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For 150 years after 1820, Oman and the littoral sheikhdoms of the Arabian Gulf were known respectively as Trucial Oman and the Trucial States. This reflected the series of agreements beginning in 1820 progressively extending British control of the external policies of the area, leaving domestic and internal affairs in the hands of the traditional rulers. The trucial system was imposed initially to put down piracy by the Qawasim whose depredations on British trade with India reached a climax at the beginning of the nineteenth century. For many years an accepted version, the allegations of piracy have recently been challenged; this thesis seeks to investigate the issue using archive material from the Bombay Presidency and from the Cairo Citadel, material not previously investigated. It is the writer's contention that the traditional justification for British intervention and control of the Gulf, namely piracy, does not take into account the influence of Wahhabism or Anglo-French rivalry dating from the Egyptian campaigns of Napoleon. Thus, the trucial system rested on a more varied and complex origin than has generally been accepted and reflects more pervasive British interests than a simple humanitarian motive.

Thesis advisor: Kathleen Bailey / My thesis will be analyzing the politics of education in the Gulf in order to understand why education performance remains low. The problem extends beyond Islamic culture and rentierism. These are merely factors. The problem of education stems from the government itself in mismanaged bureaucracy and the ruling family that dominates politics. My thesis will be looking closely at Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Qatar. My approach is looking at how the Ministry of Education or other departments responsible for implementing and enforcing education policy and how they function within the state and impact education performance for students. My thesis will cover a number of themes, such as; rentierism, culture (political, traditional, etc.), and other factors that impede education and development. My conclusion is that bureaucratic mismanagement with emphasis on rentier and cultural factors are the cause of generating the mismatch of skills making students ill prepared for the globalized world. The problems of education has differed since the 1960s to the present due to how oil shape politics and development. In addition, rentierism has changed and developed and forcing the Gulf to address more societal needs than previously before. The government is the main cause and will be discussed is how this mismanagement and centralized control over education does not prepare students for the workforce in a technologically advanced world.! / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Islamic Civilization and Societies.

In the context of post-9/11 calls for educational reform in the Arab-Muslim world, this study investigates a set of underlying claims and assumptions about the socialising capacities of English-medium education. Specifically, the study examines perceptions about the socialising effects of English-medium education from the standpoint of Arab-Muslim students at a Gulf Arab university. In assessing these perceptions, the study compares students’ perceptions on two levels: (i) on one level, it looks into students’ perceptions about the socialising effects of English-medium education in direct contrast to those of Arabic-medium education; and (ii) on another level, it contrasts the perceptions of English-medium students with those of Arabic-medium students. The research for this thesis was carried out at an international bilingual Arab university in the United Arab Emirates. Data for the study was gathered from two data collection sources, namely student questionnaires and group interview sessions. In both instances, students’ perceptions were sought on a range of contrastive issues related to a series of underlying claims and assumptions about English-medium and Arabic-medium education. Overall, 365 Arabic-speaking students from both an English-medium and Arabic-medium educational background participated in the study. Within this sample group, students were drawn from four university colleges: College of Engineering, College of Business, College of Law, and College of Shari’a and Islamic Studies. The study’s findings unveil a complex, often mixed and divided picture of students’ perceptions about the socialising roles of both English-medium and Arabic-medium education. In regard to English-medium education, it finds that though there is a general acceptance of the benefits of studying the English-language, there is also to some extent an acknowledgement of the culturally alienating effects on Arab-Muslim students. The study therefore recommends that granted the paucity of research in this area there is a need to further investigate students’ perceptions from a broader range of institutional cultures in the region.

