Page 220 - Histories of City and State in the Persian Gulf_Neat

200 Histories of City and State in the Persian Gulf

Inside and outside private residences, the oil era shadowed the emer-

gence of distinctively modern spaces and lifestyles. Although the upper

classes did not abandon traditional housing, furniture and utensils in the

residences of entrepreneurs, merchants, civil servants and professionals

displayed a marked European taste. Tables and chairs replaced mats,

carpets and cushions. Curtains were used for windows, and the majlises of
merchants and entrepreneurs often had a gramophone and a radio set which
with the car became the modernist icon of the 1950s. With electricity,
wealthier households were equipped with refrigerators and fans. Coffee
shops, a traditional institution of Manama’s public life, were gradually
transformed with modern furniture and catering facilities. By 1937 the
largest coffee shops started to be referred to by their customers as al-utils
(hotels). In the 1940s, the growing popularity of cinemas which showed
Indian, European and American films also contributed a shift in the public
awareness of what constituted modern entertainment and defined the new
style of leisure of Manama’s young middle classes (see Figures 16 and 17). 19
Urban expansion and the land regime
The government supervised and guided urban expansion outside the inner
city through the Department of Land Registration. In encouraging the
fixation of rights of private property, land policies endeavoured to create a
class of smallholders among the barasti population who lived on the edge of
town. As early as 1930 most of the non-agricultural land around Manama
not privately owned was classified as property of the state (miri). After
1925, the municipality took over on behalf of the Land Department land
occupied by barasti compounds in areas such as al-Hurah and Garandor,
which after 1937 became Manama’s red-light district. Residents started to
be charged a nominal rent and by the early 1930s tenants who could prove
that they had occupied the area for at least ten years were in a position to
20
acquire title deeds. In the early 1950s, while the government continued to
encourage the ownership of land and houses on the part of the less affluent
segments of urban society, it started to offer several building loan schemes
with BAPCO in order to encourage oil workers to build modern houses
built before municipal regulations were issued. Belgrave to Political Agent Bahrain, 15
Rajab 1365/15 June 1946, R/15/2/1309 IOR; MMBM, 6 Shawwal and 18 Dhu al-Hijjah
1359/6 November 1940 and 16 January 1941, R/15/2/1924 IOR. Several examples of
disputes over privacy brought in front of the municipal council are included in files R/15/
2/1923, 1924, 1925, 1932 IOR.
19
‘Administrative Report for the Years 1926–1937’ in The Bahrain Government Annual
Reports, 1924–1970, vol. II, pp. 54–5.
20
Files n. 54, 62, 67, 73, 84, 87, 94, 96, IT; MMBM, 9 Dhu al-Qa‘dah 1358/20 December
1939, R/15/2/1925 IOR; interview with anonymous informant, Manama, 5 April 2004.