No matter what you expected, you never guessed this week’s stories.

Theresa kicks things off with the tale of Hazel Scott, the Black musician who seamlessly blended classical and jazz. She was the first Black woman to have her show on national TV in the 1950s.

Angie refuses to be chill with her choice of stories when she shares the story of Rahmah ibn Jabir al-Jalhami, the Persian pirate prince. This man starts his life on land selling horses before a 20-year career in piracy.

This episode pairs well with:

Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Artemisia I of Halicarnassus

Transcript:

Theresa: Hi, and welcome to the Unhinged History Podcast, the podcast for two compulsive net jobs, our Going to Study History memes, and then they’re going to join forces and tell each other the story we’ve only recently learned. I’m host number one. I’m Teresa and that. I’m Angie. Hi. Welcome. And we’re doing this thing where we’re actually trying to record these on TikTok Live. So if you are watching this on TikTok Live, you get to see it well in advance, the uncut, unedited, unabridged version. We’re sorry about your… Shit. 

Angie: I’m just going to say the unabridged version is terrifying now that you say it that way. 

Theresa: I mean, look, you know, I can’t edit your belches out of this one. 

Angie: Well, good thing I burped in the car. 

Theresa: I appreciate your service. This is amazing. What you do for me is so humbling. Honestly, I’m in awe of you and the sacrifices you make for me. I should have looked this up beforehand. Who goes first? I went first last time. Oh, so it’s my turn to go first. Yeah, that’s usually how it works. Okay. Hey, hey, you know what? Things are hard. Okay. All right. So I am going to start and tell you the story… 

Angie: Give me fabulous if I’m wrong. 

Theresa: You know what? I’m sure you’re right. I’m sure you’re right. I’m going to tell you the story of Hazel Scott. Do you know who she is? The name doesn’t ring a bell. 

Angie: I’m excited. 

Theresa: Okay. Here we go. My sources are the National Histories Museum, a biography of Hazel Scott. There’s several podcasts, BDC World Service, Hazel Scott, Jazz Star and Barrier Breaker, the Black List, Hazel Scott, the Hot Class Assist, and the last podcast is History Fix, Episode 26, Hazel Scott, How Little Petty Men Erased a Rare Gem of History. 

Angie: Oh, I already love this. Yeah. I thought you would. Okay. 

Theresa: So our story starts off in the Port of Spain, Trinidad, June 11, 1920, where Hazel Dorothy Scott is born. She is the only child of Thomas Scott, who is a West African scholar from England, and Alma Scott Long. 

Let me go back. Alma Long Scott, a classically trained pianist and saxophonist. Scott displays her challenge for an early age, and by the age of three, Hazel Scott could play the piano by ear. Wow. Okay. 

Angie: Now, apparently- My kids by three were like fluent in sarcasm. I mean, try not to compare here. 

Theresa: No, I mean, at three kiddo convinced us we were done having kids when mid-tantrums she ripped the door frame off the wall. That’s what we had going for us. That feels right. Yeah. 

So that was fun. When this little toddler is getting ready to go to bed, apparently there was a song, her grandma, like a church hymn. Grandma used to sing right before bedtime. And one day this little kiddo just walks up to the piano and fingers it out. 

Oh, that’s so cool. Good for her. Now, this is the crazy thing because mom, the classically trained pianist, she ends up trying to make ends meet by teaching music, right? Okay. So as she’s teaching music, she’s teaching these students, when a music student would hit a wrong note, baby Hazel Scott would cry with displeasure. 

Angie: Ugh, you’re killing it wrong, mama. 

Theresa: And the concept of being shamed by an infant slash toddler is hilarious to me. Yeah. 

Angie: I know the feeling. Right? I sympathize with mom. Yeah. Yeah. 

Theresa: Now, Scott’s parents separated and she moves in with her mom and grandmother to New York City in 1924. So she’s still uber tiny. Scott’s mother begins playing in several all women’s bands to earn a living. Scott and her mother, they are extremely close, which makes me happy. 

Angie: I feel like you have to be when you’ve been shamed by your infant slash toddler. Like you either are the closest pair or we don’t speak now. 

Theresa: Well, okay. So you say that, but I didn’t put this in my notes, but there seem to be maybe some closet resentment that Alma had for her daughter because Alma spends her life learning how to play piano as much as she does. And her daughter just has it happen naturally. And so this is kind of emotionally hard for her. 

Then at some point Alma tries to go out and play professionally, like comes out debuts, but she struggles with horrific wrist pain and has to give up being a concert pianist, which is why we go to music lessons. Right. 

Angie: That makes sense. We still do one without. Yeah. 

Theresa: Without. Yeah. So the fact that Hazel just has this organically has got to maybe chap the heart a little bit. 

Theresa: I can see that. That makes sense. So, but despite that, Alma is Hazel’s single biggest influence in her life. Alma becomes friends with prominent African American musicians, which give Hazel the opportunity to learn from a variety of musical guests such as Art Tatum, Lester Young, and Fats Waller. Okay. So she is in it to win it. 

She’s having a great time. And honestly, I think it is amazing that they did share this musical talent in its background. I think it probably made it easier for Kato to be supportive in this type of environment. Probably. It would be rough if she was a music scholar and daughter was a mathematician. You know, it’s like, look, I don’t understand integers. You’re on your own. 

Angie: But we love irrational numbers. I just love being irrational. 

Theresa: However, we can get it, you know. I’m here. Her mother ends up making like a ton of musical connections. She uses those connections to make it possible for Hazel Scott to audition at Juilliard. Now here’s the thing. And she’d want like six, eight. Oh, okay. She’s eight, but you’re not allowed to audition at Juilliard until you’re 16. 

