Page 107 - Histories of City and State in the Persian Gulf_Neat

Ordering space, politics and community in Manama, 1880s–1919 87

down upon the Bahrana artisans and retailers employed in the markets

selling local produce given their position of subordination to the Al

Khalifah.

Merchants and rulers: coercion, taxation and the politics of real estate

Affected far less conspicuously than the harbour by the growing influence

of the Government of India, the markets continued to be the showcase of

the ‘indigenous’ political economy of Manama. The growing prosperity of

the town after the 1880s created a closer association between the Al

Khalifah and its merchants, and contributed to the consolidation of the

latter as tax-farmers and landowners.

Anecdotal evidence confirms that the position of the Al Khalifah in

the inner city was defined by the exercise of customary rights in the

markets. For Manama’s shopkeeper population the practice of imposing

sporadic collections in specie and in kind (al-sukhrah) constituted the

reality of tribal government, and informed their perception of the rulers.

Like al-k huwwa h, t he brotherhood tax collected by tribesmen i n t he
hinterlands of the Arabian Peninsula, al-suk hra h bound residents to
their masters in a relationship o f protector and proté gé whic h e pitomised
the exercise of tribal power. Narratives of al -sukhrah in Man ama are

close ly i ntertwined with the violenc e , coerc ion and abuse of authority
perpetrated by al-fidawwiyyah, the armed retainers of the Al Khalifah.
The following account was related to Charles Belgrave, the British
advisor to the ruler of Bahrain, in 1932, long after the practice was
abolished:

In those days if any of the Shaikhs’ hangers on [al-fidawiyyah] saw anything in the

bazaar that they liked the looks of they just took it and paid a modicum of the price
saying it was for the Shaikhs. A woman had nothing but a few chickens and the
fidawis came to her and demanded some payment to the Shaikhs. She said she had
nothing so he [sic] took half of her chickens. If a man had any money he never built
a good house as if he did the Shaikhs would say he was rich and would demand
money from him. The rich men always dressed in old clothes as well in order to
hide the fact that they possessed anything. 32
Although al-sukhrah was a curse for rich and poor, it affected the most
vulnerable segments of the population, primarily Baharna shopkeepers
and artisans based in the local markets. The political, economic and
symbolic importance of the imposition of al-sukhrah in these markets
can hardly be overestimated. Before 1900, they became the theatre of
32
Belgrave Diaries, 29 March 1932, AWDU.