The Pearl of Allah

It is known by different names, and it is the subject of different legends.  All are fascinating.  None of them may be true.  All of them may be true.  Either way, the fact remains that there exists a 14.1 lb pearl, and that it looks a little like a brain, a little like a turbaned head, and very little like an enormous pearl.

The pearls we normally think about – the ones used in jewelry – are iridescent and kind of shiny.  They come from oysters and mussels, and are called nacreous pearls.  Pearls that come from clams are non-nacreous.  They are not shiny or iridescent.  The biggest pearl in the world comes from a clam – a really big clam.

Called the “Pearl of Lao Tzu” by some, the “Pearl of Allah” by others, this gigantic lumpy pearl was extracted from a giant clam in the Philippines.   The legend says that Wilburn Dowell Cobb traveled to the Philippines on a hunting and fishing expedition, and held an audience with a tribal chief who owned the pearl.  Cobb offered to buy it from him, but the chief declined, telling Cobb that a local diver had been killed by the giant clam, and that no thing that cost a human life could ever be bought with sums of money.

Two years later, Cobb returned to the village for some reason or the other.  The chief’s son was sick with malaria, and somehow Cobb cured him.  Cobb ended up with the pearl after that, although there are conflicting thoughts about the nature of his acquisition.  Some maintain that the chief was so grateful to Cobb that he gave him the pearl, while others believe that the chief gave the pearl to Cobb to sell and that Cobb simply never made good on the deal.

Later on, the question arose as to whether this pearl (the “Pearl of Allah”) was the same as the legendary “Pearl of Lao Tzu.”  That story has much deeper roots in Chinese history.  Lao Tzu (also known as Laozi) is said to have lived in 6^th Century BC, and is known as the founder of Taoism.  He got tired of “the evils of mankind” and decided to live away from everyone.  Before he left he gave a young nephew an amulet that had his face, Buddha’s face, and Confucius’ face on it.  He told the little guy to put the amulet into a big clam and that a pearl would be made that would bring good things.

That legend also states that the family moved the amulet-centered pearl from clam to clam until it was in a clam big enough to hold a pearl that big, and because the Philippines aren’t that far away from the coast of China, it would make sense that the pearl could have been discovered there.  But that’s not the only part of the myth that is questionable.

The type of clam that produces this type of pearl is a Tridacna gigas.  Those fellows have to stay in the same place their whole life – so this clam didn’t migrate on down to the Philippines.  The only way the legend could be true is if the amulet was physically grafted into the clam in which it was found.  Nobody really knows if that would work.  Nobody has tried it.  After all, why would they if it only produces a $61,850,000.00 pearl?