History of Bahrain

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Part of a series on the
History of Bahrain

Ancient Bahrain Dilmun Tylos Awal
Historical region Islam in Bahrain Al-Ala'a Al-Hadrami
Reigning Dynasties Qarmatians Uyunid dynasty Usfurid and Jarwanid dynasties Jabrid dynasty
Portuguese occupation Muqrin ibn Zamil Antonio Correia
Safavid hegemony 1717 Omani invasion of Bahrain
1783–1971 1783 Bani Utbah invasion of Bahrain Perpetual Truce of Peace and Friendship (1861) 1895 coup d'etat attempt Administrative reforms of the 1920s first oil well (1932) National Union Committee March 1965 Intifada Bahraini independence survey, 1970
State of Bahrain State Security Law era 1981 coup d'état attempt 1990s Uprising
Kingdom of Bahrain 2000s in Bahrain 2011 uprising
Bahrain portal
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Dilmun

Main article: Dilmun

Bahrain was the centre of the ancient civilisation of Dilmun, which relied on trade between Sumeria and the Indus Valley as long as 5,000 years ago. Referred to in the Epic of Gilgamesh and in Sumerian mythology as the site of creation, Dilmun’s most visible legacy today are the thousands of burial mounds that are a feature of Bahrain’s landscape. According to archaeologist Michael Rice:

Dilmun is the most enigmatic of the high Bronze Age cultures, even more that that which so strikingly flourished in Egypt. It was at once the centre of a major international trading network, with links extending over the whole of the known world of the period, and, at one and the same, a numinous mysterious land, the original home of the gods and the locus for a series of wonderful events, including the creation of the arts of civilization, in which the gods with the protagonists. Further, it is the place to which the gods translated the one honourable man to survive the Flood, Ziusudra, the justified King of Shurrupak, who is the prototype of the biblical Noah. The biblical legend of the Deluge descends from a much earlier Mesopotamian original which, in the format in which it has come down to the modern world, is part of the The Epic of Gilgamesh.

It is believed that Dilmun’s inhabitants spoke a Sumerian-based language, although some time in the late 3rd and early 2nd millennium BC, a Semitic language became dominant.

Tylos

Alexander the Great’s invasion of Asia saw Bahrain captured by the Greeks, who referred to the land as “Tylos”, and the island of Muharraq as “Arados” ("Arad" today exists as a neighbourhood in Muharraq). Nearchus was reputedly the first of Alexander’s generals to visit the islands and Qalat Al Bahrain has been proposed as a Seleucid base in the Gulf.

While Bahrain was never incorporated into the Roman Empire it did become a centre for Christianity: church records show that Bahrain was the seat of two of the five Nestorian bishoprics existing on the Arabian side of the Persian Gulf at the time of the arrival of Islam. It is uncertain when the two bishoprics were dissolved though they are known to have survived until 835. Nestorian Christianity left its traces in Muharraq, and Christian names, like the village of Dair (ie parish), Samahij (used to be the name of a bishop) remain until today. Muharraq was also the centre of the worship for the cult of Awal, a shark deity represented by a huge – but now lost – shark statue in Muharraq, and between the end of Tylos and the arrival of Islam, Bahrain was known by this term.

In the third century AD, Sanatruq, the King of Bahrain was killed in battle against the Sassanians and his city levelled. In the fourth century, another Sassanian raid, this time led by Shapur II, was launched in an attempt to ‘exterminate’ the tribe of Abd al-Qays. One account states “ marched through the land of Bahrain, killing its people, not letting himself be bought off by any kind of payment and not turning aside to take plunder….he spread general slaughter among them and shed so much of their blood that it flowed like a torrent swollen in a rainstorm.”

Islam

From the time when Islam emerged in the seventh century until the early sixteenth century, the name Bahrain referred to the wider historical region of Bahrain stretching from Basrah to the Strait of Hormuz along the Persian Gulf coast. This was Iqlīm al-Baḥrayn, i.e. the Province of Bahrain, and the Arab inhabitants of the province were descendants of the Arab tribe Bani Abd al-Qais. This larger Bahrain comprised three regions: Hajar (present day Al-Hasa in Saudi Arabia), Al-Khatt (present day Al-Qatif in Saudi Arabia) and Awal (present day Bahrain). The name Awal remained in use, probably, for eight centuries. Awal was derived from the name of an idol that used to be worshipped before Islam by the inhabitants of the islands. The center of the Awal cult was Muharraq.

