Page 60 - Histories of City and State in the Persian Gulf_Neat

40 Histories of City and State in the Persian Gulf

tradition of early Islam and continued to be predominant in the architec-
ture of mosques in the Gulf and Arabian Peninsula: the creation of places

of worship as a courtyard for public assembly through the donations of the

community of faithful. 63 Moreover, the description of the creation of a

new religious space by Hajj ‘Abbas (probably by erecting a fence or a wall

around the property, in the literal translation of Sayf’s account by ‘adding’

the land to the ma’tam) suggests the physical and symbolic inclusion of

barren land into the house, whose private quarters became a space of

public use as a result of the presence of the Shi‘i congregation. Similar

histories of ma’tams and sponsors feature prominently in the oral tradition

of Manama and of the villages. Although they often offer an idealised

portrayal of Shi‘i society, they are indicative of the importance of ma’tams

as centres of popular devotion throughout Bahrain.
For urban and rural Shi‘is alike, religion was of course no longer built in
the structure of government. The ancient mosque of Suq al-Khamis of
Bilad al-Qadim, a major symbol of the Islamic past of Bahrain, was last
rebuilt in the fourteenth century and was not used for worship under the
Al Khalifahs. Towns lost their role of places of encounter between the
administration and the rural population as centres of religious and spiri-
tual life. In Muharraq, Manama and al-Hidd the rulers sponsored Sunni
Friday mosques and had prayers officiated in their names. 64 Formal
religious education was also confined to the Sunni population and spon-
sored by pearl merchants who established the leading religious schools of
Muharraq. 65 Public life was dominated by a class of Sunni ‘ulama’ who
had either emerged from tribal ranks or through connections with the
ruling family. Such was the profile of Muhammad al-Nabhani, the official
historian of the Al Khalifah, and of Qasim al-Mahzah, the most famous
Sunni cleric of his generation who served as the leading qadi of Bahrain
during the reign of Shaykh ‘Isa. Religious office was also linked to the
entrepreneurial world of Bahrain’s tribal aristocracy which had the neces-
sary means to provide for the religious education of their scions in Mecca,
al-Qatif and al-Ahsa’. 66
63
See S. Bianca, Urban Form in the Arab World: Past and Present (London: Thames and
Hudson, 2000), 101–5; Wali, al-Bayan wa al-tibyan, pp. 135–59.
64
al-Nabhani, al-Tuhfah al-Nabhaniyyah, p. 42.
65
Salih ibn Yusif al-Jawdar, Ibn Jawdar qadhi al-Muharraq (Manama: al-Khalij al-‘Arabi,
1999), pp. 35–41.
66
al-Nuwaydri, ‘Alam al-thaqafah, vol. II, pp. 629–30, 751–2; vol. III, p. 430. Mubarak al-
Khatir, al-Qadhi al-Ra’is Qasim ibn Mahza, 2nd edn (Manama: Matba ‘ah Wizarat al-
‘Ilam, 1986), pp. 16–18, 23 ff., 35–6; al-Jawdar, Ibn Jawdar qadhi al-Muharraq, pp. 12–16.