Then he turns to a photograph of a rare gem: a thobe with a large triangle of gold embroidery at the base of the front. This, he says, is a thuraya (“Pleiades”) thobe. It is so named, he says, because the appearance of the star cluster in the sky in September marked both the end of summer and, more importantly for the woman wearing the thobe, the end of the pearl-diving season.
A century ago in Bahrain and Kuwait, diving for natural pearls took men to sea for several months each summer. When the pearling ships returned, the crews’ families greeted them on shore, the women and girls wearing their best thobes. According to Saleh, only the wives of the ship’s captains would wear a thuraya style, which was expensive; some even had gold coins sewn onto them.
The sleeves of thobes are extra-wide, in part so they can be draped over one’s head for a quick cover, but also to show off embroidery at the sleeves. Thismufahhah, or striped thobe, is famous in Bahrain.