Bahrain

Island Gulf kingdom independent in 1971; an early Arabian centre of Islam and later of Twelver Shīʿa scholarship, today a Shīʿa-majority society under the Sunni Āl Khalīfa dynasty.

☾ The Coming of Islam

Among the first regions to embrace Islam

The historical region of Bahrain in eastern Arabia embraced Islam within the Prophet's ﷺ lifetime, according to the traditional accounts, when its people accepted the faith around 628. It was thereafter governed from the early caliphates, and in the 9th–10th centuries became the base of the Qarmaṭian movement.

The date of Bahrain's conversion follows the traditional Islamic accounts.

☾ Religious Composition

A Shīʿa-majority society under a Sunni ruling house

Bahrain's Muslims include both Sunnis and Shīʿa, with the Shīʿa generally reported as the majority of the citizen population. The ruling Āl Khalīfa family and much of the wealthier elite are Sunni. Sources describe this Sunni–Shīʿa divide as a long-running source of political and social tension.

That the Shīʿa are the majority and the ruling family Sunni, and that this has been a source of tension, is widely reported; framings of the tension differ by source.

▤ Scholars & Institutions

A centre of Twelver Shīʿa scholarship

Bahrain has a long tradition of Twelver Shīʿa religious scholarship, and the Baḥrānī scholarly families produced jurists and traditionists influential across the wider Shīʿa world. Safavid Persian rule in the 17th century deepened this scholarly heritage.

In Twelver Shīʿa tradition the Baḥrānī scholars are remembered as a major regional school of jurisprudence.

At a glance