• Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf
• Iran-Arab relations for information on Iran's relations with Arab countries

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