Page 94 - Life & Land Use on the Bahrain Islands (Curtis E Larsen)

-70-

period was disrupted by two simultaneous events: the fall of Persia to Afghan
tribes about 1730 and the advent of anarchy among the gulf tribes and sheikhdoms.
Control of Bahrain changed frequently during this period. Between 1730 and 1736,
it was a possession of the sheikh of Nabend on the Persian coast. In 1736, it was
retaken by Persians under Nadir Shah. The Omanis expelled the Persians in 1738,
once again bringing Bahrain under their control. By 1744 it had changed hands
again, this time to control by the Huwala tribe of Arabs. Finally, it was included
as a possession of the Arab Sheikhs of Bushire in 1753 but administered by Omani
tribal groups.
It was during this era of apparent anarchy that Carsten Niebuhr visited
the Gulf. Although he had never seen Bahrain himself, he expressed the sentiment
of the time, if not historic reality, when he described the island as having once had
many villages now destroyed by a long series of wars (Niebuhr 1792). The early
days of this period were also recorded with conviction by the Abbe Carre* (1948),
who traveled through the area a century earlier, between 1672 and 1674.
I had no little difficulty in deciding on the route I ought to
take to Basra, namely whether to go by sea or land. There
were drawbacks in either case . . . The Arabs of . . . [the
coastal ports on the Persian shore of the Gulf] . . . were all
engaged in civil war with one another, and had armed more
than eight hundred large dhows, which controlled all the sea
from the Persian Gulf to Basra. The sea route was very
perilous, for these Arabs live mostly by rapine and deride the
power of the Shah of Persia. [Abbe Carre* 1948:824]
The eighteenth century was equally unsettled and provided both a cultural
and political break in the history of Bahrain.

The Recent Era, A.D. 1750 to Present

The anarchic conditions that prevailed in the gulf during the eighteenth century
reflected what Fuad Khuri (1980:13) refers to as the "scramble" of various Arab
tribes to consolidate authority in various trading centers, This scramble was
influenced by the fall of the Safavid dynasty in Persia which left a political void in
the gulf. As significant, however, was the ascendency of the British East India