Portal:Bahrain

The Bahrain Portal

Flag of the Kingdom of Bahrain	Coat of Arms of the Kingdom of Bahrain

Bahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is an island country in the eastern part of Arabian Peninsula in West Asia. Situated near the western shore of the Persian Gulf, the country comprises a small archipelago of 33 natural islands and an additional 50 artificial islands, centred on Bahrain Island, which makes up around 80 percent of the country's landmass. Bahrain is situated between Qatar and the northeastern coast of Saudi Arabia, to which it is connected by the King Fahd Causeway. The population is 1,588,670 as of 2024, of whom 739,736 (46.6% of the population) are Bahraini nationals, and 848,934 are expatriates (53.4% of the population). Bahrain spans some 760 square kilometres (290 sq mi) and is the third-smallest nation in Asia after Maldives and Singapore. The capital and largest city is Manama.

The area that straddles the present-day territory of Bahrain was once the site of the ancient Dilmun civilisation. It has been famed since antiquity for its pearl fisheries, which were considered the best in the world into the 19th century. Bahrain was one of the earliest areas to be influenced by Islam, during the lifetime of Muhammad in 628. Following a period of Arab rule, Bahrain was ruled by the Portuguese Empire from 1521 until 1602, when they were expelled by Shah Abbas the Great of the Safavid Iran. In 1783, the Bani Utbah and allied tribes captured Bahrain from Nasr Al-Madhkur. It has since been ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family, with Ahmed al Fateh as Bahrain's first hakim.

In the late 19th century, following successive treaties with the British, Bahrain became a protectorate of the United Kingdom. In 1971, it declared independence. Formerly an emirate, Bahrain was declared a semi-constitutional monarchy in 2002, and Article 2 of the constitution made sharia a principal source for legislation. In 2011, the country experienced protests inspired by the regional Arab Spring. The ruling Sunni Muslim Al Khalifa royal family has been criticised for violating the human rights of groups including dissidents, political opposition figures, and its Shia Muslim population.

Bahrain is known as one of the first post-oil economies in the Persian Gulf, the result of decades of investing in the banking and tourism sectors. Many of the world's largest financial institutions have a presence in Manama, but oil revenues still constitute a significant part of its government budget. It is recognised by the World Bank as a high-income economy. Bahrain is a member of the United Nations, the Non-Aligned Movement, the Arab League, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and the Gulf Cooperation Council. It is a Dialogue partner of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. (Full article...)

More about Bahrain...

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

Selected article - show another

The March Intifada (Arabic: انتفاضة مارس) was an uprising that broke out in Bahrain in March 1965. The uprising was led by Leftist groups, the National Liberation Front – Bahrain calling for the end of the British presence in Bahrain and numerous notable individuals participated in the uprising, including Wa'ad political activist Ali Rabea. The uprising was sparked by the laying-off of hundreds of Bahraini workers at the Bahrain Petroleum Company on March 5, 1965. Several people died in the sometimes violent clashes between protesters and police. (Full article...)

List of selected articles

edit

Selected picture - show another

Wind tower

The Tree of Life in Bahrain is a 9.75 meters (32 feet) high Prosopis cineraria tree that is over 400 years old. It is on a hill in a barren area of the Arabian Desert, 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from Jebel Dukhan, the highest point in Bahrain, and 40 kilometers from Manama, the nearest city.^[1]

More selected pictures

edit

Related portals

Religions in Bahrain

Arab states

Other countries

edit

Things to do

Here are some tasks awaiting attention:

Article requests : Request a new article about Bahrain
Photo : Request a new picture about Bahrain
Stubs : Expand stub articles listed at Category:Bahrain stubs
Join the Bahrain Wikiproject : and help us expanding our topics

Good article - show another

This is a Good article, an article that meets a core set of high editorial standards.

al-Jamri in July 2011

Mansoor al-Jamri (also Mansour; Arabic: منصور الجمري; born 17 December 1961) is a Bahraini columnist, author, human rights activist and former opposition leader. He is the editor-in-chief of Al-Wasat, an Arabic language independent daily newspaper. He is also the second son of the Shia spiritual leader Sheikh Abdul-Amir al-Jamri, who died in 2006.

A few months after he was born in the village of Bani Jamra, al-Jamri moved with his family to Iraq where his father continued his religious studies. To his delight, al-Jamri returned to Bahrain in 1973 and five years later graduated from high school. In 1979 he moved to the United Kingdom (UK) to continue his higher education. Between 1987 and 2001, al-Jamri lived in self-imposed exile in UK where he became the spokesman of a UK-based opposition group. Following a series of reforms, which he was initially skeptical of, al-Jamri returned to Bahrain in December 2001. He co-founded Al-Wasat in September 2002 and has been its editor-in-chief since then. The newspaper, said to be the only one offering independent and non-sectarian coverage in Bahrain, was a success, becoming the country's most popular and profitable. Al-Jamri writes daily columns described to be moderate and non-sectarian. (Full article...)