So unless you’re Hazel. She pulls some massive strings to get this done. Yeah, I love this for her. Okay. Now here’s the crazy thing. She goes on to play Rock Mononoff’s preludency sharp minor, but she’s got these little child-sized hands and she can’t reach the appropriate notes. So to play this song in somewhat of a fashion as opposed to sound, she improvises. And so as she’s improvising the BBC podcast that I mentioned earlier, they summarize this scene fantastically. You have the person who runs the school. He is going down the hallway and he hears somebody improvising. Rock Mononoff? 

Angie: Like what is happening? And so he pushes into the room to be like absolutely not and sees this person half the size that it should be sitting at the keys. And he’s like, oh my gosh, this is genius. 

Theresa: She’s had to overcome this barrier. Look what she’s done. Eight. Look at this accommodation she’s made for herself. This improvisation. This is genius. Literal words. Genius. Love this for her. So she gets into Juilliard. Yes, she do. Her rendition convinces the professor Oscar Wagner so much so that he takes her on as a private student. 

Angie: You know, the last time you talked about someone taking someone on as a private student, it ended in heartbreak. Please tell me this does not end in heartbreak. 

Theresa: Oh yeah, when I talked about our girl the sculptor. Yeah. No, this doesn’t quite go that. She, Juilliard’s fine. Juilliard’s fine. Perfect. We’re not mentioning Juilliard again pretty much. Okay. 

Angie: Okay. All right. Thanks. I’m not over it apparently. Yeah. So the Great Depression hits. 

Theresa: Oh, geez. I know I said heartbreak and everything. I was like, no, no, no, it’s fine. It’s fine. Okay. Life is hard, but our girl is doing pretty good. Okay. All things considered. 

Theresa: By the time she’s a teenager, she’s performing professionally throughout the city. 

Angie: Because right, we got into Juilliard at eight years old. Why wouldn’t we be performing professionally throughout the city by the time we’re a teenager? 

Theresa: I say teenager, but by the time she’s 13, she’s joined her mother’s jazz band. That’s cool. I’m here for it. Now, the name of the band is Alma Long Scotts American Creolins. 

Angie: Please tell me there’s a way that we can listen to some recordings. 

Theresa: I think so. I know when I posted to the podcast, they did sample bits of a lot of her music. Okay. So there’s that. 

Theresa: Because as much as she’s been pushed out of history, we do have a lot of her, which is really cool beans. Now, there’s some evidence that mom’s bandmates weren’t exactly thrilled to have this young teenager with them. 

But these are things. What are you going to do? You know, I mean, 50 after party. Yeah. At 15, Scott made her individual debut opposite Count Bessie’s big band at Rosalind Ballroom in New York City. 

Okay. And that is crazy to me that she is so young and doing all of this. She wins a local competition to host her own radio show. And in 1938, made her way to a Broadway debut in a musical revenue called Sing Out the News. 

Angie: Okay. I’m here for it. Despite this demanding musical career that she has, she graduated high school with honors because she was still going to school full time. Right. 

Angie: I forgot that like you don’t just become a prodigy and still, you still have math class. Yeah. Right. This checks. 

Theresa: So 1939, she starts performing at a place called Cafe Society in Greenwich Village. And that pushes her career to the absolute next level. Okay. Did I mention that Hazel Scott is black? 

Angie: I suspected when she was part of a black band. 

Theresa: You know, hey, that makes sense. Well, good done or good done. Good done. Well done. 

Angie: Good done. I’ll say good done. That’s going to be my new favorite way. Good done. 

Theresa: Cafe Society is New York’s first fully integrated nightclub and it’s the hotspot for jazz. That’s awesome. When singer Billie Holiday ends her standing engagement there three weeks early, she insists that Scott is her replacement. 

That is such a compliment. Isn’t that, mind you, she ends up becoming like Life’s Wand Friends with Billie Holiday, who’s many years her senior. Now, when this run was up, Scott was the darling of Cafe Society and the club’s new headliner. Yeah, she should be. Now, what I love is there are accounts from when she started playing at Cafe Society. She would play before the headliner. She would start playing and then someone at the club would come up and whisper in her ear that, hey, somebody else is playing because she’s playing like whatever pop hit is, you know, the chart top at the time. They’re like, hey, you need to stop playing that. 

That’s so-and-so’s number. They’re going to be playing that in a little bit. So she switched to another song. And oh, no, you can’t play that one either because so-and-so is going to be playing that one here in about an hour and a half. And so finally, she just like forget it. She starts playing classical music but jazzing it up. 

Angie: That’s awesome. I love that. They’re not going to play this. Yeah, they can’t. Like, let’s make jazz hands for Beethoven. Right. 

Theresa: I’m here for it. And so it is incredible. There’s so sidebar. I love Tori Amos. I always have always will. One of the craziest things I’ve ever seen Tori Amos do, and I’ve gotten to see her play live a couple of times. 

And so this has been like amazing to me. But she will straddle a piano bench and have a piano on either side of her. And she’ll play both simultaneously for the same song. Love that. She wasn’t the first one to do that. Well, we’ve got- This is the one. Yeah, Hazel, we’ve got video of Hazel doing this. 

Angie: Oh, that’s so cool that there’s video of it. I love that. 

Theresa: I say that out loud. I’m like, is there a video of it? But there’s at least accounts of her doing it. 

Angie: There’s some short proof. We know she did it. 

