Bahrain: Muharraq

Old, unrenovated building

Restored building with wind tower. March 2015

My few days in Bahrain were very full even though the tiny island kingdom is not large. AM had come to hang out with me from Jubail over on the Saudi mainland. On one of our drives around the island we stopped at Muharraq, the old capital which still held a neighborhood full of traditional houses. Bahrain was old and Bahrainis were proud of their heritage both Islamic and pre-Islamic.

Muharraq was originally part of Dilmun, a Semitic speaking Bronze Age polity. Later, it became the city of Arwad on the island of Tylos (as Bahrain was referred to in antiquity), believed by some (including Strabo and Herodotus) to be the birthplace of Phoenicia. At the end of the Phoenician rule, Bahrain came under the domination of the Seleucid Greeks, and Muharraq was the centre of a pagan cult dedicated to the shark god, Awal. The city's inhabitants, who depended upon seafaring and trade for their livelihood, worshipped Awal in the form of a large statue of a shark located in the city. By the 5th century AD, Muharraq had become a major centre of Nestorian Christianity, which had come to dominate the southern shores of the Persian Gulf. As a sect, the Nestorians were often persecuted as heretics by the Byzantine Empire, but Bahrain was outside the Empire's control offering safety. The names of several of Muharraq's villages today reflect this Christian legacy, with Al-Dair meaning 'the monastery' and Qalali meaning a 'monk's cloisters'. Taken by the Portuguese (1521) and the Persians (1602), Al-Muḥarraq passed to the control of the Āl Khalīfah dynasty in 1783 with the rest of Bahrain.

(Wikipedia)

AM and I walked the streets of old Muharraq and I was amazed at the architecture of the buildings. This island was right off the coast of Saudi Arabia - what had the Saudis done with all their heritage buildings? Only in Jeddah and Al Hofuf had I seen any old or old/restored buildings. The rest of the country (excluding the fantastic old mountain homes of Asir and Jizan provinces) seemed devoid of any kind of urban historical architectural legacy. Even if Muharraq was small, clearly the Bahrainis were proud of it and trying to fix it up.

We had coffee in a lovely cafe in a restored building. I was coming to love Bahrain NOT as the place I could grab a beer just a short drive from Saudi Arabia, but as a country that deeply respected ALL of its history and wanted to showcase it. Bahrain was proud of its Bronze Age culture as well as Phoenician, Greek, and early Christian heritage. In short, the small island nation was telling its historical narrative far more truthfully than most other countries in the Gulf. As a result, there was no need to tear down the old - keeping it was part of the fabric of their history.

I hope the Bahrainis continue to develop Muharraq - it was one of the most interesting parts of the island-state. I realized there that the region DID have some interesting original architecture that was not just fantastically re-created à la Bastakiya, Dubai; Diriyah, Riyadh; or Souq Waqaf, Doha [see: Diriyah, Riyadh]. They had no need for fake old buildings - they had kept the originals.