Page 115 - Histories of City and State in the Persian Gulf_Neat

Ordering space, politics and community in Manama, 1880s–1919 95

the twentieth century this process was expressed through a new language
of patronage and public architecture. The hierarchical organisation of the
quarters of Muharraq, determined by the status and economic special-
isation of its resident tribes and non-tribal groups, contrasted with the
multiplicity of localities intersecting the urban map of Manama whose
political, social and geographical boundaries were continuously in the
making.
While al-qarabah (closeness) was perceived by immigrant groups as
their guarantee of security and protection, patronage politics defined the
spatial hierarchy of power and privilege. Civic identity coalesced around
the powerful figures of local men of reputation, usually merchants, and
became manifest in the central place occupied by their residences and by
the religious buildings they sponsored in the new districts. In the 1890s
the eastern part of al-Fadhil developed around the residence and mosque
of Muqbil al-Dhakir, while southern al-Hammam expanded after Ahmad
Salman Khalaf, the doyen of Manama’s pearl merchants, built his large
family residence there in 1914. 51 Toponymic names employed by the
Sunni and Shi‘i religious courts confirm that urban localities emerged
from the grass roots, shaped by the daily practices of patronage bonds.
While al-Hammam, al-Mukharaqah and al-Fadhil were used sporadically
(although their locations do not necessarily coincide with their modern
counterparts), popular usage informed the taxonomy of place. In Bu
Sirrah, Farij Ahmad ibn Sallum was named after Shaykh ‘Isa’s meat
contractor, and in al-Fadhil the area around the residence of Muqbil al-
Dhakir was known by his name. Upmarket Kanu included districts named
after the Hawala and Banyan communities. 52

Merchants as urban leaders
The circle of men of influence who constituted Manama’s political elite at
the turn of the twentieth century represented a loose coalition of mer-
chants cum entrepreneurs, whose alliance of interests with the rulers
varied a great deal. Some of the features of the body politic of the town,
however, contributed to mould them into an ‘alliance of equals’. Although
positions as tax-farmers in the markets brought considerable financial

51
Sayf, al-Ma’tam, vol. I, pp. 19, 171–3; Lorimer, Gazetteer, vol. II, p. 1161; Majed, The
Traditional Construction, pp. 131–3; Political Resident Bushehr to Government of India,
n. 626-S of 1923, 10 November 1923, R/15/2/197 IOR; waraqah al-hibah (certificate of
royal donation), 10 Shawwal 1350/17 February 1932 and 18 Ramadan 1353/25 December
1934, BA; files n. 25, 61, 67, IT.
52
Evidence on names of localities between 1880 and 1920 is included in files n. 40 to n. 106,
IT; Lorimer, Gazetteer, vol. II, p. 1161; Sayf, al-Ma’tam, vol. I, p. 86.