Page 118 - Histories of City and State in the Persian Gulf_Neat

98 Histories of City and State in the Persian Gulf

5 ‘Abd al-‘Ali ibn Rajab, the Shi‘i merchant and patron of
the homonymous house of mourning, early 1930s

Ahmad Kanu, for instance, started his career as a young man in 1893 (or
1898–9: the date is not clear) as an employee for the British native agency.
Acting as a middleman, he became enormously rich and influential and
built up a fortune in shipping. His identification with British interests in
Manama antagonised Shaykh ‘Isa to such an extent that in 1920 Major
Dickinson, the British Political Agent, remarked that ‘[Yusuf Kanu]
undoubtedly would get into serious trouble if [the] British ever withdrew