Theresa: Yeah, there’s proof. There’s first-hand accounts. There’s primary sources. These things happened. Now, okay. So Hazel Scott’s playing this jazz music or jazzing up these classics, so to speak. And audience find this irresistible. She begins by playing a very familiar classical piece, and then she’s going to improvise. She starts adding these jazzy runs, flourishes to the melody, and she not only put the jazz spin on these classics, but her combination of her classical training and then exposure to these early jazz artists that were in her mother’s house blended with her natural talent, and they just allow her to create these jaw-dropping performances. And the listeners just eat all of it up. 

Angie: Yeah, I’m not even hearing it, and I’m excited. 

Theresa: Did I mention that she was always- or she was also a great singer? I figured. Yeah, I mean, oh, she has what is called a vibrant full-body voice. And she’s a coffee. Pretty much, yeah. She is, you know, a single varietal. I love it. Not a blend. I guess she- which should be a blend as a coffee? I don’t know how to- how to word that, 

Angie: but- When you’re mixing your music together, I think you’re blending. Fair. Also, is it fair of us to say a person’s a coffee? I mean, that was me. I said that, but here we are. 

Theresa: I mean, there’s worse things we’re going to do with our lives. 

Angie: I would like to be- I would like to go down in history. I have like a hot chocolate, so I’m here for it. Okay. 

Theresa: She records this thing called Bach to Boogie, and that breaks sales records. Love this. Which is incredible. So she goes on to appear in several Broadway productions and then moves to Los Angeles and signs with RKO, which, unbeknownst to me, was a major movie studio. Okay. Now, it’s about this time that she comes up against some very racist strictures of Hollywood. 

She turns down the first four roles that are offered to her because they’re all parts for singing maids. Oh, no, thank you. Yeah. She is not thrilled with this concept. Instead, she- She shouldn’t have to be either. Oh, no. 

Yeah. She- this girl controls her own narrative like you wouldn’t believe. I love that. So instead, she appears as herself in five films. That’s awesome. And by herself, I mean this sophisticated woman with incredible music talents. And in the titles, it is Hazel Scott as herself. Yes. 

Angie: Yes. That’s like telling Julia Andrews that she’s not going to be performing as herself today. Yeah, no. 

Theresa: She also demands equal pay to her white counterparts. Yes, she should. And standing up to the studio’s demands brought her career to an end in 45. Yeah. Because they were kind of fed up with it. 

But I will say one of the things that she did do is because she didn’t believe that the costumers were going to supply her with the glamorous gowns that she felt she deserved, she supplied her own wardrobe. 

Angie: I just want to have that much. Hutzpah. Yeah. 

Theresa: I mean, she honestly was like an equivalent of a millionaire at the time. Okay. So at the time she was a thousandaire or so. 

Angie: But whatever the equation is. 

Theresa: Yeah. But she was doing quite well for herself. And so when her career dried up, she kind of didn’t care a whole lot. Because I don’t have to. Yeah. Like I made my point. I did what I came to do. Deuces. Now it wasn’t just in Hollywood that Hazel decides to take her stand for how she feels. She ends up becoming extremely prominent in the civil rights movement. 

Angie: Oh, I hoped that’s where we was going to go because I didn’t feel like she was just standing up to herself, like for herself in Hollywood in that timeframe without walking right into the civil rights. 

Theresa: I mean, this girl just really kind of went for it. One of the things that she goes on to do is she is one of the first performers who refuses to play before segregated audiences. 

Yes. And one thing I love, there is a quote where she said, if white people came to watch a black performer, they should have no problem sitting next to one. Facts. 

Which I just like, oh my gosh. So this is in the 40s and she puts the stipulation in her contract of if you have a segregated audience, I walk and you still pay me. That’s awesome. 

As they should. Ah, now she ends up crediting the courage to be able to do this to her mother and saying that her mother set this example for her as being a very proud and independent woman. That’s awesome. And I am just like this was in the 40s. 

Angie: Listen, I have a real, I have a real like, I don’t know, stereotypical is not the right word, but like when I’m picturing these type of talented people, especially talented women, I don’t see them as docile ever. I see them as being like a powerhouse of a human being. Yeah. Yeah. That’s why I’m here for it. 

Theresa: I mean, honestly, this reading about her was a really cool thing. So it’s 1945 at this point and she is attracting extremely large audiences and she’s earning the equivalent of $1 million a year. Okay. Okay. Now it’s around this time that she returns to New York City from Hollywood and she begins to have this affair with a Harlem preacher who’s also a politician, a dude named Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Okay. 

Now Powell becomes the first African-American elected at Congress from New York. That’s cool. And the two of them get married the following summer and there’s this huge scandal because he may have been married when they first got together. 

Angie: I assumed when you said affair because as soon as you said they got married, I’m like, wait, so was he not married? Look, you said affair. I’m confused now. 

Theresa: Now when they get married, his divorce had finalized only a couple of days prior to that marriage. So the ink was barely dry when they said I do it for our friends and family. Okay. Look, love is love. I mean, these are things. Now they end up having like because this is such a big scandal because they’re both notable humans, this is just like the tea of the time. Okay. Scott goes on to give birth to their son, Adam Clayton Powell III and 46. 

That is such a name. Okay. I mean, anytime you have to do the third, the fourth, you know. It’s a name. Yeah. Yeah. 

I’m here for it. Yeah. It’s not like and I don’t want to belittle him by making fun of his name by calling him like Eddie III or something like that because he’s not a noble. He’s not a noble. Like I feel like you have to undercut the nobles, you know. 

