(Redirected from Bahrein)
'Bahrain', officially the 'Kingdom of Bahrain' (
Arabic: '
مملكة البحرين ' ''Mamlakat al-Barayn''), is a
borderless island country in the
Persian Gulf and is the smallest
Arab nation.
Saudi Arabia lies to the west and is connected to Bahrain by the
King Fahd Causeway (officially opened on
November 25,
1986), and
Qatar is to the south across the Gulf of Bahrain. The
Qatar–Bahrain Friendship Bridge being planned will link Bahrain to Qatar as the longest fixed link in the world.
History
Main articles: History of Bahrain
Bahrain has been inhabited since ancient times and has even been proposed as the site of the
Biblical Garden of Eden. Its strategic location in the
Persian Gulf has brought rule and influence from the
Assyrians,
Babylonians,
Greeks,
Persians, and finally the
Arabs, under whom the island became
Muslim. Bahrain was in the ancient times known as ''
Dilmun'', later under its Greek name ''Tylos'' (see
Dilmun for more information), as ''Awal'' as well as under the
Persian name ''
Mishmahig'' when it came under the imperial rule of the
Persian Empire.
The islands of Bahrain, positioned in the middle south of the Persian Gulf, have attracted the attention of invaders throughout history. Bahrain is Arabic for "two seas", referring to the two days of sailing that were needed to reach it from Iraq.
A strategic position between East and West, fertile lands, fresh water, and pearl diving made Bahrain long a center of
urban settlement. Pearl diving was the main economy until cultured pearls were invented in early twentieth century and more when oil was discovered in 1930s. About 2300 BC, Bahrain became a centre of one of the ancient empires trading between
Mesopotamia (now
Iraq) and the
Indus Valley (now in
Pakistan and
India). This was the civilization of Dilmun (sometimes transliterated ''
Telmun'') that was linked to the Sumerian Civilization in the third millennium BC. Bahrain became part of the
Babylonian empire about 600 BC. Historical records referred to Bahrain with names such as the "Life of Eternity", "Paradise", and
Eden. Bahrain was also called the "Pearl of the Persian Gulf".
Until Bahrain adopted Islam in 629 AD, it was a centre for
Nestorian Christianity. In 899, a
millenarian Ismaili sect, the
Qarmatians, seized hold of the country and sought to create a utopian society based on reason and the distribution of all property evenly among the initiates. The
Qarmatians caused disruption throughout the Islamic world: they collected tribute from the caliph in
Baghdad; and in 930 sacked Mecca and Medina, bringing the sacred
Black Stone back to Bahrain where it was held to ransom. They were defeated in 976 by the
Abbasids.
Until 1521, when the
Portuguese conquered the Awal Islands, "Bahrain" referred to the larger
historical region of Bahrain that included Ahsa, Qatif (both now constitute the eastern province of Saudi Arabia) and the Awal (now the Bahrain) Islands. The region stretched from
Basrah to the Strait of Hormuz in
Oman. This was Iqlīm al-Bahrayn "Bahrayn Province" and the Arab inhabitants of the province, descendants of the Arab tribe Banī 'Abdu l-Qays, were called Bahārna after it. Since the Portuguese conquest, "Bahrain" has referred to the area that is now the modern state of Bahrain.
From the sixteenth century to 1743, control of Bahrain drifted between the Portuguese and the Persians. Ultimately, the Persian
Afsharid king
Nadir Shah invaded and took control of Bahrain.
In the late eighteenth century, the
al-Khalifa family invaded and captured the islands from their base in neighbouring Qatar. In order to secure Bahrain from returning to
Persian control, the Emirate entered into a treaty relationship with the
United Kingdom and became a British protectorate. The population of the island at the time was estimated to be less than 10,000 persons.
Oil was discovered in 1932 and brought rapid modernization to Bahrain. Bahrain was the first place to find oil in the whole region. It also made relations with the United Kingdom closer, evidenced by the British moving more bases there. British influence would continue to grow as the country developed, culminating with the appointment of
Charles Belgrave as an advisor; Belgrave established modern education systems in Bahrain.
After
World War II, increasing anti-British sentiment spread throughout the Arab world and in Bahrain led to riots. The riots focused on the Jewish community which counted among its members distinguished writers and singers, accountants, engineers and middle managers working for the Oil Company, textile merchants with business all over the peninsula [Jews were not allowed to settle permanently in Saudi Arabia], and free professionals. Following the bloody pogroms of 1947, most of the members of Bahrain's Jewish community abandoned their properties and evacuated to Bombay and later settled in Israel (Tel Aviv's Pardes Chana neighborhood) and the United Kingdom. As of 2007 there were 36 Jews remaining in the country.