Photoautotrophic organisms have been highlighted as carbon capture and conversion platforms for sustainable production of agricultural and chemicals in KSA. Previously two cyanobacterial strains, Geitlerinema spp. CT7801 and CT7802, were isolated from an industrial brine outfall site in the Eastern Province of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Initial characterization of their growth characteristics showed growth at high temperature (38 ºC) and high salinity ( > 60 PSU), making them potentially good candidates for industrial applications. In this study, quantitative growth assays were performed using standardized methods developed for the analysis of Red Sea photosynthetic microorganisms supported by microscopic observations, optimal growth media preference assays, CO2 concentration effect, photoperiod effect, mixotrophic and heterotrophic growth tests. Data was recorded for absorbance (600 and 750 nm wave lenght), dry cell weight (DCW), colorimetric observations, and chlorophyll a content. Both CT7801 and CT7802 exhibited a clear preference for Walne's Red Sea medium. An analysis on media composition highlights B and Fe as growth enhancers, as well as a base requirement of seawater. Tests on the effect of supplied concentration of CO2 showed that air enhanced with 1 % v/v CO2 allows approximately 2-fold increase in DCW for Geitlerinema spp. CT7802. Photoperiod tests showed that continuous light is disadvantageous for phototrophic growth of Geitlerinema spp. CT7801 and CT7802. Results for mixotrophic and heterotrophic growth of Geitlerinema spp. CT7801 and CT7802 revealed their ability to metabolize glycerol. Analysis on the complete genome of CT7802 identified three key enzymes, glycerol kinase, glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase and triosephosphate isomerase, which may catalyze the glycerol metabolic pathway in the strain. Utilization of glycerol, a residue of the biodiesel industry, might provide a sustainable alternative for growth of Geitlerinema sp. CT7802.

No published studies to date examined the practices in creation or adoption of metadata in cultural heritage institutions or evaluated metadata in bibliographic databases in the Arabian Gulf counties and assessed its potential interoperability in the aggregation that would provide a central point of access to bibliographic databases of cultural heritage institutions. This exploratory study aimed to address this gap with the goal of: (1) developing understanding of the current state of information representation and knowledge organization in cultural heritage collections in Arabian Gulf countries, and (2) exploring perspectives for future developments such as creating regional large-scale portals similar to Digital Public Library of America, Europeana etc. that facilitate discovery by aggregating metadata and possible barriers to these developments.. The study is focused on a Kuwaiti, Qatari, and Omani libraries, museums, and archives. The mixed-methods research combined semi-structured interviews of the bibliographic database managers at 15 cultural heritage institutions and in-depth content analysis of a sample of 412 metadata records that represent items in these bibliographic databases for accuracy, completeness, consistency, use of knowledge organization systems, etc. This study findings make a research contribution important for evaluating the feasibility and planning of future aggregations of cultural heritage bibliographic databases. Results provided insights into possible ways to achieve interoperability in metadata for such digital portals in the Arabian Gulf region.

no / Over recent years a multitude of extensive marine geophysical data sets have been gathered in the Arabian Gulf, chiefly for the purposes of oil and gas exploration. Although such geophysical surveys are primarily targeted towards the mapping of deep subsurface rock formations, the top section of the data can be processed specifically to detail the currently unknown shallow palaeogeomorphology of the Gulf, providing information that would be impossible to collect within archaeological budgets. Using such data to document palaeolandscapes is just one element of a marine mapping programme that can form the basis of a cohesive strategy for managing the archaeological resource in marine areas. Such strategies impact upon education, the accessibility of heritage information to the public, and ultimately the protection of this marine cultural landscape.

The Dilmun civilization appeared in the Mesopotamian sources as a land of Eden and a supplier of ivory, copper, pearls and dates whose boats reached Ur ports. After the collapse of the Akkadian power in the second half of the third millennium BC, Dilmun underwent some notable changes in different aspects of life. The presence of planned residential settlements with notable architectural features and numerous burial complexes and `Royal Mounds' in Bahrain marked great economic growth and socio-political development in the early second millennium BC, suggesting the emergence of a stratified social hierarchy. Furthermore, these changes suggest that a centralized administration existed that controlled this growth through various means. Thus, this inquiry seeks to explore whether the distribution of Barbar wares was one of the mechanisms used to control the economic growth of the Dilmun trade network. Also, this study seeks to explore whether a connection between the presence of non-local wares and far-distance staples in elite contexts on Failaka Island can be used to infer the pronouncement of status, power, and prestige. A non-destructive portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometer (pXRF) was utilized to examine the chemical composition of 304 ceramic sherds and clay samples along with petrographic thin section analysis, as a complementary tool to investigate the mineralogical composition of Dilmun wares and non-local pottery of the first third of the second millennium BC. Based on the seven trace elements (Rb, Ba, Sr, Nb, Y, Z, and Th) obtained from pXRF, the chemical composition of Dilmun pottery was homogenous and was apparently made from a single source and then possibly produced at a centralized location. However, petrographic thin section results showed that Dilmun pottery could be subgrouped based on the clay and temper used as well as the ancient production technique (e.g. firing temperature). The petrographic analysis supported the pXRF sorting of samples into groups, differentiating between Dilmun and Mesopotamian wares and confirming the non-local wares as outlier. The results suggest that Barbar wares were preferred at Dilmun sites while non-local materials were controlled and their presence minimized. While specific craft recipes and standardization of Barbar wares could not be established, the preference for raw materials from Bahrain proper could.