Angie: Yeah. But if you’re just like a human. Yeah. 

Theresa: If not royal. 

Angie: Yeah. Then we’re going to, we’re going to say the third like we mean it. Yeah. 

Theresa: So summer of 1950, Scott makes history as the first black woman to host her own TV show. That’s awesome. Apparently the Hazel Scott show aired for 15 minutes three times a week. And I guess that was standard. 15 minutes. 15 minutes. 

Angie: That seems so short now compared to the fact that like we can binge entire seasons of things in a night. Right. 

Theresa: So the show is the show first airs in New York and then once it catches on, then it goes national. Okay. The craziest part, I didn’t put this in my notes, but in one of the podcasts, they talked about how when syndicated shows were aired in the South, they tended to edit out black people. 

Angie: Oh, because the South, the South had never seen black people before. 

Theresa: This is not it. Not prominently. They seem black people, but they believe they had a very different place. Oh, sorry. Yeah. She ended up blowing past that barrier. Good. Which, holy cow. I loved that, that little aspect of it. 

Now in her show, she plays this mix of the classics, the jazz, the boogie woogie blues, the things that make her, her and earns incredible ratings. Awesome. But the show comes to an abrupt end just within a couple months. 

Angie: I thought we were going to say the show is still airing, but it’s like three generations later, you know. 

Theresa: Yeah. And it’s now called, no. It’s now called Saturday Night Live. Right. No, no, no. She ends up getting named in what was called the Red Channels, which was a pamphlet that listed supposed communist sympathizers. Oh, right. 

Angie: Because we’re now in the 50s. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. 

Theresa: And so because husband is a politician, she ends up pulling some strings and chooses to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee. That’s ballsy. Okay. Yeah. Because for whatever reason, she kind of feels this is going to help her. Okay. Okay. 

You do use this. I mean, she’s facing down the face of a lion thinking that this is going to help. And I was just like, oh, you couldn’t pay me to enter that room. 

Angie: Yeah, no. No, I don’t even want to be in the city. Thank you so much. I’ll stay home. Yeah. 

Theresa: So they accuse her of performing for organizations, communist highs. However, she’d never heard of any of them and said she was unaware of any political affiliation. Like if I perform there, I didn’t go in going, okay, but who, who do you guys all vote for? 

Angie: I’m taking a political survey before I walk through the door. Yeah. Yeah. 

Theresa: She attested that she had supported a communist candidate for New York City Council years earlier, like city council, not mayor, not president, not governor, but city council, like local government. 

Angie: So the guy I yell at to fix the roads. Yeah. 

Theresa: Like that guy. Yeah. Okay. But she’s never been a party member. And despite her statements, despite her testimony, the Hazel Scott show was canceled a week later. So it was all for naught. Bummer. 

Angie: Okay. He said only with for a couple months, right? Yeah. That makes me sad. 

Theresa: Now it’s the mid fifties. Scott and Powell had separated and they were formally divorcing in 1960. Okay. Do they only have the one child? They only have the one kiddo. Okay. And Scott moves to Paris. Oh, shucks. Poor thing, right? Now she joins the black expatriate community there. Okay. Which I adore. And her home becomes this gathering for black musicians and artists. 

Angie: So you’re saying she held salons in her home? 

Theresa: Yeah. As basically did what her mother did. Love this. In Paris. Love this for me. Yep. So as I’m painting all of this, she is also briefly married to a Swiss Italian comedian named Erzio Bedin. 

Angie: At no point did I see the next word coming out of your mouth. You know, honestly, I’m here for you. 

Theresa: That’s what I do. Well done. Yes. And in one of the podcasts, there’s a quote from Scott where she says, basically when you think of Paris, you think of glamour, you think of champagne. But her home was red beans, rice and warm conversation. 

Angie: That’s what I’m about. Let’s do it. Red beans and rice is a weekly staple in this house. 

Theresa: Right? Yeah. And that’s one of the things her son thinks about when he thinks of his mom and growing up. 

Angie: Oh, that’s one of the things I want my sons to think about when they grow up. Like, oh, my mom used to make red beans and rice every week. And it was one of our favorite meals. 

Theresa: And my kids going to say, my mom trolled me and told me all of these lies about how the world works. And I really thought that the tooth fairy was a person made of teeth. Is that what you said? I might have shown her pictures. 

Angie: Can I send her a Venmo for therapy now? 

Theresa: Or like, poor kiddo. 

Angie: Oh, geez. Okay. I have to run that by my oldest. You know? 

Theresa: I’ll send you the photos I sent her. Thanks. Thanks. Appreciate you. Now, it’s 1967. It’s got returns to the U.S. But her fame long gone. Because I should mention, when she moved to Paris, it was basically because like many of the other black artists that we’ve covered, when things dried up here, she skedaddled to Europe. That’s where I would have stayed. 

I mean, yeah, I can’t fault you. But 67, she returns home. Her fame, like she has passed her prime there. The musical scene had moved on from jazz to blues to Motown and British pop. But she’s still performing in these small clubs for her fan base. She makes a couple of recordings. She stars in a couple or takes small roles, not stars, in some soap operas. And then she passes away of pancreatic cancer October 2nd in 1981, just two months after her final performance. 

Angie: I think this is the first pancreatic cancer death we’ve had. It’s a weird thing to note. Yeah. Yeah, now that you mention it. I died screaming or in my sleep. 

Theresa: I mean, Eartha Kitt died screaming. I think that one was the crazy, like, holy cow. But I will show you some photos. Yeah. Yes, please. Okay. I’d love to see some photos. 