The issue of compensation was never settled. In 1960, the United Kingdom put Bahrain's future to international arbitration and requested that the
United Nations Secretary-General take on this responsibility. In 1970, Iran laid claim to Bahrain and the other Persian Gulf islands. However, in an agreement with the United Kingdom it agreed to "not pursue" its claims on Bahrain if its other claims were realized. The following
plebiscite saw Bahrainis confirm their independence from Britain and their Arab identity. Bahrain to this day remains a member of the
Arab League and
Gulf Cooperation Council.
The British withdrew from Bahrain on
August 15 1971, making Bahrain an independent emirate. The oil boom of the 1980s greatly benefited Bahrain, but its downturn was felt badly. However, the country had already begun to diversify its economy, and had benefited from the
Lebanese civil war that began in the 1970s; Bahrain replaced
Beirut as the Middle East's financial hub as Lebanon's large banking sector was driven out of the country by the war.
After the 1979
Islamic revolution in Iran, Bahraini Shī'a fundamentalists in 1981 orchestrated a
failed coup attempt under the auspices of a front organization, the
Islamic Front for the Liberation of Bahrain. The coup would have installed a Shī'a cleric exiled in Iran,
Hujjatu l-Islām Hādī al-Mudarrisī, as supreme leader heading a
theocratic government.
In 1994, a wave of rioting by disaffected Shīa
Islamists was sparked by women's participation in a sporting event. The kingdom was badly affected by sporadic violence during the mid-1990s in which over forty people were killed in violence between the government and Islamists.
In March 1999,
Hamad ibn Isa al-Khalifah succeeded his father as head of state and instituted elections for parliament, gave women the right to vote, and released all political prisoners. These moves were described by
Amnesty International as representing an "historic period of human rights."
[1] The country was declared a kingdom in 2002. It formerly was considered an emirate and officially called a "state."
Politics
Main articles: Politics of Bahrain
Bahrain is a
constitutional monarchy headed by the King,
Shaikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa; the head of government is the Prime Minister,
Shaykh Khalīfa bin Salman al Khalifa, who presides over a cabinet of twenty-three members
[2]. Bahrain has a
bicameral legislature with a lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, elected by universal suffrage and the upper house, the Shura Council, appointed by the king. Both houses have forty members. The inaugural elections were held in 2002, with parliamentarians serving four year terms; the first round of voting in the
2006 parliamentary election took place on
25 November 2006, and second round run-offs were decided on
2 December 2006.
The opening up of politics has seen big gains for both Shīa and Sunnī Islamists in elections, which has given them a parliamentary platform to pursue their policies. This has meant that what are termed "morality issues" have moved further up the political agenda with parties launching campaigns to impose bans on female mannequins displaying lingerie in shop windows, sorcery, and the hanging of underwear on washing lines. Analysts of democratization in the Middle East cite the Islamists' references to respect for human rights in their justification for these programmes as evidence that these groups can serve as a progressive force in the region.
Islamist parties have been particularly critical of the government's readiness to sign international treaties such as the
United Nation's International Convention on Civil and Political Rights. At a parliamentary session in June 2006 to discuss ratification of the Convention, Sheikh
Adel Mouwda, the former leader of
salafist party,
Asalah, explained the party's objections: "The convention has been tailored by our enemies, God kill them all, to serve their needs and protect their interests rather than ours. This why we have eyes from the American Embassy watching us during our sessions, to ensure things are swinging their way"
[3].
Both Sunnī and Shī'a Islamists suffered a setback in March 2006 when 20 municipal councillors, most of whom represented religious parties, went missing in Bangkok on an unscheduled stopover when returning from a conference in Malaysia
[4]. After the missing councillors eventually arrived in Bahrain they defended their stay at the Radisson Hotel in Bangkok, telling journalists it was a "fact-finding mission", and explaining: "We benefited a lot from the trip to Thailand because we saw how they managed their transport, landscaping and roads."
[5]
Bahraini liberals have responded to the growing power of
religious parties by organizing themselves to campaign through civil society in order to defend basic personal freedoms from being legislated away. In November 2005,
al Muntada, a grouping of liberal academics, launched "
We Have A Right", a campaign to explain to the public why personal freedoms matter and why they need to be defended.