List of Good articles

General images - show another
The following are images from various Bahrain-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1First Oil Well, Bahrain. (from History of Bahrain)
Image 2The new terminal of the Bahrain International Airport (from Bahrain)
Image 3Al-Hidaya Al-Khalifia Boys school. (from History of Bahrain)
Image 4The view from outside one of the entrance gates at the Avenues (from Bahrain)
Image 5The King Fahd Causeway as seen from space (from Bahrain)
Image 6The historical region of Bahrain on a 1745 Bellin map (from History of Bahrain)
Image 7GDP per capita development in Bahrain (from Bahrain)
Image 8A view of the Grand Avenue section of the Avenues (from Bahrain)
Image 9A mixed martial arts event in Bahrain (from Bahrain)
Image 10Dilmun burial mounds in 1918. (from History of Bahrain)
Image 11Female students at the University of Bahrain dressed in traditional garb (from Bahrain)
Image 12Inside Riffa Fort (from History of Bahrain)
Image 13The King Hamad American Mission Hospital. (from Bahrain)
Image 14The Khamis Mosque in 1956. (from History of Bahrain)
Image 15Facsimile of the letter written by Muhammed to the ruler of Bahrain. (from History of Bahrain)
Image 16Manama seen from Muharraq (from Bahrain)
Image 17The Isa ibn Ali Al Khalifa house is an example of traditional architecture in Bahrain. (from Bahrain)
Image 18A map of Bahrain in 1825 (from Bahrain)
Image 19Bahrain province before Independence, was simultaneously part of Iran, a British protectorate whilst at the same time it was ruled "locally" by the Al-Khalifa tribe. (from History of Bahrain)
Image 20Topography (from Bahrain)
Image 21The Manama Souq on Bahrain National Day (from Bahrain)
Image 22Manama Harbour, c. 1870 (from Bahrain)
Image 23Location of the Dilmun burial mounds in Bahrain. (from History of Bahrain)
Image 24Over 100,000 of Bahrainis taking part in the "March of Loyalty to Martyrs", honoring political dissidents killed by security forces, on 22 February. (from History of Bahrain)
Image 25Shaikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, the King of Bahrain (from Bahrain)
Image 26The coronation of Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa as the Hakim of Bahrain in February 1933 (from Bahrain)
Image 27The Tree of Life, a 9.75 metre high Prosopis cineraria tree that is over 400 years old (from Bahrain)
Image 28The Portuguese Fort of Barém, built by the Portuguese when they ruled Bahrain from 1521 to 1602 (from Bahrain)
Image 29Bahraini protests against the ruling Al Khalifa family in 2011 (from Bahrain)
Image 30The First Oil Well in Bahrain, with oil first being extracted in 1931 (from Bahrain)
Image 31Artistic depiction of Nasr Al-Madhkur in Bushehr (from History of Bahrain)
Image 32Coronation of Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa as the Hakim of Bahrain in 1933. (from History of Bahrain)
Image 33The Sasanian Empire at its greatest extent c. 620, under Khosrow II (from History of Bahrain)
Image 34Manama souq in 1965 (from Bahrain)
Image 35Sidade de Baren depicted in Lázaro Luís' 1563 map of Arabia (from History of Bahrain)
Image 36The proposed federation of Arab emirates (from History of Bahrain)
Image 37Protesters at the Pearl Roundabout just before it was demolished (from Bahrain)
Image 38Purple – Portuguese Empire in the Persian Gulf in the 16th and 17th centuries (modern boundaries shown). Main cities, ports and routes. (from Bahrain)
Image 39The emir Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa heads the opening session of the first conference on the formation of a union of the Gulf emirates in February 1968. (from History of Bahrain)
Image 40The cities of Muharraq (foreground) and Manama (background) (from Bahrain)
Image 41A view of Arad Fort (from History of Bahrain)
Image 42Overview of Manama, 1953 (from Bahrain)
Image 43A facsimile of a letter sent by Muhammad to Munzir ibn-Sawa al-Tamimi, governor of Bahrain, in AD 628 (from Bahrain)
Image 44An artisan making pottery using the traditional mud and water mixture on a revolving wheel (from Bahrain)
Image 45The Sassanid Empire on the eve of the Arab conquest, c. 600 AD (from Bahrain)
Image 46Phoenicians man their ships in service to Assyrian king Sennacherib, during his war against the Chaldeans in the Persian Gulf, ca. 700 BC (from History of Bahrain)
Image 47Manama skyline as viewed from Juffair (from Bahrain)
Image 48Several people held a sit-in in solidarity with human rights activist Nabeel Rajab. (from Bahrain)
Image 49The Shrinathji temple in Manama (from Bahrain)
Image 50King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa meets American president Donald Trump in May 2017. (from Bahrain)

edit

Did you know - show another

... that racing driver Sam Bird beat Felipe Nasr by eight-hundredths of a second to win the 2013 Bahrain GP2 Series round sprint race, the closest margin of victory in GP2 Series history?

More did you know...

More Did you know (auto-generated)

... that hurdler Ahmed Hamada was the Bahraini flagbearer for two Olympic Games – sixteen years apart?
... that the first Chinese driver to race in Formula One debuted at the 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix?
... that between 2006 and 2007, Stacy Hollowell worked for basketball teams in Qatar, China, Bahrain and Lithuania?
... that Bahraini author Fatema Al Harbi, the first non-government Bahraini to visit Israel, faced death threats upon her return to Bahrain?

edit

WikiProjects

WikiProject Bahrain

edit

Topics

edit

Recognized content

This is a list of recognized content, updated weekly by JL-Bot (talk · contribs) (typically on Saturdays). There is no need to edit the list yourself. If an article is missing from the list, make sure it is tagged (e.g. {{WikiProject Bahrain}}) or categorized correctly and wait for the next update. See WP:RECOG for configuration options.