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100 Histories of City and State in the Persian Gulf

Bu Sirrah, while the Najdis and Persian Sunnis coalesced around the al-
Bassams, al-Tamims, Khunjis and al-Khadims of al-‘Awadiyyah and al-
Fadhil. 59
In comparison with their Ottoman counterparts, these popular notables
seemed to have enjoyed a greater degree of political leverage with the state
administration. 60 Besides possessing popular followings and benefitting
from the ‘informal’ nature of tribal government, the assistance of powerful
foreign protectors characterised their career paths. The leaders of the
Persian community, for instance, had a long history of involvement with
the Qajar administration which continued apace into the Pahlavi era. 61
The Ibn Rajab family was linked both to the Al Khalifah and to the
British. ‘Abdallah ibn Rajab served as the agent of the British India Steam
Navigation Company between 1873 and 1889, and his cousin Ibrahim was
British Native Agent in the 1850s. Only the Ibn Sallums seem to have relied
almost exclusively on the support of the ruling family as also suggested by
the name Shi‘ah al-Shuyukh (the partisans of the ruler) with which they were
known among their detractors. Originally from al-Hufuf on the east coast,
they converted to Shi‘ismwhentheysettledinBahraininthe 1820s and
started to manage the stables of the Al Khalifah before Ahmad ibn Sallum
became Shaykh ’Isa’s meat tax-farmer. 62

Immigrants and the politics of patronage
Bonds of patronage represented the single most important chain of
authority shaping the settlement of Manama’s immigrant population. At
the most basic level, many of the newcomers needed food and housing to
start a new life. They also necessitated the creation of an environment
which reproduced their ideals of community life and spiritual fulfilment.
Protection was neither granted at random, nor dominated by sheer eco-
nomic interests. On the patron’s side, it was dictated by the necessity to
create constituencies in tune with personal and family connections and to
conform to the prevailing moral and religious norms which sanctioned the

59
Interviews with Khalid al-Bassam, Muhammad Ishaq ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Khan and
Hamid al-‘Awadhi, Manama, March and April 2004.
60
Literature on the a‘yan in the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire is vast. Classic
studies are: A. Hourani, ‘Ottoman Reform and the Politics of Notables’ in A. Hourani,
P. Khoury and M. Wilson (eds.), The Modern Middle East: A Reader (London: I. B. Tauris,
1993), pp. 83–109 and Khoury, Urban Notables and Arab Nationalism.
61
Fuccaro, ‘Mapping the Transnational Community’; interview with ‘Ali Akbar Bushehri,
21 March 2004.
62
Mayy Muhammad Al Khalifah, Muhammad ibn Khalifah 1813–1890: al-usturah wa al-
tarikh al-muwazi (Beirut: al-Mu’assasah al-‘Arabiyyah li al-Dirasat wa al-Nashr, 1999),
p. 582; Ibn Sallum family tree, BA; Sayf, al-Ma’tam, vol. I, p. 8.