Women's political rights in Bahrain saw an important step forward when women were granted the right to vote and stand in national elections for the first time in the 2002 election. However, no women were elected to office in that year’s polls and instead Shī'a and Sunnī Islamists dominated the election, collectively winning a majority of seats. In response to the failure of women candidates, six were appointed to the Shura Council, which also includes representatives of the Kingdom’s indigenous
Jewish and
Christian communities. The country's first female cabinet minister was appointed in 2004 when
Dr. Nada Haffadh became Minister of Health, while the quasi-governmental women's group, the
Supreme Council for Women, trained female candidates to take part in the 2006 general election. When Bahrain was elected to head the
United Nations General Assembly in 2006 it appointed lawyer and women's rights activist
Haya bint Rashid Al Khalifa as the
President of the United Nations General Assembly, only the third woman in history to head the world body.
The king recently created the Supreme Judicial Council to regulate the country's courts and institutionalize the separation of the administrative and judicial branches of government; the leader of this court is Mahmoud Shabazz Al-Sadr
On
11–
12 November 2005, Bahrain hosted the
Forum for the Future bringing together leaders from the Middle East and G8 countries to discuss political and economic reform in the region.
Governorates
Governorates of Bahrain
Bahrain is split into five
governorates. Until
July 3 2002, it was divided into twelve municipalities; see
Municipalities of Bahrain. The governorates are:
#
Capital
#
Central
#
Muharraq
#
Northern
#
Southern
For further information, see
Decree-Law establishing governorates from the Bahrain official website.
Cities, towns and villages
Among Bahrain's cities and towns are:
Bahrain's many small towns and villages include:
Economy
Main articles: Economy of Bahrain
In a region experiencing an oil boom, Bahrain has the
fastest growing economy in the Arab world, the
United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia found in January 2006. Bahrain also has the
freest economy in the Middle East according to the 2006
Index of Economic Freedom published by the
Heritage Foundation/
Wall Street Journal, and is twenty-fifth freest overall in the world.
In Bahrain, petroleum production and processing account for about 60% of export receipts, 60% of government revenues, and 30% of GDP. Economic conditions have fluctuated with the changing fortunes of oil since 1985, for example, during and following the
Persian Gulf crisis of 1990-91. With its highly developed communication and transport facilities, Bahrain is home to multinational firms. A large share of exports consists of petroleum products made from imported crude oil. Construction proceeds on several major industrial projects. Unemployment, especially among the young, and the depletion of both oil and underground water resources are major long-term economic problems.
In 2004, Bahrain signed the
US-Bahrain Free Trade Agreement, which will reduce certain barriers to trade between the two nations.
Bahrain recently became the first Middle-eastern country to institute
unemployment insurance.
Geography
Map of Bahrain.
Bahrain is a generally flat and arid
archipelago, comprising of a low desert plain rising gently to a low central escarpment, in the
Persian Gulf, east of
Saudi Arabia. The highest point is the 122 m Jabal ad Dukhan.
Bahrain has a total area of 688
km² (266
mi²), which is slightly larger than the
Isle of Man, though it is smaller than the nearby
King Fahd International Airport near Dammam, Saudi Arabia (780 km² or 301 mi²). As an archipelago of thirty-three islands, Bahrain does not share a land boundary with another country but does have a 161-
kilometre (100
mi) coastline and claims a further twelve
nautical miles (22 km) of
territorial sea and a twenty-four nautical mile (44 km)
contiguous zone. Bahrain has mild winters and very hot, humid summers.
Bahrain's natural resources include large quantities of oil and natural gas as well as fish stocks. Arable land constitutes only 2.82%
[6]. Desert constitutes 92% of Bahrain and periodic droughts and dust storms are the main natural hazards for Bahrainis.
Environmental issues facing Bahrain include desertification resulting from the degradation of limited arable land and coastal degradation (damage to coastlines, coral reefs, and sea vegetation) resulting from oil spills and other discharges from large tankers, oil refineries, and distribution stations. The agricultural and domestic sectors' over-utilization of the
Dammam aquifer, the principle aquifer in Bahrain, has led to its salinization by adjacent brackish and saline water bodies.
Demographics
Bahrain from space, by
NASA.
''
Ethnic, Cultural and Religious Groups of Bahrain''
The official religion of Bahrain is
Islam, which the majority of the population practices. However, due to an influx of immigrants and guest workers from non-Muslim countries, such as India, Philippines and Sri Lanka
[7], the overall percentage of Muslims in the country has declined in recent years. According to the 2001 census, 80% of Bahrain's population was
Muslim, 10% were
Christian, and 10% practiced other Asian or Middle Eastern religions.
