Page 191 - Histories of City and State in the Persian Gulf_Neat

‘Disorder’, political sociability and the urban public sphere 171

headqua rters of the oil industry, planning to besiege Manama. Police

patrols blocked roads in and out of the town but the government imposed

a curfew only after rioters began to attack villages. In the residential areas

of Manama guards protected the Shi‘i population which had sought

sanctuary in their ma’tams. Seventy people were injured in two days of

disturbances. Although the security forces managed to restore order,
tension continued to escalate in the following months, particularly in the
oil refinery located in the island of Sitrah where one Sunni was killed and
53
several Shi‘is injured in June 1954.
The riot, which became one of the most fiercely contested events in the
history of modern Bahrain, displayed some established features of earlier
sectarian strife. Shi‘is still apportion blame to the Al Khalifah family. In
their eyes the violation of the procession by Shaykh Da‘ij was one of the
several acts of injustice which characterised the tyranny of Bahrain’s
Sunni rulers. As the shaykh was reported to be in the company of a
prostitute, it also offered an example of their moral degeneracy which
had become legendary among many Manamis. 54 The British agent
reported to the Foreign Office that the commotion had started before
the arrival of the car and that the violence was sparked by a series of
simultaneous incidents: a verbal quarrel between spectators, the inter-
vention of agency guards, and last but not least, the arrival of Persian
mourners covered in blood after they performed al-haydar, the ritual of
self-mutilation with a sword. 55
Whatever the involvement of Shaykh Da‘ij in triggering the disturb-
ance, it was clearly not premeditated, contrary to the accounts provided by
the various parties involved. The police proved to be very ineffective, thus
reinforcing the general distrust of public authority. The gendarmes acted
almost as a third party in the contest, fuelling episodes of random violence
56
from all sides. After the tragic events in the oil refinery in July 1954, Shi‘i
villagers assembled in one of Manama’s mosques and staged a protest in
front of the police fort where a military court had tried the Shi‘i culprits.
As the police opened fire on the demonstrators, killing several of them,
protesters sought sanctuary in the British agency. Determined to sanctify
their dead following the Shi‘i tradition of martyrdom, they grabbed a
53
Political Agent Bahrain to British Resident Bahrain, 5 October 1953 in British Resident
Bahrain to Foreign Office, 13 October 1953, FO 371/104263 PRO; Belgrave Diaries, 20
and 21 September 1953, AWDU.
54
Interviews with Muhammad Ja‘far Muhsin al-‘Arab and Mirza al-Sharif, Manama, 10 and
19 April 2004; al-Bakir, Min al-Bahrayn, p. 48.
55
Political Agent Bahrain to British Resident Bahrain, 5 October 1953 in British Resident
Bahrain to Foreign Office, 13 October 1953, FO 371/104263 PRO.
56
Belgrave Diaries, 20 September 1953, AWDU.