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154 Histories of City and State in the Persian Gulf

To refer to the distinction made by Charles Tilly with regard to collective
popular movements, their use of violence was ‘reactive’ rather than ‘pro-
5
active’. Further, as Shaykh ‘Ali and ‘Abd al-Nabi Kazeruni mobilised
their entourages, segments of the population became involved in a dom-
ino effect. Easily recognised by their clothing, physical traits and weap-
onry, Persians and Arab tribesmen were targeted indiscriminately as
members of each group. The animosity against the Persians displayed
by the Al Khalifah governor and by his followers was not circumstantial
but a reflection of the increasing protection offered by British agents to the
community after 1900, when officials from the Government of India had
started to replace native agents. In fact, the hidden casus belli seemed to
have been the detention of some members of Shaykh ‘Ali’s clique in the
agency a few months before the disturbances after they had confiscated
several of Kazeruni’s boats in the harbour. 6
The confrontation between Persians and Arabs continued to plague
Manama in the early municipal era. A quarrel between a Najdi immigrant
and Persian labourer in April 1923 led to a scuffle which set the stage for
large-scale disturbances the following month, sparking off a prolonged
wave of assaults on Persian shops. On one occasion, the agency was forced
to send a detachment of guards to the coast as a menacing crowd of Najdi
divers set sail to Manama from Muharraq threatening to besiege the
7
markets. The subtext of narratives by residents and British officials
which recounted the factional violence of 1904 and 1923 highlights two
important themes of the urban political culture of Manama. The first is
the depiction of ‘outsiders’ as the main source of intercommunal conflict;
the second is the almost constant representation of the tribal hinterland as
a place of sedition and disruption of communal life. In the aftermath of
both disturbances, the testimonies of eyewitnesses and British reports
recounted a scenario of almost axiomatic confrontation between primitive
tribal folk and town dwellers, the latter epitomised by the sophisticated
Persians. Further, regardless of their ethnic and confessional affiliation,
the residents of the inner city readily identified the offenders on the Arab
side as ‘Arab or qabali (tribal Arabs), suggesting that these terms carried

5
C. Tilly, ‘Revolutions and Collective Violence’ in F. I. Greenstein and N. W. Ponsby
(eds.), Handbook of Political Science, 8 vols. (Reading Mass., 1975), vol. III,
Macropolitical Theory, pp. 503–25 (p. 507).
6
Political Agent Bahrain to Political Resident Bushehr, 18 December 1904, L/P&S/10/81
IOR; Enclosures n. 11 and n. 17 in ‘Correspondence Respecting the Affairs of Arabia’,
Wonkhaus to Political Agent, 5 November 1904, and Political Agent Bahrain to Political
Resident Bushehr, 17 November 1904, The Affairs of Arabia, 1905–1906, vol. I, pp. 101–4.
7
Political Agent Bahrain to Political Resident Bushehr, 22 April 1923, R/15/2/101 IOR;
Political Agent Bahrain to Political Resident Bushehr, 13 May 1923, R/15/2/86 IOR;
Statement of Mr McKie, 63/AC, 12 May 1923, R/15/2/848 IOR.