There are no official figures for the proportion of
Shia and
Sunni among the Muslims of Bahrain. Unofficial sources, such as the
Library of Congress Country Studies[8],
BBC[9], and the
New York Times[10], estimate it to be approximately 30%
Sunni (24% of total population) and 70%
Shia (56% of total population). The last official census (in 1941) which included sectarian identification reported 53% as Shia.
Bahrain has transformed into a cosmopolitan society with mixed communities: two thirds of Bahrain's population consists of
Arabs, while the rest are
Iranian descents and also immigrants and guest workers from,
South Asia and
Southeast Asia. A Financial Times published on
31 May 1983 found that "Bahrain is a
polyglot state, both religiously and racially. Leaving aside the temporary immigrants of the past ten years, there are at least eight or nine communities on the island."
The present communities may be classified as: tribals, Arab tribes allied to
Al-Khalifa including the
Utoob tribes,
Dawasir, etc;
Bahranis, indigenous Shia Arabs; the
Howala, Sunni Persians that migrated from the eastern shores of the gulf (in modern day Iran);
Ajam ethnic Persian Shia;
Najdis, non-tribal urban Sunni Arabs from
Najd in central Arabia; Indians who traded with Bahrain and settled before the age of oil (formerly known as the Hunood or Banyan, ); a tiny Jewish community; and a miscellaneous grouping.
Culture
Main articles: Culture of Bahrain
Bahrain is sometimes described as the "Middle East lite" a country that mixes modern infrastructure with a Persian Gulf identity, but unlike other countries in the region its prosperity is not solely a reflection of the size of its oil wealth, but also related to the creation of an indigenous middle class. This unique socioeconomic development in the Persian Gulf has meant that Bahrain is generally more liberal than its neighbours. While Islam is the main religion, Bahrainis have been known for their tolerance, and alongside mosques can be found churches, a
Hindu temple, a Sikh
Gurdwara and a Jewish
synagogue. The country is home to several communities that have faced persecution elsewhere.
It is too early to say whether political liberalisation under
King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa has augmented or undermined Bahrain's traditional pluralism. The new political space for Shia and Sunni Islamists has meant that they are now in a much stronger position to pursue programmes that often seek to directly confront this pluralism, yet at the same time political reforms have encouraged an opposite trend for society to become more self critical with a greater willingness in general to examine previous social taboos. It is now common to find public seminars on once unheard of subjects such as
marital problems and sex and
child abuse. Another facet of the new openness is Bahrain's status as the most prolific book publisher in the Arab world, with 132 books published in 2005 for a population of 700,000. In comparison, the average for the entire Arab world is seven books published per one million people in 2005, according to the United Nations Development Programme.
[11]
Ali Bahar is the most famous singer in Bahrain. He performs his music with his Band
Al-Ekhwa ( The Brothers ).
The middle classes tend to have a cosmopolitan outlook, and with mainstream
hip hop music very popular among Bahrain's youth. Of
DJing in Bahrain,
DJ Whoo Kid said:
In addition to their modern outlook, Bahraini youths mingle with the British expatriate community.
On
October 20 2005, it was revealed that
Michael Jackson intended to leave the
United States permanently in order to seek a new life in Bahrain. Jackson has reportedly told friends that he feels
"increasingly Bahraini" after buying a former PM's mansion in
Sanad, and is now seeking another property by the seashore. Jackson reportedly moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, in 2006. Other celebrities associated with the Kingdom include singer
Shakira and Grand Prix driver
Jenson Button, who owns property there.
In the Capital Governate lies the city of Juffair. This is the location of the U.S.Naval Support Activity, Bahrain. The concentration of western restaurants, bars and the prevalence of prostitution, make this city a magnet for U.S. servicemembers and Saudi-Arabians. On weekends the Saudi's cross the causeway to escape the restrictive culture of Saudi.
Language
Arabic is the official language of Bahrain. The two main dialects are
Baharna Arabic, spoken by the indigenous
Baharna Shia, and Bahraini Arabic spoken by the indigenous
Sunnis.
Persian,
Urdu/
Hindi and
English are also spoken by sections of the population.
Formula One
Bahrain has a
Formula One race, hosting the
Gulf Air Grand Prix on
4 April 2004, the first for an Arab country. The race was won by Michael Schumacher of
Scuderia Ferrari. This was followed by the
Bahrain Grand Prix in 2005. Bahrain has successfully hosted the opening Grand Prix of the 2006 season on 12 March. Both the above races were won by Fernando Alonso of Renault. The 2007 event took place on April 13th, 14th and 15th resulting in victory of Ferrari's Felipe Massa.