Angie: Oh, girl, she is stunning. Yeah. Okay. So for those playing at home, Teresa is showing me a black and white photo of her at the piano. She’s got, like, the real short cropped hair and this blouse with these hibiscus, big hibiscus flowers on it. And she has the most charming smile I have yet to see. 

Like, we’ve seen some charming smiles, but hers is winning. Yes. She was, I’m wondering if she was singing when that photo was taken. It looks like, and I love that. 

Theresa: You know, and I don’t know if she’s actually playing because I don’t see any of the keys depressed. I think it was just posing. 

Angie: Maybe, yeah. Yeah. And then get a little closer. I can see that there’s really nothing touching on there. She is gorgeous. Yeah. You guys, you all need to Google her right now. Hazel Scott. 

Theresa: Google her. Like, I’m not, I’m not doing a great job describing her because I’m just kind of fangirling over here. I love. Incredible eyebrows. Perfect keys. 

Angie: Maybe her eyebrows are made by Maybelline. 

Theresa: Like, she is the reason that phrase exists. That photo, the middle, the middle, middle one down in the second row. It’s like a glamour shot. Yep. Yes. 

Theresa: It is the quintessentials 50s photo. Pearl necklace. Yeah. Pearl necklace. You’ve got this strapless gown. So those exposed shoulders. These fantastic pearl earrings. Like, incredible. 

Angie: Oh, and you just know her lipstick was vibing. 

Theresa: That’s got to be such a good color on her. It has got to be the quintessential red. I’m thinking it has to be. Yeah. Oh. 

Angie: Thanks. I’m going to have to go find some for music now. You think Amazon will do me a solid? I mean, maybe. YouTube. YouTube hasn’t let me down yet. So that one time. There’s still a chance. 

Theresa: Don’t ruin it for YouTube. 

Angie: Jesus. Thank you for that. I loved that. Oh my goodness. I have no idea how I’m gonna tell you my story now because yours is so good. 

Theresa: How do I do this to you so regularly? But every time I go first I hear, I don’t know how to segue. 

Angie: Yeah, because listen, every time you go first my matching story does not match. At all. It doesn’t have to match. It’s very hard. I know, but like it’s just flowing like a river to a hard left turn at the dam. Okay, we’re just gonna go. Are you ready? Always. Sure. 

Okay. Weird enough, my first source is Christie’s, the auction house. So, there’s that. The auction house. Okay. Yeah, the auction house. 

You’ll see why later. There is a great article put together and written by Nicholas P. Roberts from CambridgeCore.org. It’s called a tolerated terror, Ramah Jabin Jabbar and the age of revolutions in the Gulf, 1760 to 1830. Okay, do you remember the other day when I texted you and said something to the effect of you remember when you had that really long source name for a book and it probably should be workshopped? Oh yeah. Yeah. I’ve got you beat. Can I please tell you the name of my next source? 

Please. It was published in 1829. It’s by a man called James S. Buckingham and it is called, travels in Asia, Medea and Persia, including a journey from Baghdad by Mount Zagros to Hamden, the ancient Echitebanon, researchers in Ismin and the ruins of Parisophiles, and journey from thence by Shiraz and Shapur to the seashore, description of Boussara, Bouchar, Bahrain, Umaraz and Muscat. 

Narrative of an expedition against the pirates of the Persian Gulf with illustrations of the voyage of near chests and passage by the Arabian Sea to Bombay. There’s like 70 words. That’s literally an abstract. That was the title of the book. 

And I know this because I found the actual book. I have spent days like with my head in books written in the 18th century to understand what the heck I’m talking about. Uh, something said, massive shout out to the Internet Archives and the Kutar Digital Library because they have digitized so much information. And so I had the pleasure of like digitally scanning through these books that were written three centuries ago. And that’s like super fun for me. 

That might not be fun for everybody else, but it’s super fun for me. Um, so a couple of my other sources are selections from the records of the Bombay government from that time frame. And then there’s the Gazette here of the Persian Gulf of volume one, the historical parts one A and part B from the Longmore or excuse me, Wormire that was written in 1915. And then there is a really fun little write up by Sir Charles Dariple Belgrade called the pirate coast. This book was published in 1966, but it was written much earlier. I think it was like a compilated into a sort of journal in 1966. Um, so that being said, most of what I know about my story comes from British sources, predominantly the records of the East India Company. 

Um, and I part of the reason that I chose the story was the original source that my husband sent me, but mostly because it’s another one of those stories where we get only one side of the story. We only get the English perspective. We only get the British perspective of what this individual was like in history. And so there are moments where it’s very unfair and very problematic, but also it’s, it’s an interesting lens to look through the world from, I think. One of the fun things about it is most of my sources are contemporaries of this individual, like James Silk Buckingham. He also had quite the life and had the privilege of like sitting in the same room with this gentleman. 

Um, I don’t know that he would call himself a gentleman, but so all that to say, I’m just going to, I’m just going to get started. So we are talking about the Arabian Peninsula in a period of what historians call immense transformation. And some historians even refer to it as the age of revolution. There’s a lot going on in the Arabian Peninsula between, um, like familial power and like rising states and government officials and who’s holding power where the British are also setting up shop at the time. 

So there’s this power dynamic that’s always in flux and always in motion. So this is the world that a little boy is born into in 1760. He’s born in grain, which is present day Kuwait. And he would live the entirety of his life at sea for the most part. 

