Page 55 - The Postal Agencies in Eastern Arabia

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By 600 B.C. the old order had begun to change and the island
was incorporated in the Assyrian Empire, soon to become “lost” for a
thousand years. It remained generally independent, and even owned
much of that part of the mainland which now forms the Hasa province
:
of Saudi Arabia; but it was eventually incorporated in the early 16th
i-
& century in the domains established by the Rulers of Hormuz who were
• nominally subject to the Shah of Persia.
In 1522, the island fell into the hands of the Portuguese whose
I fort still stands on the north coast. It is here that recent excavations
s? have provided the evidence of the island’s incredibly long and pros­
perous history, and have established beyond doubt that the fabulous
a;.
Dilmun of 3,000-5,000 years ago was none other than BAHRAIN.
Nobody knows the precise purpose of the stamp-seals of 3,000
years ago. Were they, in fact, tokens covering the despatch of docu­
ments on these great trade routes and, therefore, amongst the earliest
progenitors of the Penny Black? One of them is illustrated on the 150
fils value of the Archaeology Conference issue of March 1970.
Bahrain is, in fact, an archipelago of eight islands lying between
Saudi Arabia and the Qatar peninsula. The name is, however, more
usually applied only to the largest of the group and it derives from the
Arabic word for “sea” — in this case in its dual plural form, meaning
“TWO SEAS”.
Of the remaining seven islands in the group only Muharraq and ?
Sitra are of any consequence. The former is the site of the inter­
national airport and is connected to Bahrain by a one-and-a-half-mile
causeway; the latter is separated from the eastern shore of Bahrain by
a narrow tidal channel and is the site of the oil loading terminal.

Bahrain itself is 30 miles from north to south and is approxi­
mately 10 miles wide, except where it narrows at the southern end to
the point of Ras al Barr. Its area is 215 square miles and its population
at the 1965 census (185,000) showed an increase of 27 per cent over
the previous census figure. Half of the total population live in the
I
capital of Manama and some 30,000 in the town of Muharraq. The
subjects of the Ruler are of almost equal numbers of the Sunni and
Shia sects of Islam.

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