Holidays
On
1 September 2006 Bahrain changed its weekend from being Thursdays and Fridays to Fridays and Saturdays, in order to have a day of the weekend shared with the rest of the world.
Military
The kingdom has a small, well equipped, military called the
Bahrain Defense Force. They have a cooperative agreement with the
United States Military and have provided the United States a base in Juffair since the early 1990s. This is the home of the United States Navy Central Command (
COMUSNAVCENT) and about 1500 U.S. and coalition military
[2].
Education
Main articles: Education in Bahrain
'The Beginning'
Quranic schools (''Kuttab'') were the only form of education in Bahrain at the beginning of the twentieth century. They were traditional schools aimed at teaching children and youth the reading of the
Qur'an.any people of Bahrain had felt that this type of education was not academically efficient. After the
First World War, Bahrain became open to western influences. Due to all these, a demand for modern educational institutions different from Kuttab has appeared.
'The Evolution'
1919 marked the beginning of modern public school system in Bahrain. Al-Hidaya Al-Khalifia school for boys was opened in Muharraq. In 1926, the Education Committee opened the second public school for boys in Manama.
In 1928 the first public school for girls was opened in Muharraq.
In 2004 King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa introduced a project that uses information communication technology (ICT) to support
K-12 education in Bahrain. This project is named King Hamad Schools of Future. The objective of this project is to connect and link all schools within the kingdom with the internet and introduce the idea of education everywhere.
In addition to British intermediate schools, the island is served by the
Bahrain School (BS). BS is a
United States Department of Defense school that provides a K-12 curriculum including
International Baccalaureate offerings.
There are private schools as well, that offer either the International Baccalaureate (IB) program, or the A levels. In 2007,
St Christopher's School Bahrain will become the first school in Bahrain to offer a choice of IB or A-Levels for students. Numerous international educational institutions and schools have established links to Bahrain. One prominent institution is
DePaul University of the
United States.
Schooling is paid for by the government, and, although not compulsory, primary and secondary attendance rates are high. Bahrain also encourages institutions of higher learning, drawing on expatriate talent and the increasing pool of Bahrain's returning from abroad with advanced degrees.
University of Bahrain has been established for standard undergraduate and graduate study, and the College of Health Sciences – operating under the direction of the Ministry of Health – trains physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and paramedics. The national action charter, passed in 2001, paved the way for the formation of private universities. The first private university was
Ahlia University, situated in Manama. The University of London External has appointed MCG as the regional representative office in Bahrain for distance learning programs. MCG is one of the oldest private institutes in the country.
Asian institutes have also been opened which guarantee good quality education to Asian students such as the
Pakistan Urdu School. The
Indian School Bahrain is an Indian institution for children whose parents are expatriates in Bahrain from India.
The Guardian has named
St Christopher's School as one of the top 8 schools in the world outside the
United Kingdom.
Tourism
Al Bander Resort in Bahrain.
Bahrain is a popular tourist destination in the Middle East with over two million tourists a year. Most of the visitors are from the surrounding Arab states but there is an increasing number of tourists from outside the region thanks to a growing awareness of the kingdom’s rich heritage and its higher profile with regards to the
Bahrain Formula One Race Track.
The
Lonely Planet describes Bahrain as "an excellent introduction to the Persian Gulf"[1] because of its authentic Arab heritage and reputation as relatively liberal and modern. The kingdom combines Arab culture, Gulf glitz and the archaeological legacy of five thousand years of civilization. The ancient civilization of
Dilmun, which dominated trade between Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley Civilization, was centred in Bahrain. The inhabitants of Dilmun left behind settlements and temples and tens of thousands of burial mounds which dot the landscape. Dilmun prospered because it had fresh water, and it is this resource which has meant that Bahrain has long fought over by regional powers in a predominantly arid region. As a result, the island is home to castles including
Qalat Al Bahrain which has been listed by
UNESCO as a
World Heritage Site.
The
Bahrain National Museum has artifacts from the Kingdom's history dating back to the island's first human inhabitation 9000 years ago.
See also
★
Human rights in Bahrain
★
Women in Arab societies
★
1990s Uprising in Bahrain
★
Torture in Bahrain
External links
★
★
Bahrain Expatriate Community
References
1. Also known as the Big Feast
2. United States Navy Central Command web site
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