I mean, obviously he came into port, but he spent more time on the water than he did off the water. Um, his name is Rama Ibn Jabbar al-Jahami. So for some context, his family are part of the al-Uteb confederation along with the Akhilife and the al-Suban families. And, um, so basically this confeder, this confederation of families, they leave their original region, which was in present day Saudi Arabia sometime in the late 16th century. And then they work their way across and settle the coast of what is today like present day Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar. Um, so like these things today, what we know to be like Qatar is like one of the richest areas in the world, right? 

Right. Um, I think a lot of that has to do with what’s happening in the world in the 1700s, like the way they, they set things up, the way they ran things, the way they operated transnational trade and just how alive being a merchant was at the time for them. So even though they had come from the interior of Arabia, the sea was super integral to their lifestyle. The, basically the sea shapes the economy of Arabia, excuse me, Arabia at the time. Um, it’s working to connect the, um, the Arabian area to East Africa and South Asia. And they’re doing this through both the Gulf and the Red Sea. So these families are controlling like huge trading lanes, right? Like so you can imagine that there’s not a lot of peace in his childhood, not a lot of just playing checkers out back because there’s turf wars and there’s infighting and there’s a lot of behind the scenes, uh, could have been in the room where it happened type deals taking place. Um, but basically as soon as his people arrive on the coast, they acquire ships and they take to the sea like a fish takes to water. 

By the time Rama is born, his family had made themselves over into seafarers and fishermen. And there’s this like interconnectedness between the land and the sea that they’re really working well for this network of trade. Quote, I’d like, I just, uh, I just can’t get over how cool this, this region of the world is at the time. So they’re working in this vast economic field and they’re also part of this confederation of families that I had mentioned earlier, right? Well, like what’s the one thing we know about humans? 

Theresa: I say, I don’t know what you want me to say here. I have no idea. 

Angie: The rest of them, they’re always going to fight with each other, right? Oh, yeah. Always going to be upheaval. And, and in this case, there’s a reason it’s called the age of revolution. In 1766, Rama’s only six years old, his father Jabbar bin Adabi, he leaves their tribe from Kuwait to Sabara in Qatar and they’re migrating along this path with, um, alongside another family called the Akhlife. And this is another powerful family of this confederation, but they basically have a falling out because the Klife aren’t, according to Rama’s family, they’re not sharing enough of the economic gain they’re making from their trade ventures. Like they’re all doing the work together, but the Klife are not sharing fairly or so that his family think. 

So, um, they have a falling out and this seems to happen more often than not. However, later in his life, his men would fight alongside them in 1783. He’d battle against the Persians in Bahrain because Rama has a beef with Bahrain from the get go. And it’s, I’m a little unclear on if it was directly or always tied to the Akhlife, but he spends the bulk of his life trying to be the biggest menace to Bahrain as he can. So, after they get annexed, the Bahrain region, by the Akhlife, Rama’s tribe again feeling like they’re not being equally paid leaves. Now, this part is where it gets a little confusing on his life story, but at some point in his younger life, he, um, he fights for power and overthrows his brother Abdullah. And then him and his men, they adopt a wife of piracy because 

Theresa: not the, not the Caliph, but our main character. 

Angie: Yes, Rama and his men. So the Klife, they, um, they’re sort of running the merchant side of things. And Rama and his men decide we’re just going to run the piracy side of things. 

Theresa: I mean, honestly, I kind of like that concept, right? 

Angie: Like we got this. Now, at this point, what’s so shortly before this, I think Rama might have been a little older than 15 when he took over the reins from his brother. But when he was, yeah, when he was 15 is when the British sort of set up shop. So he’s operating in this, like I said, this really dynamic, ever changing power structure between the tribes, between the King of Persia, between the British and the Omani state. Like there’s all, there’s a lot going on. And, um, our guy has no qualms swapping, swapping, swapping sides, swipping sides, swipping, swipping foods. Yes. When, when he sees fit. 

Okay. So initially starting out though, he actually begun his career raising and selling horses. Because remember they are seafarers, but their trade routes are connected via land and sea. So horses are a big deal. 

Theresa: I can’t seafaring horses is I think where we’ve gotten me lost. 

Angie: So he’s putting the horses on the sea. He starts out for himself selling and trading horses for the land aspect of trade. So his father and his father’s family, their semen, their merchants, they, they make a living on the sea. He starts out as a young man working his way up selling horses on land. Okay. 

Theresa: So hear me and correct my understanding here. So we have this guy, my father was a fisherman, his father was a fisherman. I’m going to raise horses on land. Yeah. 

Angie: All right. I’m assuming there’s, I’m assuming there’s nuance here. I don’t know a ton about his father. In fact, I don’t, I couldn’t find really any information about his family life, which was kind of sad because I know he had at least two sons, but I can’t name his wife. 

I couldn’t find any contemporary sources or even any later sources that had that information. So I’m assuming there’s nuance here that maybe like second son does something else, you know, like in the, in the western culture, the first son takes the seat. The second son joins the military. The third son joins the priesthood sort of thing. 

Theresa: You know, strangely, I was trying to come up with work monastery. So yeah. Yeah. 

Angie: I don’t know if it’s something like that, but that’s kind of the feeling that I got. But anyway, all that to say he’s buying and selling and trading horses. And he uses this wealth from that he’s gained from horse trading to invest in a ship. And he convinces 12 other guys to join him in plundering the Gulf shipping lanes. They’re so successful that he is quickly able to get a 300 ton warship manned by several hundred loyalists. They’re loyal to him. Okay. 

Theresa: In fact, several hundred crude ship. What year is this? 

