Page 144 - Histories of City and State in the Persian Gulf_Neat

124 Histories of City and State in the Persian Gulf

government. The increasing influence of the majlis after 1926 can also be
explained by the establishment of modern civil courts which started to
adjudicate cases for municipal offences in lieu of the agency. As the
municipal authorities started to file suits in the new courts, residents
increasingly appealed to both the council and to the judges in order to
contest decisions.
Additional factors contributed to the consolidation of the municipal
council as the new power broker in town. Reflecting the demography of
Manama, the majlis was an indigenous institution, at least if compared to
the municipal councils of Mediterranean ports such as Tunis, Alexandria
and Istanbul, all of which included Europeans. 26 Its members belonged to
the mercantile aristocracy of the town and were appointed (and after 1926
partly elected) on the basis of local influence, wealth, foreign connections
and, last but not least, previous service in the Al Khalifah administration.
The first council formed in July 1920 was representative of these trends. It
included prominent merchants, four of whom were British protected
subjects such as ‘Abd al-‘Aziz al-Qusaybi, the Najdi agent of Ibn Sa‘ud,
and Set Hamindas Diwan, a member of the syndicate of Indian tax-
farmers which controlled the customs. The remaining four members
represented the Hawala, Baharna and Sunni Arab communities which
were under the jurisdiction of Shaykh ‘Isa. 27 While appointments to the
council followed the principle of communal representation, the majlis had
jurisdiction over the various districts of the town irrespective of the ethnic,
religious or national affiliation of their residents. Further, the baladiyyah
acquired city-wide administrative powers, in contrast with the municipal
administrations of Alexandria, Tunis and Istanbul which were primarily
concerned with the districts inhabited by Europeans and other foreigners.
The legislative powers acquired by the baladiyyah also reinforced the
authority of municipal government. The majlis issued legislation in mat-
ters of health, building regulations and public security through periodic
proclamations to the public (i‘lanat) which refined and complemented

26
G. Baer, ‘The Beginnings of Municipal Government in Egypt’, Middle Eastern Studies 4.2
(1968), 118–40; W. L. Cleveland, ‘The Municipal Council of Tunis, 1858–1870: A Study
in Urban Institutional Change’, International Journal of Middle East Studies 9.1 (1978),
33–61; S. Rosenthal, ‘Minorities and Municipal Reform in Istanbul, 1850–1870’ in
B. Braude and B. Lewis (eds.), Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Empire: The
Functioning of a Plural Society, 2 vols. (New York: Holmes and Meier, 1982), vol. I,
pp. 369–85.
27
Resolution dated 3 Dhu al-Qa‘dah 1338/20 July 1920 in Belgrave to Political Agent
Bahrain, 15 Ramadan 1347/25 February 1929, n. 1068/8, R 15/2/1218 IOR. ‘Annual
Report for the Year 1365’ in The Bahrain Government Annual Reports, 1924–1970, vol. III,
p. 46. For a brief account of the first sessions of the majlis see, ‘al-Baladiyyah insha’at bi
amr shafahi’ lakinnaha kanat tushabbih bi hukumah’, Akhbar al-Khalij, 23 July 1980.