Royal Wedding

Some things just weren’t meant to be photographed. I went to a royal wedding celebration last night. The crown prince, Tamim, has gotten married, and there have been three days of celebrations. Each tribe erects its own tent out near Rayyan, the Bedouin suburb where the old royal residence used to be. I counted about twenty tents or so. Each one is enormous, the largest being close to an acre in size. The ground is completely covered in carpet, along with an equal area outdoors in front of the tent. The edges of the carpet are ringed with a solid line of upholstered chairs.

The first encampment we visited had a bonfire going near the entrance to the camp. The Qataris seem to freeze below 75 degrees fahrenheit, so many folks were clustered around the fire. There were many enormous incense burners near the entrance. You could get smudged with oud or frankincense as you entered. Once inside, greetings are exchanged, tea is served and people mingle or take a seat. This event is men only, and boys age five and older or so. Each camp has about 300 people in attendance, on the average, though a few had many more. The most senior sheikhs all sit in the most ornate chairs near the head of the circle.

As some time passes, the wedding dances begin. In Qatar there is plenty of dancing, but it is strictly ceremonial and men and women never dance together. The dance begins with a drum circle. Roughly a dozen guys with large frame drums start a beat, and two lines form facing each other, with the drummers in the center. Each line has about 20 men, and they begin to chant. They start a simple step, forward and back, side to side and they mirror the opposite line. A call and response sort of chant starts… similar to something you might find in Africa.

After this gets going, the rest of the men enter and start to circle the drummers in a slow, shuffling step. They draw their swords (swords or daggers are worn for this occasion) and wave them in the air and chant. Some have antique rifles, and these are held aloft as well. The circling goes on for a long time, and the energy builds, the shuffling and waving grows more intense, and people start to ululate. I hate to draw comparisons to other cultures, but anyone who has been to a Native American pow-wow has seen something pretty similar to what I am describing.

There are many variations on this dance, but they all more or less follow this cycle. The dances continue on and off for hours. The men all wear tradition costume for this event, with some accessories rarely seen otherwise. Many wear ammunition belts, in addition to sword and scabbard. Several carry antique rifles, and a few carry revolvers in holsters. I saw no modern firearms, the “newest” rifle was a WWII era bolt action piece. Some of the handguns looked like they could be more recent, but none were semi-automatic. I saw one guy with what looked like 7.62 mm rounds in his belt (Kalashnikov) but he had no weapon. Other guys carried long spears. The weapons represent the whole macho tribal warrior thing, but despite all the hollering and waving of weapons, it was all pretty tame. No one ever shoots into the air at these events (illegal), and I handled some of the swords…most are strictly ceremonial… no sharpened blade. You couldn’t cut butter with them things.

The legality of gun ownership is, like many things in Qatar, somewhat ambiguous. Officially, guns may not be purchased, and carrying them is prohibited. In practice, the government understands the role of gun ownership in the Qatari psyche, and actually doesn’t mind if citizens own guns and use them responsibly. There is a gray market for guns, and no enforcement of the gun laws typically ensues unless there is some breach of protocol. The fact that guns are illegal allows selective enforcement of the law to occur if problems develop. For the most part, gun ownership is allowed provided that the owner is a Qatari citizen of good standing, and provided that he doesn’t wave the thing around recklessly (except at weddings).

Prayers are done in the tent, and after the last prayer of the evening, dinner is served. In traditional Qatari fashion, the meal is brought out on huge multi-handled serving trays. These things are more than a meter in diameter and are carried by four or more men. They are stacked high with a huge mountain of spiced rice and vegetables, topped by half a sheep. About ten of these trays are placed on the floor at strategic locations. The men cluster around the trays, kneeling, and literally dig right in. Food is traditionally eaten with the hands in Qatar, rice, gravy, mashed potatoes…. anything. Meat is picked from the carcass by hand, and if a particularly good piece is liberated, it’s good form to toss it to someone else. Only about a dozen guys can fit around each tray, so people eat in shifts. It’s a sign of respect to be invited to eat first. The most senior guys and the youngest boys generally get first crack at the food, and as each person finishes, someone else takes his place at the tray. By the time you get your fill, most of the faces in the circle have changed. The younger, unmarried men go last among the Qataris, and the hired help eats after them.

I saw no foreigners at this event, with the exception of some Afghanis and Pakistanis who handled the food, and they didn’t really participate, but rather stood off to the side until it was time for them to do something. Tea was poured by Qataris. Each tribe had its own camp, but the activities were the same from tribe to tribe. After dinner we visited some of the other tents, and I noted no particular differences. Each tribe pays homage to the royal family by having this celebration for three days. The royal family has it’s own celebration during this time, but the crown prince visits the camp of each tribe at some point during the event.

Very few people attend the actual ceremony of a Qatari wedding… any Qatari wedding. The vows are private. There is a marriage contract that is agreed upon, enumerating the rights and responsibilities of each party. A dowry is given to the bride by the groom, and a major part of this is traditional wedding jewelry. A draping crown of gold, and golden chains covering hands, feet and chest are typical. The gold is 22k and quite soft, so it’s only worn on rare occasions. Rings, necklaces, earrings etc complete the set. A bride from a moderately well to do family might receive a kilo or so of gold for her dowry, as well as gems. A wealthy or royal bride receives much more. The dowry may include other things as well, land, a house, cash, anything really. The purpose of the dowry is that it is something of value which remains in the woman’s name alone, and may be sold to help support her in the event of her husband’s death or divorce.

Only the women get to see the bridal jewelry or even the bride for that matter, as all Qatari weddings are strictly segregated by gender. At those times when men and women are together, like when people are arriving and leaving, the women all wear abayas (long black gowns) and niqab, a veil over the face. Very conservative women may wear glasses and gloves as well. Each gender quickly congregates in their appointed place. The men’s wedding gatherings are outdoors, and proceed as described above. The women gather indoors, at someone’s home. Once safe from the eyes of men, the abayas and veils come off. I am told that Qatari women dress very ornately. The fabrics and designs are incredibly intricate. Much jewelry is also worn at these formal events. I have seen women’s dresses in the shops, and they are quite elaborate. Women have their own dances and music, but I will probably never see them.

I didn’t see Prince Tamim at the wedding party. He had already passed through when we arrived, but I have seen him before. In a country this small it’s kind of hard not to sooner or later. Qatar only has 150,000 citizens, and half of them are minors. I wasn’t able to photograph anything at the wedding. As the only foreign guest in attendance, it would have been an awkward retort to the hospitality I received. There are many photos around of this type of Qatari dancing, but most have been taken at various folklore type festivals. This was the real deal, and I didn’t want to embarrass anyone.

Something else that was really great about the wedding was the fact that so many of the elderly Qataris were there. These guys are real national treasures. The Qatari economy used to be based upon fishing, pearling, and herding livestock, in that order. The only significant crop they had was dates. A typical settlement was a few mudbrick buildings surrounding a well or spring, a few fishing dhows, and a bunch of date palms. In the mid 1930’s the pearling business more or less collapsed due to the advent of cultured pearls. After that, Qatar was a severely impoverished backwater, people had a real hand to mouth existence. There was a lag of only a few years between the collapse of the pearl market and the discovery of oil, but because the oil couldn’t be developed right away (World War II) the poverty lasted for more than a couple of decades. These guys experienced all of that. They are very close to their traditions, and very much men of the desert. Many didn’t know what an apple was until they were well into adulthood.