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170 Histories of City and State in the Persian Gulf

of progressive social forces, as will be explained in the discussion of the
nationalist movement. 50

Fitnah al-Muharram, September 1953
The emergence of new social groups employed in the private and public
sectors of Bahrain’s modern economy, the working class, the bureaucracy
and young white-collar professionals, contributed to the decline of reli-
gious solidarity as the basis for the politicisation of the Baharna residents
of Manama. From the 1940s until independence in 1971, Muharram
celebrations functioned as an increasingly inclusive socio-political space
in the new arena of Arabism and nationalism. The outbreak of sectarian
violence during Muharram 1953 transformed ritual and popular practice
into a powerful symbol of political communication, a ‘public connector’
which provided an arena of encounter between the state and urban
residents. 51 This momentous episode, which became known as Fitnah
al-Muharram (the dissent of Muharram), allowed the nationalist move-
ment to make use of the disturbances in order to forge a new political
consensus between Sunnis and Shi‘is and to recompose the sectarian
tensions which had led to the dissolution of Manama’s municipal council
in 1951. 52
The violence which erupted during ‘ashura’ of 1953 was of a different
order from earlier conflicts, since it developed into a sectarian confronta-
tion which spread throughout Bahrain. Fighting initially spread out along
the procession route in central Manama, allegedly sparked off by the
intrusion into the procession of the car of Shaykh Da‘ij ibn Hamad Al
Khalifah, the brother of the ruler Shaykh Salman, who had succeeded
Hamad in 1942. Sunnis attacked Shi‘is, spectators retaliated against
performers, residents targeted villagers and the police forces beat up
rioters indiscriminately, opening fire at intervals in an attempt to restore
order. As news of the incident circulated outside Manama, bands of oil
workers from Muharraq started to attack their Baharna counterparts.
They pulled them off the oil company buses and beat them severely.
The following day, as rumours circulated that Sunnis were being slaugh-
tered, angry protesters hijacked buses in Muharraq and Awali, the new

50
Interviews with ‘Ali Akbar Bushehri and ‘Abdallah Sayf, Manama, 4 April and 3 September
2004; Political Agent Bahrain to Political Resident Bahrain, 5 October 1953, FO 371/
104263 PRO.
51
For a general discussion of how popular practices function as a sphere of public engage-
ment see J. L. Brooke, ‘Reason and Passion in the Public Sphere: Habermas and the

Cultural Historians’, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 29.1 (1998), 43–67 (43–4).

52
On the dissolution of the council see pp. 147–8.