Page 88 - Histories of City and State in the Persian Gulf_Neat

68 Histories of City and State in the Persian Gulf

prompted George Curzon, the future Viceroy of India, to note that: ‘a

more curious study in polyglot and polychrome could not well be

conceived’. 68

At the grassroots the meaning of community was translated into a sec-

tarian and ethnic division of labour. The Arab Shi‘is or Baharna, who

formed approximately three-fifths of the town’s population in 1905 and
the most compact urban group, monopolised urban crafts and traded in
69
local produce. They also provided manpower for the markets and the
harbour as labourers, porters and pearl divers. Their ‘natural’ leaders were
those rural notables who had moved to Manama and capitalised on the
pearling industry. The Persians were divided both by sect and by deep
socio-economic cleavages, which reflected their long history of immigration
from southern Iran. The Shi‘i majority, approximately 1,500 individuals in
1904, were mostly from the district of Dashti. Like their Arab counterparts
they were of humble background and of very limited means, and depended
upon a few families who became rich as import merchants dealing with
major Iranian ports, particularly Bushehr. By the 1920s the Persian Sunnis
included a minority of extremely wealthy individuals from the district of
Bastak with business interests in India, Lingah and Bandar ‘Abbas, and a
mass of destitute rural immigrants who had arrived via the port of Lingah. 70
The Arab Sunnis were the most socially and politically compartmental-
ised of Manama’s residents. Najdis with tribal associations gravitated
around the Al Khalifah and monopolised pearling as boat captains, middle
men or al-tawawish, the most prestigious pearl dealers. Those who had no
tribal connections, particularly from al-‘Unayzah in Najd, followed the
patterns of other upcoming immigrant communities: they maintained social
and political distance from the tribal mercantile aristocracy of the town, and
worked as hammal (porters), mughawis (coffee boys) and petty traders.
Although al-‘Unayzah was an important centre for the long distance trade
in camels, horses and sheep, the Najdi community of Manama did not
engage in the export of animals to India. The trade was monopolised by
transport agents (al-‘uqaylat) operating from Kuwait and Basrah, ports
which had strong links with the tribal hinterlands where these animals
were bred. 71
68
Curzon, Persia and the Persian Question, p. 468.
69
Lorimer, Gazetteer, vol. II, p. 1160.
70
‘Note on the Persian Communities at Bahrein’, 4 November 1929, in Political Agent
Bahrain to British Resident Bushehr, L/P&S/10/1045 IOR; Lorimer, Gazetteer, vol. II,
p. 1160; interviews with Tayyebah Hoodi and Hamid al-‘Awadhi, Manama, 21 March
and 10 April 2004.
71
At the beginning of the twentieth century the numerical distribution of Arab Sunnis was as
follows: 250 individuals from Basra, 850 from Kuwait, Najd and al-Ahsa’, 500 ‘Utub,