Baharna
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The coloquial term Baharna (Arabic: بحارنة Baḥārnah} is the plural form of the attributive adjective "Bahrani," which literally means "of Bahrain."
In pre-Islamic and early Islamic times, the term "Bahrain" was used in reference to the eastern Arabian region of Bahrain consisting of today's State of Bahrain (then known as Awal), the Qatif region of Saudi Arabia, and the Al-Hasa region of Saudi Arabia. In Modern Standard Arabic, the term Bahrain simply refers to the State of Bahrain.
Used neutrally, Baharna refers to the people of Bahrain, whether taken in the modern, limited sense or the classical, broader sense. The term is also commonly used by Wahhabi Sunnis, mainly in Saudi Arabia, in reference to the Shi'ite communities in the Arab coastal areas of the Persian Gulf, particularly those living in Qatif and in the towns and villages that form the region of Al-Hasa in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia.
Before the advent of the oil industry, the people of this region mostly engaged in agriculture, including the cultivation of date palms, pearl diving, as well as a host of other cottage industries, such as basket weaving and pottery. Unlike their Bedouin neighbors, the people of this region led a settled lifestyle, as they had access to abundant freshwater springs and long coastal lines, rich with fish, shrimp, and oysters. The pearling industry involved a variety of other business activities, such as ship building (with distinctive styles of dhows) and trade with Africa, Iran, the Indian subcontinent, some parts of Indochina, and Indonesia.
This Shi'ite population of this region produced many well-known religious scholars, including Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsai (1753 - 1826) (founder of the Shaikhí school), Maitham al-Bahrani (1238 - 1299) and Yusuf al-Bahrani (1695 - 1722) (one of the foremost Akhbari scholars). Many religious scholars migrated to Iran after the Bahrain islands were conquered by the Safavids in 1602. Many students and scholars settled, and still do today, in centers of Shi'ite scholarship, especially Najaf, Karbala, and Qom. Insignificant numbers have settled in relatively remote areas, such as Zanzibar, although it is difficult to trace them to the region.
The singular term "al-Bahrani" and the plural term "al-Baharna" are also used as family names, such as the Iraqi art historian Dr Zainab Bahrani. This is consistent with the common practice of using regional attributive adjectives as family names, such as Al-Misri (Egypt), Al-Makki (Mecca), Al-Najdi (Najd), Al-Yamani (Yemen), and Al-Tikriti (Tikrit).