Bahrainis were amongst the first to embrace Islam. Mohammed ruled Bahrain through one of his representatives, Al-Ala'a Al-Hadhrami. Bahraini embraced Islam in 629 (the seventh year of hijra). During the time of Umar I the famous companion of the Prophet Abu Hurayrah was the governor of Bahrain. Umar I also appointed Uthman bin Abi Al Aas as governor of the area as well. Al Khamis Mosque, founded in 692, was one of the earliest mosques built in Bahrain, in the era of Umayyad caliph Umar II.

The expansion of Islam did not affect Bahrain's reliance on trade, and its prosperity continued to be dependent on markets in Mesopotamia. After Baghdad emerged as the seat of the caliph in 750 and the main centre of Islamic civilization, Bahrain greatly benefited from the city's increased demand for foreign goods especially from China and South Asia.

Bahrain became a principal centre of knowledge for hundreds of years stretching from the early days of Islam in the sixth century to the eighteenth century. Philosophers of Bahrain were highly esteemed, such as the 13th Century mystic, Sheikh Maitham Al Bahrani (died in 1299). (The mosque of Sheikh Maitham together with his tomb can be visited in the outskirts of the capital, Manama, near the district of Mahooz).

The Qarmatian Republic

Main article: Qarmatians

In the end of the third Hijri century, Abu Sa'id al-Hasan al-Janaby led the Revolution of al-Qaramita, a rebellion by a messianic Ismaili sect originating in Kufa in present day Iraq. Al-Janaby took over the city of Hajr, Bahrain's capital at that time, in addition to al-Hasa, which he made the capital of his republic and once in control of the state he sought to create a utopian society.

The Qarmatians' goal was to build a society based on reason and equality. The state was governed by a council of six with a chief who was a first among equals. All property within the community was distributed evenly among all initiates. The Qarmatians were organized as an esoteric society but not as a secret one; their activities were public and openly propagated, but new members had to undergo an initiation ceremony involving seven stages. The Qarmatian world view was one where every phenomenon repeated itself in cycles, where every incident was replayed over and over again.

Even before taking over Bahrain, the Qarmatians had instigated what some scholars have termed a ‘century of terrorism’ in Kufa. From Bahrain they launched raids along the pilgrim routes crossing Arabia: in 906 they ambushed the pilgrim caravan returning from Mecca and massacred 20,000 pilgrims. Under Abu Tahir Al-Jannabi they came close to capturing Baghdad in 923 and sacked Mecca in 930. The assault on Islam's holiest sites saw the Qarmatians desecrate the Well of Zamzam with corpses of Hajj pilgrims and take the Black Stone from Mecca to Bahrain. The sack of Mecca followed millenarian excitement among the Qarmatians (as well as in Persia) over the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in 928. Bahrain became the seat of the Qarmatian Mahdi-Caliph from Isfahan who abolished Sharīa law. The new Mahdi also changed the qibla of prayer from Mecca to that of fire, a specifically Zoroastrian practice. Some scholars take the view that “they may not have been Isamailis at all at the outset, and their conduct and customs gave plausibility to the belief that they were not merely heretics but bitter enemies of Islam.”.

For much of the tenth century the Qarmatians were the most powerful force in the Persian Gulf and Middle East, controlling the coast of Oman and collected tribute from the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad as well as from the rival Ismaili Fatimid caliph in Cairo, whom they did not recognize. The land they ruled over was extremely wealthy with a huge slave based economy according to academic Yitzhak Nakash:

The Qarmatian state had vast fruit and grain estates both on the islands and in Hasa and Qatif. Nasiri Khusru, who visited Hasa in 1051, recounted that these estates were cultivated by some thirty thousand Ethiopian slaves. He mentions that the people of Hasa were exempt from taxes. Those impoverished or in debt could obtain a loan until they put their affairs in order. No interest was taken on loans, and token lead money was used for all local transactions. The Qarmathian state had a powerful and long-lasting legacy. This is evidenced by a coin known as Tawila, minted around 920 by one of the Qarmathian rulers, and which was still in circulation in Hasa early in the twentieth century

10th-16th Centuries

The Qarmatians were defeated in battle in 976 by the Abbasids, which encouraged them to look inward to build their utilitarian society, but around 1058, a revolt on the island of Bahrain led by two Sunni members of the Abd al-Qays tribe, Abul-Bahlul al-‘Awwam and Abu’l-Walid Muslim, precipitated the waning of Qarmatian power and eventually the ascendancy to power of the Uyunids, an Arab dynasty belonging to the Abdul Qays tribe. The Uyunids ruled from 1076 to 1235, when the islands were briefly occupied by the Turkic Salgharid Atabeg of Fars. Supported by the Seljuk rulers of Iraq, the Uyunids relied on the power of the Banu 'Amir tribes such as the Banu Uqayl.

