Main article: History of Bahrain Antiquity Map showing the locations of the ancient burial mounds. The island and kingdom were also commonly spelled Bahrein into the 1950s. The entire coastal strip of Eastern Arabia was known as 'Bahrain' for a millennium. This was Iqlīm al-Bahrayn's 'Bahrayn Province.' The exact date at which the term 'Bahrain' began to refer solely to the Awal archipelago is unknown. The region stretched from Basra in Iraq to the Strait of Hormuz in Oman. Until the late Middle Ages, 'Bahrain' referred to the region of Eastern Arabia that included Southern Iraq, Kuwait, Al-Hasa, Qatif, and Bahrain. An alternative theory concerning Bahrain's toponymy is offered by the al-Ahsa region, which suggests that the two seas were the Great Green Ocean (the Persian Gulf) and a peaceful lake on the Arabian mainland. In addition to wells, there are areas of the sea north of Bahrain where fresh water bubbles up in the middle of the saltwater as noted by visitors since antiquity. Today, Bahrain's 'two seas' are generally taken to be the bay east and west of the island, the seas north and south of the island, or the salt and fresh water present above and below the ground.

The term appears five times in the Quran, but does not refer to the modern island-originally known to the Arabs as Awal. It remains disputed which 'two seas' the name Bahrayn originally refers to. 'belonging to the sea') would have been misunderstood and so was unused. The medieval grammarian al-Jawahari commented on this, saying that the more formally correct term Bahrī (lit. Endings are added to the word with no changes, as in the name of the national anthem Bahraynunā ('our Bahrain') or the demonym Bahraynī. However, the name has been lexicalised as a feminine proper noun and does not follow the grammatical rules for duals thus its form is always Bahrayn and never Bahrān, the expected nominative form. Etymology A 1745 Bellin map of the historical region of Bahrainīahrayn is the dual form of Arabic Bahr ('sea'), so al-Bahrayn originally means 'the two seas'. Bahrain is a member of the United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement, Arab League, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the Gulf Cooperation Council. It is recognised by the World Bank as a high-income economy. īahrain developed the first post-oil economy in the Persian Gulf, the result of decades of investing in the banking and tourism sectors many of the world's largest financial institutions have a presence in the country's capital. Bahrain's ruling Sunni Muslim Al Khalifa royal family has been criticised for violating the human rights of groups including dissidents, political opposition figures, and its majority Shia Muslim population. In 2011, the country experienced protests inspired by the regional Arab Spring.

Formerly an emirate, Bahrain was declared an Islamic constitutional monarchy in 2002. In the late 1800s, following successive treaties with the British, Bahrain became a protectorate of the United Kingdom. In 1783, the Bani Utbah clan captured Bahrain from Nasr Al-Madhkur and it has since been ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family, with Ahmed al Fateh as Bahrain's first hakim. Following a period of Arab rule, Bahrain was ruled by the Portuguese Empire from 1521 until 1602, when they were expelled by Shah Abbas I of the Safavid dynasty. Bahrain was one of the earliest areas to be influenced by Islam, during the lifetime of Muhammad in 628 AD. It has been famed since antiquity for its pearl fisheries, which were considered the best in the world into the 19th century. The capital and largest city is Manama.īahrain is the site of the ancient Dilmun civilization. Bahrain spans some 760 square kilometres (290 sq mi), and is the third-smallest nation in Asia after the Maldives and Singapore. The current population of Bahrain is 1,870,817 as of May 14, 2023, based on elaborations of the latest United Nations data, of whom 712,362 are Bahraini nationals. Bahrain is situated between Qatar and the northeastern coast of Saudi Arabia, to which it is connected by the King Fahd Causeway. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an additional 33 artificial islands, centered on Bahrain Island which makes up around 83 percent of the country's landmass. 46% are Bahraini citizens, 4.7% are other Arabs.īahrain ( / b ɑː ˈ r eɪ n/ ( listen) bah- RAYN / b æ x ˈ r eɪ n/ Arabic: البحرين, romanized: al-Baḥrayn, locally ( listen)), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is an island country in West Asia.

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