Page 96 - The Pirate Coast (By Sir Charles Belgrave)

carious position, surrounded on all sides by enemies, and not very
strong themselves, they were disposed to be friendly with the
English if they could obtain from them some support and
protection.
Bahrain is a group of islands about half way down the Persian
Gulf, some twenty miles from the coast of Arabia. The capital,
Manama, is on the northern point of the largest island, separated
from Muharraq Island, on which the second largest town is situ­
ated by a sea channel i.J miles wide. The two towns face each
other across the water like Dover and Calais.
In 1819 Muharraq was the scat of government, and Manama
was the commercial centre. Both towns were surrounded by
walls, the remains of which could be found, with some difficulty,
forty years ago, though the towns had long since extended beyond
the walls. The Shaikhs and the leading merchants had their
houses in Muharraq, which was slightly higher than Manama and
considered to be more healthy. They occupied large, low stone
houses, usually painted white, built around one or more court­
yards. Coral stone, quarried from the sea shore, was used for
building. The houses of merchants and Shaikhs had roof terraces,
arched verandahs, latticed windows, and handsome doorways,
decorated with elaborate plaster work. At one time, only the
Shaikhs were allowed to build more than one storey in Muharraq,
for ‘the aristocratic class of the Khalifah’, as Palgravc called them,
objected to being overlooked by their neighbours. The question
of overlooking is still a cause of trouble in Bahrain, and is the
subject of many eases in court, though the Khalifah have relin­
quished their monopoly of building tall houses.
The poorer people lived in barastis, palm branch huts; many
of the wealthier families had barastis on the sea shore, outside the
towns, which they occupied during the hot months of the year.
The Bahrainis were sea-faring people, most of them were engaged
in the pearl industry, and much of their food came from the sea,
which provided quantities of fine fish of many different kinds.
There was hardly a man in the place who did not depend in some
way on the sea for his livelihood. In this respect, Bahrain was
scarcely changed from the beginning of the 19th century, until
oil was found in 1932. Above most of the barastis where the
seamen and fishermen lived, there was a pole with a bunch of
rags tied to it, which indicated the direction of the wind: today,
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