Angie: It’s 17 before 1780. Oh, okay. He was born in 1760. So at the golden age of piracy for what? Right. I’d never heard of our dude. I know. Neither had I. So imagine my delight when my husband was like, have you heard of this guy? 

I was like, oh, this is so exciting. So Buckingham, the man I mentioned earlier that wrote the book that has like 75 words in the title. He meets him in Boucher and like at the height of his career. By this point, Rama, he commands dozens of similar ships and he has a coalition of more than 500 families that are working for him. 

Right. So there’s a couple of reasons why this is so successful. One of them is that he isn’t held down by any one political alliance. 

Like this works well for him. And the other is that even though he claims friendship with the British, the British can’t really tell his ship apart from anyone else’s when he’s not pirating. So he’s got that going for him. Like they don’t know what to do with him because they can’t tell him apart from anybody else. 

And he’s like that both on land and in sea. When he like later, I’ll describe him. What Buckingham describes him as. He walks around like not the shiny pirate you would think he’s just an average guy. 

Maybe even a little in need of a new shirt type average guy. Okay. So when Buckingham arrives in the port, he describes our man at the port as quote, there are anchorage births for native boats behind some small islands to the northeast extremity of the inner harbor or in the deepest part of the bite, which forms, which it forms. But there was at present occupied by the fleet of a certain Arab named Rama Ben Jabbar, who has been for more than 20 years, the terror of the golf and was successful. 

And the most generally tolerated pirate perhaps that ever infested any sea. He goes on. This man is by birth a native of grain on the opposite coast and nephew of the present governor or sheik of that place. Buckingham goes on to say that basically Rama is living in this town and this port because the people on his own coast of like they aboard piracy, like that’s not their jam. 

So they haven’t been particularly kind to him in his men. So he’s like, fine, juice is all just go over here. And from the port of Bushire, he sails out with like five or six of his big ships and they’re manned by crews of anywhere from two to 300 each and they capture whatever he wants. Buckingham says quote, captures whatever he may think himself strong enough to carry off as a prize. The vessels of grain of Bushra of Bahrain of Muscat and even of Bushire where he resides, falling equally as prey to him. And I just love that. Like I am here to take you all equally, even in my own port. Love this for me. 

Thank you so much. Now at this point, he’s got about 2000 followers and they are all maintained by plunder. So that’s how rich the area is. 

Right. Among these men are slaves that he has acquired from Africa. And so that’s kind of problematic, but they, both the slaves and the other men alike, answer to him without question. Like, yes, sir, how do you want me to jump, sir? 

No problem. And they have to deal with his mood swings. He was just as soon kill his own men as his enemies. And he wouldn’t play his enemies just in battle, but also in cold blood after they submitted. Like no qualms, which I find funny because evidently Rafa means mercy. He showed none. 

Theresa: Which out of those ironic names. 

Angie: Yeah, very ironic, right? So, um, Buckingham talks about an interest, an incident that he knew of where upon hearing whispers of mutiny, Rama took a good number of his crew and put them into the tanks they kept on board for water, sealed them shut, let them suffocate and then threw them overboard. 

So we don’t mutiny, not on his ship. At this point, Buckingham himself has taken quite the interest in Rama and even describes him in great detail. He says that when he goes out like into the marketplace, he is indistinguishable from any of his men. Quote, he carries the simplicity to a degree of filthiness, which is disgusting. 

As his usual dress is a shirt, which is never taken off to be washed from the time it is first put on till it is worn out. No drawers or coverings for the legs of any kind and a large black goat’s hair quote, quote, wrapped all over with a greasy and dirty handkerchief called a kefe loosely thrown over his head. He later says of Ramaha that his figure, quote, presented a meager trunk with four length members, all of them cut and hacked and pierced with wounds of sabers, spears and bullets in every part to the number, perhaps of more than 20 different wounds. He had besides a face naturally ferocious and ugly and now rendered still, still more so by several scars there and by the loss of one eye. Oh, barring the fact that this is a real problematic way to describe a person. 

And Buckingham was no kind during describing Rama’s men. We do know that he is the first pirate documented to having actually worn an eye patch. Okay, now that’s a cool thing. 

That’s fun, right? What’s interesting to me is that at the same time as this description, he goes on to tell us that he is like completely cherished and he’s courted by the people of Bushire and he is respectfully entertained by the British like at all times. So he tells a story about one time while Buckingham was present, Rama Rama was sent for by the British specifically because they want to let their medical staff attend to a really gnarly wound that he was currently rocking. Trust me when I tell you if I don’t describe it, you will be so mad. 

I guarantee you’re going to be mad. So basically the wound is caused by grave shot and splinters and in turn, shatters and splinters the arm between his elbow and his shoulder. Oh, they said his arm was like one mass of blood for several days and they couldn’t figure out how he was still alive. Like his arm was attached to the shoulder via like the sinew and the tendons and the muscle fragments. 

Quote without the least visage of a bone. That was thorough. That was thorough. Right. 

That was thorough. They’re sort of amazed because he recovers without like it’s obviously gradually, but he recovers without any surgical aid. At one point, another source says that later he adds some sort of metal pipe fitted between the two joints. 

Theresa: Is he where we get basically all of the pirate stereotypes? I mean, are you saying he’s going to have a hook? I mean, he’s already got an eye patch. 

Angie: He has both his hands and he has both his feet, but he definitely gets the eye patch and his arm is gnarly. Okay, but he’s just thinking about metal? Yeah, he has a piece fitted from the elbow to the shoulder at some point in his life. 

