Author: Anna Tamamian

Feb 18 2023

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

Armenia – Sept 17 2022

Sept 16 2022

Sept 16 (Reuters) – The speaker of Armenia's parliament on Friday said he was unhappy with the response of a Russian-led military alliance to Yerevan's request for help in a conflict with Azerbaijan, Interfax news agency reported.

The speaker, Alen Simonyan, also told national television that Armenia expected more tangible steps from Russia, not just statements, Interfax said. Armenia asked the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation to intervene, but so far it has just sent a fact-finding team to the region.

Malaysia – Sept 3 2022

WARFARE is a tough business. However, peace-building efforts around the table of diplomacy are not less tough than waging a war on the battlefield. It is not an idea that belongs to me. But, anyway, it is mostly a verifiable fact.

What is happening between neighbouring Azerbaijan and Armenia in these days after the 44-Day War (2020) is and must be a very educating case study for scholars and diplomats in this framework.

Keeping 20 per cent of territories of Azerbaijan under its military occupation almost 30 years from the beginning of 1990s, Armenia never was willing to develop its peaceful negotiation skills.

Enjoying advantageous of the land-grab and attempting to demonstrate upper-hand position in the diplomatic talks with Azerbaijan and international mediators like co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Armenia's political and military leadership not only consolidated its domestic authority till 2020 but also severely crippled rationality and common-sense of the Armenian people about peaceful coexistence over the course of decades.

When Armenia launched a new wave of military invasion against Azerbaijan on Sept 27, 2020, there was no option for Azerbaijan except to conduct a counterattack to liberate its lands. Following the Trilateral Statement that was brokered by Russia and ended armed clashes, a new phase of talks emerged between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

To avoid wasting time, Azerbaijan immediately declared its commitment to peaceful settlement by initiating massive restoration and reconstruction projects, returning Armenian PoWs and detainees, or facilitating Russian natural gas transportation to Armenia in order to strengthen the establishment of mutually trustful communication with Armenia.

However, Armenia seems to have adopted a revisionist and uncooperative attitude in the post-war period. Political leadership in Armenia has been complicating the initial environment of reconciliation, let alone showing any trust-building gestures. Just a few cases from the last two years speak out per se.

First, Armenia has rejected sharing maps of mines that were massively contaminated in the territories of Azerbaijan before the 44-Day War. This attitude is not only against the spirit of the Trilateral Statement that ended the war, but also keeps causing superfluous injuries and fatal results to civilians.

Another hostile attitude was observed when the illegally settled Armenians left Kalbajar or Lachin districts of Azerbaijan, which were under the occupation of Armenia. According to the numerous international reports, Armenians departing the liberated territories of Azerbaijan burned houses, set fire to forests, and apparently damaged the natural, cultural and historical environment.

Furthermore, a new political-diplomatic attempt by Armenia in the last few months is detrimental as much as the abovementioned provocations to the ongoing peacebuilding efforts. Nowadays, Armenian leadership at its full capacity declares the need to resume talks with Baku within the OSCE Minsk Group, chaired by France, Russia, and the United States, which has been unsuccessful in finding a peaceful solution since its establishment in 1992.

In his speech on April 12 this year, Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev stated that the Minsk Group had been active for 28 years before the Second Karabakh War. The co-chair countries have probably made hundreds of visits to Azerbaijan and Armenia over the years.

The result was zero. The president of Azerbaijan, referring to the Russia-Ukraine War, mentioned that the mandate given to the Minsk Group to resolve the conflict is de jure in force and can already be considered invalid de facto under the current circumstances.

Instead of the Minsk Group, President Aliyev advised that the OSCE could play a role as a credible international organisation, which would be able to host representatives of civil society, the media, and other influential public figures to contribute to the normalisation of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

As can be seen, the expected communication and joint working capability among the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs (France, Russia, and the United States) has deteriorated due to the ongoing armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine. So, the question is: what is Armenia's real agenda in doing so?

Since the Trilateral Statement signed on Nov 10, 2020, Armenia has been lacking in consistency to prove itself as a committed partner in initiating peace negotiations. Of course, the political leadership of Armenia is, in most cases, not able to declare publicly its revisionist attitude towards the obligations of the Trilateral Statement.

Therefore, in order to impede and strike a blow at peace talks or at least to kill time for its real agenda, Armenia seems to exploit the current tense contradictions in the realm of international security.

Another expected political yield for the Armenian leadership to announce the OSCE Minsk Group as a peace coach is domestic. To wit, by summoning the OSCE Minsk Group, the Armenian decision-makers appear to be attempting to shift their own responsibility to an outsider in order to appease hard pressure from Armenian society, which harshly blames the government for its defeat in the war with Azerbaijan.

Armenian leaders must be so watchful as to think that it will not be easy to defend biased arguments on the table of diplomacy in the upcoming period.

Anyway, recent noises in Yerevan about the revival of the OSCE Minsk Group within a fake agenda may not only wear down the problem-solver images of co-chair countries as a side effect, but also may have been supposed to serve as a lifebelt for the Armenian leadership in dealing with the looming bushy problems of domestic and foreign policy.

The writer is Counselor at the Embassy of Azerbaijan

Sept 3 2022

Billionaire Ruben Vardanyan published a video message on his social networks in which he announced the renunciation of Russian citizenship and moving to the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) against the backdrop of aggravation between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Recall that the countries have not yet signed a peace agreement, despite the end of the active phase of the Second Karabakh War in November 2020.

I made a decision, realizing the risks I was taking, to renounce Russian citizenship and move to Artsakh (the self-name of the NKR — Note ed.). This decision was very difficult, but so right. I hope my Russian partners and friends will accept this decision of mine as the decision of their friend.

Vardanyan explained his move with a desire to support local residents. He noted that the conflicting parties must go through “a gradual way to reduce the degree of hatred.” He also expressed gratitude to Russia for the presence of peacekeepers on the territory of the unrecognized republic and appealed to the world community to pay attention to the conflict between Yerevan and Baku.

The news was commented on by former Tatler columnist Yunia Pugacheva in her telegram channel.

Perhaps we are also observing optimization to preserve assets and fortunes, because it is known that Ruben Karlenovich created holder structures not only for himself, but also for a very large group of Russian officials and oligarchs just from the time of Troika. And maybe we're watching the — “the new president of Armenia/prime minister”, since it is obvious that the current political situation in Armenia is unstable and its pro-Russian position is due to the hopelessness of both the geographical position and the material. And, apparently, the Kremlin does not see a reliable comrade in any of the current Armenian politicians. But Ruben Karlenovich — It's another matter, your man.

It is quite obvious that simply going to Artsakh to protect the interests of Armenia did not require at all to give up a Russian passport. Unlike Ukraine, there are no problems with dual citizenship in Armenia. Since it is almost impossible to get out of Russian citizenship (it takes years), it is clear that Vardanyan had support in this matter. (author's spelling and punctuation preserved. — Ed.)

Ruben Vardanyan — Russian billionaire of Armenian origin, one of the founders of the Troika Dialog brokerage company, which was bought by Sberbank in 2011. Forbes estimates his fortune at $1 billion. In 2021, Vardanyan took 116th place in the list of the richest people in Russia according to the publication.