Page 129 - Histories of City and State in the Persian Gulf_Neat

Ordering space, politics and community in Manama, 1880s–1919 109

produced his own manuscript for the ‘Ajam al-Kabir which included

stories of the death of Prophet Muhammad and of Imam ‘Ali and Rida.

In 1892, Za’ir Mashallah ibn Karim Husayn donated thirty juzur of the

holy Qur’an to Ma’tam al-‘Ajam al-Kabir to be read for ‘aza’ Husayn

during the month of Muharram. Fifteen years later Za’ir’s Qur’an started

to be used as a register of deaths for the congregation. 85

The history of congregations was an integral part of the cult of founders.

The strengthening of spiritual feelings towards early donors became one

of the raisons d’être of Manama’s ma’tams. The celebration of individuals

and households had a very distinctive flavour as attributes of piety were

seldom dissociated from the mercantile milieu. Land grants, community

welfare and investment, rather than religious fervour, established the

credentials of ma’tam lineages. The pearl merchant Ahmad ibn ‘Ali al-

Nasir who established Ma’tam Bin Zabar is said to have sponsored a

purpose built barasti in al-Mukharaqah after he donated land to the local

community for the celebration of ‘ashura’ in the early 1890s. Oral tradi-

tion explains his continuous involvement in ma’tam affairs in relation to

the expansion of his business which allowed him to provide for the con-

struction of a square building with a shamsiyyah (parasol), teak-framed

86

windows and a well. The pedigree of Manama’s houses of mourning was

also subject to fierce contestation which often evolved around disputes

over land donations. The Ibn Rajab family still claims to have gifted land

to poor Persian immigrants for the establishment of the first building for

Ma’tam al-‘Ajam al-Kabir, while Persian families attribute the donation to
a sayyid (religious notable) from Bushehr in the 1870s. 87
After the collapse of pearling in the late 1920s, houses of mourning
ceased to represent the interests of their merchant notables, particularly in

the case of Baharna family ma’tams. With the exception of the Bin Rajab

and al-‘Urayyad, they changed hands when their founders died or lost their
fortunes. After 1939 Ma’tam al-Mudayfa‘ became organised along profes-
sional lines with a strong following in Suq al-‘Attarah, which sold herbs and
herbal medicine. The endowments which supported these houses of
mourning started to be placed increasingly under the scrutiny of religious
courts, which after 1927 were integrated into the modern administration.
Community ma’tams were less affected by the collapse of pearling as they
were not so dependent on the prosperity of individual households. 88 From
85 86
Mss, 3 vols., no title, c. 1885, BA. Sayf, al-Ma’tam, vol. I, pp. 90–2.
87
Sayf, al-Ma’tam, vol. I, pp. 170–4; oral history on the Ma’tam al-‘Ajam al-Kabir related by
Kazim Bushehri (b. 1925).
88
Sayf, al-Ma’tam, vol. I, pp. 25, 90, 99–102, 119–22. In the early 1990s private funds still
supported two-thirds of the ma’tams in Bahrain.