But it doesn’t seem to like hinder his abilities and I’ll tell you why. So at this meeting when he’s asked to like come in and show them his arm, one of the other Englishmen that’s there asks if he is still capable of dispatching an enemy. Hroma draws his Jumbia, which is the short curved blade or dagger. He draws it from his girdle places his left hand, which is the good one, to support the elbow of the right one, which is the bad one. 

He then grasps the dagger firmly draws it backwards and forwards twirling it at the same time, all while saying quote that he desired nothing better than to have the cutting of as many throats as he could effectively open with his lame hand. So perfectly chill, right? The room goes silent for like a split second before it completely erupts in laughter. Like I think it’s got to be that really uncomfortable laugh on the half of the English and his men are with him and they’re laughing because they know it’s true. 

Like when I was retelling this part of the story to the man, he was like from the English perspective, I’m 100% oh I love this for us. Yeah, oh yeah, we could use this. Fantastic. So it’s a jolly good, jolly good. 

Good show man, good show. If it wasn’t really clear before, as I said, he had a complicated relationship with just about everyone, but everyone in the region sees how important he is to trade and political power. And even though he’s known to hold no real allegiance for any length of time, other than maybe with the Persian king, in fact, I don’t really have this in my notes, but there’s this one really delightful story where a Persian vessel sailing under the command of a British officer, so by proxy it’s now sailing under the British flag, it sees Rama and he sails towards the other ship. The British officer orders his crew to fire upon Rama’s ship, but because he saw the British flag, he doesn’t return fire because he is nothing if not discerning and he never picks on the British. The British miss and the ships come right up next to each other. Much to the British officer’s surprise, Rama comes up to the deck, invites him over and introduces the officer to a senior deputy of the Persian governor of Burshire that Rama was escorting home. So Rama knows that Burshire was also home to the British, like that’s where their residence he was. 

And in the presence of the Persian deputy, he claims the British, excuse me, he calls the British officer saying he would not attack any British vessel since they quote were only to be considered as servants of the king of Persia. 

Theresa: Wow. You just know that had to check their hide. You just know it. That was such a baller diplomatic move though. 

Angie: Right. Everything this man did, everything this man did was a baller diplomatic move. He would make and break alliances often. And as I said earlier, like it for the most part works great for him, but it would finally catch up to him in October of 1826. He launches a raid on a vessel owned by the Oculife rulers that dives from the very beginning that they had a falling out with and the whole reason like he kept attacking Bahrain. So he launches a raid on their vessel. And upon discovering the stolen goods, she a man been Solomon Oculife, who incidentally was Rama’s nephew, because his sister hurt his sister’s the sheik’s mother. 

So we know the family family Thanksgiving are super awkward. He decides to recover the items and intercept Rama at sea. By this point, he runs like 60. And he’s pretty much going blind from cataracts. But he sees the sales and he knows they belong to his nephew. The nephew and his crew board Rama ship and a sword fight breaks out. Realizing he’s screwed. He has a servant lead him below deck. And he either takes a match or the light from his own hookah and lights a magazine blowing his ship and everyone on it, including his eight year old son to smithereens. Holy cow. 

Yeah. And the reason he does this is because he has been so merciless in his attack and his battles with Bahrain that he knows. If I’m captured or toast or done. So I’m gonna I’m gonna just I’m just gonna opt out. I’m gonna opt out for my whole crew to like they don’t have a choice. 

I’m gonna make it easy for everybody. The enemy vessel catches fire, which in turn blows up, but it’s commander and crew. They’re mostly saved. And this little bit is from the selections of the records of the Bombay government. And they say quote, thus ended Rahma Ben Jabbar for so many years, the scourge and terror of this part of the world and his death was felt as a blessing in every part of the Gulf equally ferocious and determined in all situations, the closing scene of his existence displayed the same stern and indomitable spirit which had characterized him all his life. So that’s the story about the pirate prince of Persia. Holy cow. I do have a picture because that’s where Christie’s comes in. 

Theresa: Okay, that makes more sense. So carry on. Show me the photo. 

Angie: At first I was like, I’m only finding artwork about this guy. There’s got to be some sources elsewhere, right? So let me share my screen and you can see how this is clearly before he loses the eye. Okay, so it is, it looks like a sketch. 

Theresa: So I primarily black with a red head covering. I think the head covering is the Kephia. It’s not patterned, but it is a man with a pretty decent beard, pretty salt and peppery and some ferocious eyebrow furrows. 

Angie: Yeah, he’s got the real furrows going, doesn’t he? Wow. Yep, I love it. 

Theresa: What an incredible story. You didn’t thank the man. He didn’t send that story to me to cover, so you still have that going for you. 

Angie: No, because he sent me this a long time ago and he has been waiting on pins and needles for me to tell you this story, but I told him I had to get through women’s history first. This doesn’t really feature a lot of women, you know? 

Theresa: No, didn’t think fair. I mean, you might have mentioned his mother once, so yeah. 

Angie: Yeah, it was his sister. His sister was his nephew’s mother. That’s right, obviously. Yeah, so that’s my story. Well, I love all of this. 

Theresa: If you’ve enjoyed this, if you’re thinking a hot diggity, I can’t wait to hear the shenanigans they bring us next time from jazz musicians to Arabian pirates. Join us next week. Were you going to say something? No, I was kidding. I just changed my mind. 

Angie: All right, well, hey, change your mind. Great review. Subscribe. And you can always email us. We’re down for a good email. It’s unhinged.historypod@gmail.com. And we’ll catch you next time. Goodbye. Bye.