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with unimportant matters’. Al-Aubaidi further argued that ‘Belgrave personally

took part and encouraged such events’. The accusations of blaming the British
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policy or Belgrave for a long-standing dispute like Sunni-Shi’ite quarrels were

displayed as facts without providing strong evidence. The idea of placing the

foreigner as the scapegoat brings to mind Trevelyan’s assertion that, ‘It was an old

saying in the Arab world that when two fish were fighting in the sea, the British

were behind it’. The current thesis explores the nature of the British policy
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towards the political situation in Bahrain and whether Britain, Belgrave or both had

an active role in inciting both Muslim sects.

When the Movement was formed in 1954, Qubain believed that for the first

time in recent Bahraini history both religious groups worked together as an entity,

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and as ‘members of an economic group’. The short-lived cohesiveness of this unity
was put to question by Bahraini historian Abdulla Al-Ghanem, who alluded to the

disputes that had risen between the senior members of the Party. He argued that

Sunni members of the Party sought ‘reform’, while the Shi’ites aimed towards ‘a

complete overhaul of the regime’. The Sunni-Shi’ite structure within the
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Movement is explored in this thesis.

Although the effect of Nasser’s Egypt on the Movement was noted, the nature

of the ties between the Party and the Egyptian Government were never explored.

According to Arab historian Majid Khadduri, one of Nasser’s nationalist foreign

78 E.K. Al-Aubaidi, Al-Harakah Al-Wataniya fi Al-Bahrain [National movements in Bahrain 1914-1971]
(London: 2004), 118.
79 Trevelyan, The Middle East in Revolution, 10.
80 Qubain, ‘Social Classes and Tensions in Bahrain’, 269-80 (273).
81 A. Al-Ghanem, Tarikh Bidayt Al-Eslah fi Al-Bahrain [The History of Early Reform in Bahrain] (2009),
465.

© Hamad E. Abdulla 24