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110 Histories of City and State in the Persian Gulf

the detailed information available on the constellation of endowments of

the ‘Ajam al-Kabir and the al-Ahsa’iyyin, it is clear that both benefitted

more consistently from substantial donations from the community, exclu-

sively houses and shops which were endowed by members of the con-

gregations between 1898 and 1924. 89

Conclusion

As a port town and urban society, nineteenth-century Manama developed

as the archetype of a segmentary urban system. The topography of the

town of the pearl boom expressed the ideology of entrepreneurship of its

settlers and the cosmopolitan make-up of the population. Its ethnically

and religiously mixed residential areas are evidence of the openness which

had characterised modes of community implantation since the arrival of

the Al Khalifah in Bahrain. In contrast, by the early twentieth century the

social and political milieus which structured urban life remained strictly

communitaria n. In this respect, Manama continued to display the fea-

tures of an immigration unit; even intermarriage between merchant

households was restricted to family blocs united by sectarian affiliation,

provenance and, among the Shi‘i upper class, by their control of ma’tams.

Communitarian was also the logic of diffused political authority which

structured public life and transformed ma’tams and majlises into centres

of ‘informal’ politics. Sponsorship of religious institutions united Sunni
and Shi‘i notables in their pursuit of clientele and social prestige, placing
them at the head of urban society. The patronage ties which linked Shi‘i
merchants to the popular classes through membership in ma’tam congre-
gations were the single most influential factor in determining the social and
political organisation of large segments of urban society. Majlises fulfilled a
similar function among the Sunni population, although they lacked the
strong collective and participatory ethos of the houses of mourning.
By the early twentieth century the combination of trade profit and
wealth from real estate structured the patterns of cooperation between
merchants and the ruling family. The markets and the harbour were the
venues which brokered relations between the Al Khalifah and the econ-
omy of the inner city on the one hand, and the cosmopolitan merchants
and the overseas markets on the other. The increasingly complex organ-
isation of the commercial areas and of customs facilities reflected the
growing mutual dependence between Bahrain’s tribal elites and the
89
‘Daftar ma’tam al-‘Ajam al-Kabir’, 1342–72 (1929–71); ‘Daftar buzurg ma’tam al-‘Ajam
al-Kabir’, 1 Muharram 1351–10 Muharram 1352 (7 May 1932–5 May 1933), BA; Sayf,
al-Ma’tam, vol. I, p. 123.