In 1253, the bedouin Sunni dynasty of the Usfurids of Banu Uqayl -– named after its founder, Usfur ibn Rashid -- gained control over eastern Arabia, including the islands of Bahrain. The late middle ages were a time of chronic instability with local disputes allowing various Persian-based Arab Kingdoms based in Qais, Qishm and Hormuz to involve themselves in Bahrain’s affairs. In 1330, the islands became tributary to the rulers of Hormuz.

According to historian Juan Cole it was under Sunni rule that Twelver Shiaism became established in Bahraini, as Shia Bahrainis gradually moved away from the radical, egalitarian Ismaili Qarmatian sect to the more quietist Twelver or Imami branch, a process which the Sunni rulers encouraged. But even in the fourteenth century, the North African traveler Ibn Battuta visiting Qatif around 1331, found it inhabited by Arabs whom he described as "extremist Shi`is" (rafidiyya ghulat), which Cole presumes is how a 14th Century Sunni would describe Ismailis. Ibn Battuta also noted the great wealth of the area thanks to the pearling industry.

Until the late Middle Ages, "Bahrain" referred to the larger historical region of Bahrain. Ibn Battuta's 14th century account contains an early use of the term "Bahrain" to refer solely to the Awal islands. However, the exact date at which the term "Bahrain" began to refer solely to the Awal archipelago is unknown.

In the mid-15th century, another branch of the Banu Uqayl, led by Zamil ibn Jabir, wrested control of Bahrain, founding the dynasty of the Bedouin Jabrids. Based in al-Ahsa, the Jarbids ruled most of eastern Arabia and followed the Sunni Maliki rite, which they actively promoted within their domain.

Bahrain as a Portuguese dominion

Portuguese expansion into the Indian Ocean in the early sixteenth century following Vasco da Gama's voyages of exploration saw them battle the Ottomans up the coast of the Persian Gulf. Reputedly, the first Portuguese traveller to visit Bahrain was Duarte Barbosa in 1485.

The Arabian navigator, Ahmad Bin Majid, visited Bahrain in 1489 and gave a contemporary account of the country that the first Portuguese would have seen: "In Awal (Bahrain) there are 360 villages and sweet water can be found in a number of places. A most wonderful al-Qasasir, where a man can dive into the salt sea with a skin and can fill it with fresh water while he is submerged in the salt water. Around Bahrain are pearl fisheries and a number of islands all of which have pearl fisheries and connected with this trade are 1,000 ships."

In 1521, a Portuguese force led by commander Antonio Correia invaded Bahrain to take control of the wealth created by its pearl industry. They defeated the Jabrid ruler Muqrin ibn Zamil, who was then beheaded after Correia destroyed his forces near present day Karbabad and took control of the fort "Qala'at Al-Bahrain". The bleeding head of King Muqrin was later depicted on the Coat of Arms of Antonio Correia.

The conquest of Bahrain by the Portuguese and their vassals, the Kingdom of Hormuz, was part of a long and sustained war against the Ottomans for control of the spice trade. The centre of the Portuguese Indian Ocean empire was in Goa, and it was from India that the Portuguese controlled their Gulf territories. Heavy taxes and a diversion of the spice trade from its Gulf-Mediterranean route towards the Atlantic undermined Bahrain’s economy in the first half of the sixteenth century, but the restoration of the spice trade and a lessening of Portuguese-Ottoman warfare helped boost Bahrain’s economic position in the second half of the century.

The most enduring legacy of Portuguese rule is the imposing fortress at Qalat Al Bahrain, which is seen as symbolic of the rule by force through which Portugal occupied the islands for eighty years, until they were driven out in 1602 when an uprising led by Rukn ed-Din was sparked by the local Arab governor's order for the execution of the country’s richest traders. The uprising coincided with regional disputes between the Portuguese and rival European powers. The power vacuum that resulted was almost immediately filled by the Persian ruler, Shah Abbas I, whose general Allahverdi Khan invaded the island and subsumed it within the Safavid Empire.

Safavid hegemony and the Beglarbegi of Kuhgilu

Under Persian Safavid rule (1602-1717), Bahrain fell under the administrative jurisdiction of the Beglarbegi of Kuhgilu centered at Behbahan in southern Iran. In fact, the Safavids ruled Bahrain from a distance, seeking to control the islands not by force, but through ideology and the manipulation of local rivalries. Safavid rule was a period of intellectual flowering among the Shia theological elite, with Bahrain’s seminaries producing such theorists as Sheikh Yusuf Al Bahrani. The Safavid’s used the clergy to buttress their rule, hoping that by firmly implanting Imami Shiaism they could secure the islands of Bahrain, with their centrality to trade routes and pearl wealth.

However, the Safavids’ strategy was in many ways too successful: the power and influence of the religious class meant that they had a great deal of autonomy, and it was the subsequent tension between Safavid state and the clergy that drove Bahrain’s theological vitality. Part of this flourishing was borne of the Bahraini clerics’ adherence to conservative Akhbari Shiaism, while the Safavids encouraged the more state-centric, Usulism. Attempts by the Persians to reign in the Bahraini ulema were often counterproductive, and ended up strengthening the clerics against their local land-owning Bahraini rivals who challenged the clerics’ control over the lucrative pearl trade. Cleric-landowner conflict was usually contained within very limited parameters given that the senior ulema were usually the sons of the land-owning class.

While Portuguese rule favoured Sunnis over Shias, according to historian Juan Cole under Iranian influence this situation was reversed, with the Sunnis persecuted.

An Afghan invasion of Iran at the beginning of the eighteenth century resulted in the near collapse of the Safavid state, and the resultant power vacuum saw Oman invade Bahrain in 1717, ending over a hundred years of Persian hegemony. The Omani invasion began a period of political instability that saw a quick succession of outside rulers take power with consequent destruction. According to a contemporary account by theologian, Sheikh Yusuf Al Bahrani, an unsuccessful attempt by the Persians and their Bedouin allies to take back Bahrain from the Kharijite Omanis saw much of the country burnt to the ground. Bahrain was eventually sold back to the Persians by the Omanis, but the weakness of the Safavid empire saw Huwala tribes seize control, who Al Bahrani says "ruined" the country.. The years of almost constant warfare and instability that followed led to a demographic collapse - German geographer Carsten Niebuhr found in 1763 that Bahrain's 360 towns and villages had through warfare and economic distress been reduced to only 60.

The influence of Iran was further undermined at the end of the eighteenth century when the ideological power struggle between the Akhbari-Usuli strands culminated in victory for the Akhbaris in Bahrain.

Al Khalifa and the British treaties

By the 1770s, Bahrain was ruled by the Huwala Madhkur family of Bushire, who in turn paid nominal allegiance to provincial governors in southern Iran. In 1782, war broke out between the Zubara-based Al Bin Ali trading clan of the Bani Utub tribe and the Madhkurs –Zubara’s emerging position as a flourished as a pearling centre and trading port had brought it to the attention of the two main regional powers, Persia and Oman, while the Al Khalifas’ monopoly of the pearl trade off the coasts of Qatar and Bahrain had provoked the animosity of the Madhkurs’ leader, Sheikh Nasr Madhkur. In 1782, Sheikh Nasr Madhkur subsequently put Zubara under siege, but he failed to occupy the town. . It is well know that the strategist of this battle was Shaikh Nasr Al Madhkoor, his sword fell into the hands of Salama Bin Saif Al Bin Ali after his army collapsed and his forces were defeated .

Isa Bin Tarif , Chief of the Al Utbi Tribe , is a desendant of the Original Utub who conquered Bahrain . Isa Bin Tarif was the Chief of the Al Bin Ali Tribe from the beginning of the 19th Century until his death in 1847.

After their arrival to Bahrain, the Al-Khalifas could not secure control and power of Bahrain in the early nineteenth centurie, Bahrain was invaded by both the Omanis and the Al Sauds, and in 1802 it was governed by a twelve year old child, when the Omani ruler Sayyid Sultan installed his son, Salim, as Governor in the Arad Fort. In 1820 the Al Khalifa’s rule was buttressed when it entered into a treaty relationship with Britain, which was by then the dominant military power in the Gulf. It was the first of several treaties including the 1861 Perpetual Truce of Peace and Friendship, which was further revised in 1892 and 1951. Between 1869 and 1872 Midhat Pasha brought the islands nominally under the authority of the Ottoman Empire with coordination with the British. Ottoman ships starting appearing in the area as well. This treaty was similar to those entered into by the British Government with the other Persian Gulf principalities. It specified that the ruler could not dispose of any of his territory except to the United Kingdom and could not enter into relationships with any foreign government without British consent. In return the British promised to protect Bahrain from all aggression by sea and to lend support in case of land attack. More importantly the British promised to support the rule of the Al Khalifa in Bahrain, securing its unstable position as rulers of the country. According to SOAS academic, Nelida Fuccaro, this treaty relationship with Britain was one aspect of an evolving polity:

From this perspective state building under the Al Khalifa shayks should not be considered exclusively as the result of Britain’s informal empire in the Persian Gulf. In fact, it was a long process of strategic negotiation with different sections of the local population in order to establish a pre-eminence of their particularly artistic Sunni/Bedouin tradition of family rule.

Peace and trade brought a new prosperity. Bahrain was no longer dependent upon pearling, and by the mid-19th Century it became the pre-eminent trading centre in the Gulf, overtaking rivals Basra, Kuwait, and finally in the 1870s, Muscat. At the same time, Bahrain’s socio-economic development began to diverge from the rest of the Gulf: it transformed itself from a tribal trading centre in to a modern state. This process was spurred by the attraction of large numbers of Persian, Huwala, and Indian merchant families who set up businesses on the island, making it the nexus of a vast web of trade routes across the Gulf, Persia and the Indian sub-continent. A contemporary account of Manama in 1862 found:

Mixed with the indigenous population are numerous strangers and settlers, some of whom have been established here for many generations back, attracted from other lands by the profits of either commerce or the pearl fishery, and still retaining more or less the physiognomy and garb of their native countries. Thus the gay-coloured dress of the southern Persian, the saffron-stained vest of Oman, the white robe of Nejed, and the striped gown of Bagdad, are often to be seen mingling with the light garments of Bahreyn, its blue and red turban, its white silk-fringed cloth worn Banian fashion round the waist, and its frock-like overall; while a small but unmistakable colony of Indians, merchants by profession, and mainly from Guzerat, Cutch, and their vicinity, keep up here all their peculiarities of costume and manner, and live among the motley crowd, ‘among them, but not of them’. WG Palgrave, Narrative of a Year’s Journey through Central and Eastern Arabia (1862-3)

Palgrave’s description of Manama’s coffee houses in the mid-19th Century portrays them as cosmopolitan venues in contrast to what he describes as the ‘closely knit and bigoted universe of central Arabia’. Palgrave describes a people with an open – even urbane – outlook: "Of religious controversy I have never heard one word. In short, instead of Zelators and fanatics, camel-drivers and Bedouins, we have at Bahrain something like ‘men of the world, who know the world like men’ a great relief to the mind; certainly it was so to mine."

The large merchant families’ wealth gave them extensive power, and among the most prominent were the Persian Al Safar family, who held the position of Native Agents of Britain in 19th Century and enjoyed an 'exceptionally close' relationship with the Al Khalifa clan from 1869, although the al-Khalifa never intermarried with them - it has been speculated that this could be related to political reasons (to limit the Safars’ influence with the ruling family) and possibly for religious reasons (because the Safars were Shia).

Bahrain’s trade with India saw the cultural influence of the subcontinent grow dramatically, with styles of dress, cuisine, and education all showing a marked Indian influence. According to Exeter University’s James Olney “In these and countless other ways, eastern Arabia’s ports and people were as much a part of the Indian Ocean world as they were a part of the Arab world.”

Bahrain underwent a period of major social reform between 1926 and 1957, under the de facto rule of Charles Belgrave, the British advisor to Shaikh Hamad ibn Isa Al-Khalifa (1872-1942). The country's first modern school was established in 1919, with the opening of the Al-Hiddaya Boys School, while the Persian Gulf's first girls school opened in 1928. The American Mission Hospital, established by the Dutch Reform Church, began work in 1903. Other reforms include the abolition of slavery, while the pearl diving industry developed at a rapid pace.

These reforms were often opposed vigorously by powerful groups within Bahrain including sections within the ruling family, tribal forces, the religious authorities and merchants. In order to counter conservatives, the British removed the Emir, Isa bin Ali Al Khalifa, replacing him with his son in 1923. Some Sunni tribes such as the al Dossari were forcibly removed from Bahrain and sent to mainland Arabia, while clerical opponents of social reforms were exiled to Saudi and Iran, and the heads of some merchant and notable families were likewise exiled. The Britain’s interest in pushing Bahrain’s development was motivated by concerns about Saudi-Wahabbi and Iranian ambitions.

Discovery of oil and the Leftist movement

The discovery of oil in 1932 made Bahrain the first location in the Persian Gulf to have oil wells sunk. Oil production required thousands of workers, attracting peasants as well as enfranchised slaves who had become free men thanks to the end of slavery and debt bondage. As the first oil wells were being drilled, the pearl diving industry, hitherto the main source of income for the country, collapsed because of competition from cultured pearls produced in Japan. This provided a further pool of labour needed by the new oil industry. It was the bringing together of all these disperate groups that prompted the emergence of an indigenous working class and the Leftist politics they adopted was to have important repercussions for the development of Bahraini society over the next fifty years.

During the Second World War, Bahrain fought on the side of the Allies, declaring war on Germany on September 10, 1939. It was a key base for the allies to safeguard oil supplies in the Persian Gulf and was the subject of Italian air raids on its oil refineries on October 20, 1940 from bases in East Africa.

The National Union Committee (NUC), a Leftist Nationalist movement associated with the labor unions, was formed in 1954 calling for the end of British interference and political reforms. Work sites were plagued with frequent strikes and occasional riots (including several fatalities) during this period. Following riots in support of Egypt defending itself against the tripartite invasion during 1956 Suez Crisis, the British decided to put an end to the NUC challenge to their presence in Bahrain. The NUC and its offshoots were declared illegal. Its leaders were arrested, tried and imprisoned. Some fled the country while others were forcibly deported.

Strikes and riots continued during the 1960s, now under the leadership of underground cells of the NUC, namely the Communist National Liberation Front and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Bahrain, the Bahraini section of the Arab Nationalist Movement.

In March 1965, an uprising broke out, called the March Intifada, against the British presence in Bahrain. The spark of the riots was the laying off of hundreds of Bahraini workers at the Bahrain Petroleum Company. Several people died in the sometimes violent clashes between protesters and police.

Independence and the constitutional experiment

After World War II, Bahrain became the centre for British administration of the lower Persian Gulf. In 1968, when the British Government announced its decision to end the treaty relationships with the Persian Gulf sheikdoms, Bahrain joined with Qatar and the seven Trucial States (which now form the United Arab Emirates) under British protection in an effort to form a union of Arab emirates. By mid-1971, however, the nine sheikhdoms still had not agreed on the terms of union. Accordingly, Bahrain sought independence as a separate entity and became fully independent on August 15, 1971, as the State of Bahrain.

The emirate emerged just as the price of oil sky rocketted after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war; while Bahrain's own reserves were being depleted the high oil price meant there was massive capitalisation in the Kingdom's neighbours. The Kingdom was able to exploit this new to attract massive inward investment thanks to another war in the Levant in 1975: the Lebanese civil war. Beirut had long been the financial centre of the Arab world, but the outbreak of hostilities in the country had an immediate impact on the banking industry. Bahrain offered a new location at the centre of the booming Persian Gulf with a large educated indigenous workforce and sound fiscal regulations. Exploiting this opportunity saw a massive growth in the industry in the country, and bolstered the development of the middle class, and thus giving Bahrain a very different class structure to its tribal dominated neighbours.

Although there had long been a large Indian presence in Bahrain, it was at this time that mass migration to the Kingdom began to take off with massive subsequent consequences for the Kingdom's demographics, as large numbers of third world immigrants from countries such as the Philippines, Pakistan, Egypt and Iran were attracted by better salaries than at home.

Based on its new constitution, Bahraini men elected its first National Assembly in 1973 (although Article 43 of the 1973 Constitution states that the Assembly is to be elected by "universal suffrage", the conditional clause "in accordance with the provisions of the electoral law" allowed the regime to prevent women from participating). Although the Assembly and the then emir Isa ibn Salman al-Khalifa quarreled over a number of issues: foreign policy; the U.S. naval presence, and the budget, the biggest clash came over the State Security Law (SSL). The Assembly refused to ratify the government-sponsored law, which allowed, among other things, the arrest and detention of people for up to three years, (renewable) without a trial. The legislative stalemate over this act created a public crisis, and on August 25, 1975, the emir dissolved the Assembly. The emir then ratified the State Security Law by decree, and suspended those articles in the constitution dealing with the legislative powers of the Assembly. In that same year, the emir established the State Security Court, whose judgments were not subject to appeal.

Iranian Revolution and social and political change

The tide of political Islam that swept the Middle East in the 1970s culminating in the Iranian Revolution in 1979 was to have profound implications for Bahrain's social and political development.

There were a number of factors that had caused Bahrain to be more liberal than its neighbours, but all of these were challenged by the zeitgeist of religious fundamentalism. Bahrain's pluralist traditions were to a large extent a result of the complex confessional and demographic make up of the state, which required Shias, Sunnis, Persians (i.e Huwala and Ajams) and a plethora of minority faiths to live and work together; this tolerance had been buttressed by the prominence of Arab nationalism and Marxism as the main modes of dissent, both of which were socially progressive and downplayed religious affiliations; while the country's traditional dependence on trade further encouraged openness.

Even before Iran's Revolution in 1979, there was a noticeable conservative trend growing, with the traditional abaya being donned by women in preference to the then popular mini-skirt. But it was the political earthquake represented by the Shah's fall that changed the dynamics of Bahrain's politics. Ayatollah Khomeini's Iran immediately saw their co-religionists in Bahrain, who had grown more conscious of their own religious identity during this period, as prime agents to export the revolution. The failure of the Left to offer a political or philosophical challenge to the Islamists allowed them quickly to dominate the avenues of dissent.

In 1981, an Iranian front organisation, the Islamic Front for the Liberation of Bahrain attempted a coup d'etat with the plan involving the assassination of Bahrain's leadership and an Islamist uprsing. The aim was to install a clerical leadership with Iraqi cleric Hādī al-Mudarrisī as supreme leader, but the coup was detected after a tip off from a friendly intelligence source.

The failed coup along with the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq War led to the formation of the Gulf Cooperation Council which Bahrain joined with Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The sense of regional uncertainty was further heightened when Saddam Hussein's Iraq invaded Kuwait followed by the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

Years of political stasis combined with the collapse of the price of oil, saw growing frustration at the lack of democracy explode into an uprising in 1994. While previous advocacy of reforms had been secular in character, the uprising was specifically Islamist beginning with the stoning of female competitors in a marathon race for wearing 'inappropriate' clothing. Until 1998, Bahrain was hit by riots and bomb attacks, while the police responded with heavy handed tactics. In all over forty people were killed. (For more details see Adel Darwish in the Middle East Review of International Affairs).

1970s to 1980s

The prelude and aftermath of the Iranian Revolution in 1979 encouraged Shia Islamist dissent across the Middle East. Ayatollah Khomeini's Iran immediately saw their co-religionists in Bahrain, who had grown more conscious of their own religious identity during this period, as prime agents to export the revolution. The failure of the Left to offer a political or philosophical challenge to the Islamists allowed them quickly to dominate the avenues of dissent.

1990s

Main article: 1990s Uprising in Bahrain

The Islamic Front was later to carry out a series of bomb attacks in the Kingdom during the 1990s as part of an Islamist uprising against the government. The Front bombed the Diplomat Hotel on 1 November 1996, with the group telling the Associated Press "We put a bomb in the Diplomat hotel 20 minutes ago...after the feast...tell the government that we will destroy everyplace."

However, it would be a mistake to consider the Islamist violence to be purely foreign instigated: due to perceived discrimination against the majority Shia population of Bahrain by the Al Khalifa rulers, there was a strong sense of grievance.

In the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, and encouraged by electoral and parliamentary developments in Kuwait, Bahraini opponents of the government sensed an opportunity to raise again the issue of elections and their own parliament. In 1992, following informal discussions, a group consisting mainly of clerics and businessmen led by Islamist leader Abdul Amir Al Jamri, drew up a petition that was then signed by more than 300 prominent individuals, known as the "elite petition". The signatories were fairly evenly split between Shia and Sunni, and between Islamists and secular nationalists. It asked for restoration of the National Assembly and the constitution of 1975, and participation by the population in decision making. After listening to their demands, the emir responded that the government planned to establish a consultative council (appointed directly by the emir), which would be the appropriate institution to serve the population, and that there could be no further discussion on the subject.

The failure of this petition led to the second petition, the so-called general or popular petition of 1994. This mass petition was reportedly signed by some 22,000 people. To pre-empt the delivery of the petition to the emir, the regime arrested several of the leading Shia clerics who were organising the petition, including Ali Salman, after they were accused of inciting their stoning of women competitors in a marathon race.

The uprising was specifically Islamist in character, beginning with the stoning of the leading team in the Bahrain Marathon Relay race after they ran along a road alongside a conservative village. Women's participation in the race had been cited as immoral by conservative clerics in the run up to the race, and a large group were amassed on one of the race hand over stages demonstrating, when one of the SAAD Track Club team passed the demonstrators, the runner was attacked and knocked to the ground. The uprising was characterised by riots, stonings and bomb attacks, which targeted the government, the middle classes, third world immigrants and liberals.

The uprising was led by London based Islamist group, the Bahrain Freedom Movement. According to Egyptian liberal journalist Adel Darwish: "Interviews with BFM leaders leave little doubt about the totalitarian nature of their type of Islamic fundamentalist ideology. Their final aim is to declare an Iranian-style Islamic republic."

The political impasse continued over the next few years during which time the regime dealt with its opponents using severe repression. Bomb attacks and police brutality marked this period in which over forty people were killed in violence between the two sides. Although the violence was never entirely stopped by the security measures it was contained and continued as low level intermitten disturbances.

2000s

Main article: 2000s in Bahrain

In 1999 Shaykh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa became Amir after the death of his father, Shaykh Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa, and carried out wide ranging social and political reforms, described by Amnesty International as representing an 'historic period for human rights'. King Hamad ended the political repression that had defined the 1990s by scrapping security laws, releasing all political prisoners, instituting elections, giving women the vote and promising a return to constitutional rule. The move brought an end to political violence, but did not initially bring about a reconciliation between the government and most of the opposition groups.

The invitation to Bahrain's former exiles to return home revitalised the Kingdom's politics. Exiled leaders included a number of London based Islamists including Dr Majid Al Alawi who became Minister of Labour, Dr Mansur Al Jamri who became editor of the new opposition daily, Al Wasat, and Sheikh Ali Salman who became head of the newly established Shia Islamist Al Wefaq, Bahrain's largest political group. Former Leftist dissidents formed the National Democratic Action, the Communist Democratic Bloc, and the Bahrain Human Rights Society. Leftists were also involved in the new trade union movement, although they faced competition from Islamists for control of several unions.

Following the political liberalization Bahrain negotiated a Free Trade Agreement with the United States in 2004. The country participated in military action against the Taliban in 2001 with its ships patrolling the Arabian Sea searching for vessels, but opposed the invasion of Iraq. Relations improved with neighbouring Qatar after the border dispute over the Hawar Islands was resolved by the International Court of Justice in The Hague in 2001. The two are now building the Qatar-Bahrain Friendship Bridge to link the countries across the Persian Gulf, which will be the longest fixed link bridge in the world when completed.

In 2001 Hamad put forward the National Action Charter which would return the country to constitutional rule. However the opposition was opposed to the Charter's call for an amendment to the 1973 Constitution, changing the legislature from unicameral to bicameral. The Charter stated that "the legislature will consist of two chambers, namely one that is constituted through free, direct elections whose mandate will be to enact laws, and a second one that would have people with experience and expertise who would give advice as necessary." The opposition groups deemed this statement to be too ambiguous, and remained opposed to the Charter.

Hamad responded by holding a highly publicized meeting with the spiritual leaders of the Shia Islamist opposition. He signed a document clarifying that the only the elected lower house of the parliament would have legislative power, while the appointed upper house would have a strictly advisory role. Upon this assurance, the main opposition groups accepted the Charter and called for a 'Yes' vote in the national referendum. The Charter was accepted in the 2001 referendum with 98.4% voting 'Yes' for it.

However, in 2002 Hamad promulgated the 2002 Constitution in which both the elected and the royally-appointed chambers of parliament were given equal legislative powers, going back on his public promise of 2001. As a result, the parliamentary elections due to be held later that year were boycotted by a group of four political societies; Al Wefaq, a Shia Islamist group, thought to be the most popular political society in the country, National Democratic Action, the largest Leftist political society, Islamic Action Society, a marginal Shia Islamist society, and the Nationalist Democratic Rally Society, a marginal Arab Nationalist society.

Between 2002 and 2006, the four boycotting societies continued their demand for discussions on constitutional reforms. By 2006 these four party opposition indicated that it would participate in the parliamentary elections, but retain their demand for constitutional reform at the top of their agenda.

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Kechichian, J. A. (2002). "Bahrain". Encyclopaedia Iranica. New York: Mazda Pub.
This article incorporates public domain material from The World Factbook. CIA.
This article incorporates public domain material from U.S. Bilateral Relations Fact Sheets. United States Department of State.

External links

Timeline: Bahrain, BBC
Bahrain: The last 100 years Life before and after the discovery of oil
History of Bahrain on an Islamist opposition website
Rahmah of the Gulf, Jon Mandaville, Saudi Aramco World, May 1975
Qarmatians in Bahrain, Ismaili Net
Background Note: Bahrain
History of Bahrain
Generational change and elite-driven reforms in the Kingdom of Bahrain. (Sir William Luce Fellowship Paper No. 7) Dr. Steven Wright (2006) Middle East and Islamic Studies, University of Durham, (PDF Format)
Voice of Bahrain (London-based Islamist group website)
Khalaf, Abdulhadi (1998). Contentious politics in Bahrain: From ethnic to national and vice versa.

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