Traditional Wooden Door

Doors from India and East Africa demonstrate the long-distance trade connections at the height of the pearl trade in the early 20th century. This large simple door is said to be from Lamu in East Africa. It was installed in the Bu Jadoom House in Doha, which was a large and well-appointed residence built in the 1920s or 1930s. It has a smaller door within it, or wicket gate, known in Arabic as al khokha, which would have been used as the entrance for family and visitors. It is so small that those entering would have had to crouch to enter, forcing them to look down and thus helping to preserve the privacy of the house’s residents. Therefore, this example is useful to illustrate transition from public to private architectural spaces. Remarkably, the horizontal support bars on the inside contain the remains of marine wood-boring shells, showing that these elements had been salvaged from a ship.