The theory of planned behavior is a great tool for understanding predictors of drug use, specifically marijuana. Although the theory has been applied in the U.S. and European context, research on the predictors of behavioral intention for marijuana use within the Arabian Gulf context is limited. This thesis provides an overview of the theory of planned behavior as used in the U.S. and European context. An argument for the need to better understand predictors of behavioral intentions to use drugs, in the Arabian Gulf Region, prior to developing interventions and preventions is presented. Data was collected from 95 participants between the ages of 18-25 who were from the six GCC countries. Participants had the option to complete the survey in English or in Arabic. Results of the study suggest attitudes are the strongest predictor for behavioral intentions to use marijuana. Knowledge and sensations seeking were not significantly related to behavioral intentions for marijuana use within the current sample.

The propagation of electromagnetic (EM) waves of frequencies above 100MHz is affected by the existence and properties of the atmospheric duct, i.e. a horizontal layer in the lower atmosphere in which radio signals propagate more efficiently. Atmospheric ducts can be found in many parts of the world ocean including the Arabian Gulf. Ambient winds blowing from different directions bring air masses of different properties into the area and hence have a significant impact on the formation and strength of the atmospheric duct. However, little information is available on the long-term and intra-annual variability of wind and its effect on the ducting phenomenon in the Arabian Gulf region. This study addresses this gap by characterising the local meteorology, with a special emphasis on its effect on electromagnetic wave propagation. This study uses a new methodology to measure the persistence of Shamal wind, by considering the number of days associated with the specific wind pattern in addition to commonly used parameters such as the wind speed. In this study, thirty years (1981-2010) of observations and NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data have been analyzed to identify a long-term trend and the intra-annual variability of various wind systems. Results clearly indicate that the Shamal (the northwesterly wind) is the most frequent meteorological feature over the region; therefore it has been investigated in greater detail. The Suhaili (southerly wind) is the second important wind which can occur any time of the year but it is less frequent than the Shamal. The Al-Nashi (cold and dry northeasterly wind) wind occurs only in December, January and February. The analysis shows that the wind strength and the frequency of Shamal days over the region have decreased over the last thirty years. Variations in the occurrence of summer and winter Shamal days were studied in relation to global atmospheric phenomena, and relationships have been established, synoptically and statistically between the frequency of Shamal days and large-scale atmospheric fluctuations. These links include atmospheric fluctuations over the Caspian Sea (a correlation coefficient of 0.66) and Siberia (0.69) in summer and Greenland (0.51) and Western Europe (0.65) in winter. The frequency of winter Shamal days during December, January and February are shown to be statistically related (a correlation coefficient of 0.41) to the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and (0.49) the Arctic Oscillation (AO), as they influence the pathway of the westerly depression over the north Atlantic Ocean during the winter season. It is also shown that the decline in the number of Shamal days is linked to a decrease in the number of westerly depressions. The EM wave propagation has been examined using the Advanced Refraction Effects Prediction System (AREPS) model for different representative air masses. The radiosonde data from Abu Dhabi airport used in AREPS provided evidence of the general influence of each air mass. It was found that atmospheric ducting conditions and characteristics (height, thickness, and type) were variable in the lower part of the atmosphere (surface to 6000m) as a result of changing air masses. The influence of the Shamal conditions develop an elevated duct at approximately 850mb level. The Suhaili increases the thickness of the evaporation duct. In regards to the surface based and elevated duct, Suhaili and Al-Nashi provide standard atmospheric conditions. Land and sea breezes were mostly associated with the surface based duct and sometimes elevated the duct. Atmospheric ducting could extend the range of electromagnetic wave propagation above the usual range. Good knowledge of atmospheric duct characteristics enables the efficient assessment of the range of EM propagation, which is important for a number of practical applications, for example air traffic control and rescue operations. This could include the selection of the appropriate frequency and altitude of the electromagnetic wave device (e.g. radar and/or communication systems) operating with a frequency above 100MHz to be trapped in the duct to cover long distances.