Page 43 - Histories of City and State in the Persian Gulf_Neat

Indigenous state traditions and the dialectics of urbanisation 23

Iraq. Once the stones blocking the flow of water were removed, villages

used them to build new houses. 20

Springs also regenerated and consoled the oppressed. Their healing

powers were often associated with miraculous events which involved the

most sacred figures of Imami Shi‘ism. The Persian community of

Manama attributed the appearance of the famous spring of ‘Ayn al-

Adhari near Bilad al-Qadim to Imam ‘Ali ibn Abu Talib (d. 661). The

story recounts that water started to gush out of the ground after the sword

of the Imam hit the soil during a fictitious contest staged in Bahrain

against the Caliph ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab (634–44). In the 1950s, this

spring was used as a symbol of social and political alienation which

marked the early oil era. The saying ‘‘Ayn al-‘adhari tasqi al-ba‘id wa

tukhalli al-qarib’ (literally: ‘Ayn al-‘Adhari waters far-away lands but

neglects what is at hand’) lamented the appropriation of Bahrain’s resour-

ces by foreigners, particularly by the oil company. ‘Adhari also referred to

individuals who neglected their families for strangers. 21

The vitality and vigour of Shi‘i folklore can be explained by the impor-

tance assumed by the lower clergy in the life of agricultural communities

after the departure of leading mujtahids and clerics from Bahrain. The
Omani army dealt a final blow to the higher echelons of the indigenous
religious establishment in 1801 when Husayn Muhammad al-‘Asfur al-

Shakhuri, the last Shaykh al-Ra’is, was killed in battle. As the learned

tradition of Imamism languished, Shi‘i piety survived mainly in the rit-
ualistic and textual context of ‘ashura’, the anniversary of the death of
Imam Husayn. Mullas and khatibs (preachers) became the interpreters
and custodians of the stories of the Ahl al-Bayt (the family of Imam
Husayn) and of local tradition which came to life during the celebration
of religious festivities. 22 The clergy continued to control khums donations
and the extensive network of waqf properties dating from the Safavid
period. In the 1830s approximately one third of the date plantations of
Bahrain were awqaf ja‘fariyyah (Shi‘i pious foundations). Their income
supported the upkeep of mosques, shrines and canals, and provided funds
to accommodate guests and pilgrims. Endowments were a crucial and
20
Muhammad ‘Ali Tajir, ‘Aqd al-lal fi tarikh al-Awal (Manama: al-Maktabah al-‘Ammah,
1994), pp. 39–40.
21
R. P. Serjeant, ‘Customary Irrigation Law among the Shi‘ah Baharinah of al-Bahrayn’,
typescript, 33 pages, 1960, p. 7; interview with ‘Ali Akbar Bushehri, Manama, 19 March
2004.
22
In the eighteenth century we have information on a number of shuyukh al-ra’is:
Muhammad Ahmad Ibrahim al-‘Asfur (d. 1768), Muhammad ‘Ali ‘Abd al-Nabi al-
Maqabi (d. 1786), ‘Ali Hasan ‘Abdallah al-Biladi (in office at least until 1789). Salim
al-Nuwaydri, ‘Alam al-thaqafah al-Islamiyyah fl al-Bahrayn khilal arba‘at ‘asharah qarnan,
3 vols. (Beirut: al-‘Arif, 1992), vol. II, pp. 221, 298, 338.