Pearl trade prospered in Hyderabad for centuries under the Qutb Shahis and the Asaf Jahi Nizams. Pearls were known to have been coming into Hyderabad since the time of the Qutb Shahis. Among the many wares brought by the Persians to Hyderabad were dried fruits, dates, dyes, silks, and pearls.
The Nizams became the best clients for pearls, those which were known as Basra pearls. They wore ropes of Basra pearls studded with other precious stones as part of their ceremonial attire and were known to have even crushed these pearls for use in cosmetic creams. In Hyderabad, most royal women wore multiple strings of pearls and were sometimes even weighed against them on their birthdays. Mir Osman Ali Khan, the seventh Nizam of Hyderabad, was known to have stored Basra pearls in humble sacks in the basement of his palaces.
What was it that made the pearl, especially the Basra pearl, such a prized possession in Hyderabad with the Nizams and the nobility?
The Basra pearls poured into the Indian markets from the city of Basra in modern-day Iraq. The Persian Gulf was a great source of pearls and its global trade was a money spinner that went down only with the discovery of oil. Pearls found in the Persian Gulf had the most legendary quality and the city of Basra was a bustling market where the pearl trade was booming. The name that the pearls got was from the trading centre and not because they were found there. The Basra pearls were the pearls that were found in the entire Persian Gulf region—Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, United Arab Emirates, etc.
The main users of the Basra pearls in India—the Princely States of Kashmir or Hyderabad or Gwalior or Mysore or Baroda who passionately wore Basra pearls—probably were not aware from where exactly the pearls that they were buying were coming. ‘Basra pearl’ became a uniform name given to the pearls from the Persian Gulf as a whole. The trading centre of Basra became world famous because of its market, not its ware.
The Basra factory diaries quoted by numerous authors usually listed out the names or communities of merchants that shipped their goods on English vessels. Some records of the cargo lists of ships show that the Jews were foremost in shipping Basra pearls to Surat as Indian merchants from Surat were actively involved in trade with Basra and the Gulf. Vessels owned by Armenian merchants also operated regularly between the Persian Gulf and India carrying Basra pearls. The Jews and Armenians through their business acumen found a legitimate place in Hyderabad’s society.
Thus, under the patronage of Hyderabad’s royalty, pearl merchants from all over flocked to the city to sell their wares making the resplendent Basra pearls a pride in the famed Nizam’s jewels collection. John Zubrzycki in his book The Mysterious Mr Jacob: Diamond Merchant, Magician and Spy says that Mir Osman Ali Khan, the seventh Nizam, designated as the richest man in the world, during the pearl boom period owned Basra pearls the size of a quail’s egg.
Earlier, pearl merchants used to sell the commodity directly to connoisseurs in the stately palaces and havelis of Hyderabad and Secunderabad, later traditional jewellery shops came up in the Charminar market area. Kevin Rushby in his book Chasing the Mountain of Light describes the common sights at these shops of short wooden ladders at the entrances, customers sitting on cushioned floors resting their elbows on bolsters, and shopkeepers sitting in front of them holding great ropes of shimmering pearls from small aluminum suitcases, are part of the nostalgic charm of Hyderabad.
The Nizams’ love for Basra pearls led to a whole industry for sorting, drilling, and polishing pearls in Hyderabad. There were specially trained artisans employed by several leading pearl traders in Hyderabad for surface cleaning of pearls by subjecting them to a treatment to improve their shine.
Drilling and polishing have now become a dying art with drilled, polished, graded, and ready-to-be-sold pearls from China and Japan flooding Hyderabad markets. Thus under the Nizams, Basra pearls became a craze and a trend in many aristocratic households.
The pearl trade that prospered in Hyderabad for centuries under the royal patronage resulted in a big collection still remaining with many a Hyderabadi as family heirlooms which are safely kept and looked after by not allowing even a sprinkle of perfume to touch it for fear of discolouration and using only the traditional technique of cleaning the pearls with fine muslin and a slight swab of sweat.
The writer is Director, H.K.Sherwani Centre for Deccan Studies, Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad