History of Bahrain

The Dilmun Era

Main article: Dilmun

The history of Bahrain goes back more than five thousand years to its role as the centre of the ancient civilisation of Dilmun, which dominated the trade routes between Sumeria and the Indus Valley. For the history of Bahrain until the arrival of Islam in the 7th century, see Dilmun.

In the first century AD, Bahrain was referred to by the Greeks as "Tylos", the centre of pearl trading, when Nearchus came to discover it serving under Alexander the Great. The town of Muharraq was referred to as "Arados" (now there is "Arad" in Muharraq).

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 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, and between the end of Tylos and the arrival of Islam, Bahrain was known by this term.

In the 4th century AD, Bahrain was annexed to the Sassanian Empire (now Persia).

The arrival of Islam

File:KhamisMosque.jpg

Khamis Mosque, believed to have been built in the 7th century AD

During the emergence of Islam in the sixth century (until early in the sixteenth century) Bahrain included a wider region stretching on the Persian Gulf coast from Basrah to the Strait of Hormuz. This was "Iqleem Al-Bahrain", ie Province of Bahrain, and the Arab inhabitants of the province were all called Baharnah, descendants of the Arab tribe Bani Abd al-Qais. The then Bahrain comprised three regions: Hajar (present day Al-Ahsa 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 centre 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). 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).

al-Qaramita

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 Baghdad. Al-Janaby took over the city of Hajr, Bahrain's capital in that time, in addition to al-Hasa, which he made the capital of his nation and sought to create a utopian society.

The Qarmatians' goal in Bahrain was to build a society based on reason, tolerance and equality. All property within the community was distributed evenly among all intiates. The Qarmatians were organized as an esoteric society but not as a secret one. Their activities were public and openly propagated, but new member had to undergo an initiation ceremony involving seven stages, similar to the system of Mithraism. The Qarmatian world view was one where every phenomena repeated itself in cycles, where every incident was replayed over and over again.

From Bahrain, the Qarmatians raided Baghdad and sacked Mecca and Medina in 930. The sacking of 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.

For much of the tenth century the Bahraini Ismailis were the most powerful force in the Gulf and Middle East, controlling the coast of Oman and collected tribute from the caliph in Baghdad as well as from a rival Ismaili Abbasid imam in Cairo, whom they did not recognize. They were eventually defeated in battle in 976 by the Abbasids, which precipitated the waning of Qarmatian power and by the twelth century the Ismailis had virtually disappeared from the entire Gulf.

In the sixth hijri century, Genghis Khan, the Emperor of Mongol Empire took over Bahrain. It was taken over by Hulagu Khan around a hundred years later. When Hulagu died, Bahrain was liberated from the Mongol Empire.

Portuguese invasions and Persian influence

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 Arabian 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. The defeated King Muqrin was beheaded after Correia defeated 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 Portuguese ruled through brutal force against the inhabitants for eighty years, until they were driven out of the island in 1602, when an uprising was sparked by the governor's order of the execution of the island'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, who invaded the island and subsumed it within the Safavid Empire.

The Al Khalifa and the British Treaties

In 1783, the Al Khalifa clan (of the Bani Utub tribe) invaded and captured Bahrain from their base in Zubara in neighbouring Qatar. The leader of the clan at the time was Ahmad ibn Khalifah Al Khalifa who is now referred to as Ahmed Al Fateh ("Ahmed the Conqueror"). In 1799 the Al Khalifa were evicted from Bahrain to be replaced first by the rule of the Sultanate of Oman and then the Wahhabis. The Al Khalifa regained control of the country in 1811 when they launched another attack from Zubara With Baluch's (Al Bloush).

In 1820 the Al Khalifa signed the General Treaty of Peace with the British, agreeing not to engage in piracy unless they were in a state of war. A binding treaty of protection, known as the Perpetual Truce of Peace and Friendship, was concluded in 1861, ushering in the period of colonialism in Bahrain, and was further revised in 1892 and 1951. This treaty was similar to those entered into by the British Government with the other Arabian 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 treaty the British promised to support the rule of the Al Khalifa in Bahrain, securing its unstable position as rulers of the country.

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 Arabian 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.

The discovery of oil and the Leftist movement

The discovery of oil in 1932 made Bahrain the first location in the Persian Gulf to see oil wells were 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 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 Bahraini section of the Arab Nationalist Movement.

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 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 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 an 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.

The 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, Persianized Arabs, Persians 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 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).

The State Security Law era and the 1990s uprising

Main article: 1990s Uprising in Bahrain

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.

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 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."[1]

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. The extent to which this discrimination occurred is open to debate, considering that many of the richest families in the Kingdom were Shia, while several of the very richest merchant families have converted from Sunni to Shia Islam including Fakhros, Khanoos and Shiwaris.

In the aftermath of the Gulf War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, and encouraged by electoral and parliamentary developments in Kuwait, Bahraini opponents of the govenrment 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."[2]

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.

King Hamad and his reforms

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 liberalisation 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 Arabian 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
• 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.

See also

• Dilmun
• List of rulers of Bahrain
• List of famous people connected with Bahrain (see historical)
• History of the Middle East
• Rahmah bin Jabir al-Jalahimah
• Bahrain National Museum

References

•  This article incorporates public domain material from The World Factbook. CIA. 2000
•  This article incorporates public domain material from U.S. Bilateral Relations Fact Sheets. United States Department of State. 2003
• 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.
• Mahdi Abdalla Al-Tajir (1987). Bahrain, 1920-1945: Britain, the Shaikh, and the Administration. ISBN 0-7099-5122-1
• Talal Toufic Farah (1986). Protection and Politics in Bahrain, 1869-1915 ISBN 0-8156-6074-X
• Emile A Nakhleh (1976). Bahrain: Political development in a modernizing society. ISBN 0-669-00454-5
• Andrew Wheatcroft (1995). The Life and Times of Shaikh Salman Bin Hamad Al-Khalifa : Ruler of Bahrain 1942-1961. ISBN 0-7103-0495-1
• Fuad Ishaq Khuri (1980). Tribe and state in Bahrain: The transformation of social and political authority in an Arab state. ISBN 0-226-43473-7
• Fred H. Lawson (1989). Bahrain: The Modernization of Autocracy. ISBN 0-8133-0123-8
• Mohammed Ghanim Al-Rumaihi (1975). Bahrain: A study on social and political changes since the First World War. University of Kuwait.
• Fakhro, Munira A. 1997. “The Uprising in Bahrain: An Assessment.” In The Persian Gulf at the Millennium: Essays in Politics, Economy, Security, and Religion, eds. Gary G. Sick and Lawrence G. Potter: 167-88. New York: St. Martin’s Press. ISBN 0-312-17567-1
• Abdulla, Khalid M. 1999. “The State in Oil Rentier Economies: The Case of Bahrain.” In Change and Development in the Gulf, ed. Abbas Abdelkarim: 51-78. New York: St. Martin’s Press. ISBN 0-312-21658-0

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