History of Bahrain - Al Khalifa and British Protectorate

Al Khalifa and British Protectorate

In 1782, war broke out between the Zubarah-based Bani Utbah tribe and the army of Nasr Al-Madhkur, Ruler of Bahrain and Bushire. The prosperity of Zubarah, which is in modern Qatar, had brought it to the attention of the two main powers at the time, Persia and Oman, which were presumably sympathetic to Sheikh Nasr's ambitions. At the same time, Bahrain offered great potential wealth because of the extensive pearls found in its waters.

In 1783, after defeat in the battle of Zubarah, Nasr Al-Madhkur lost the islands of Bahrain to the Bani Utbah tribe. In 1797, fourteen years later after gaining the power of the Bani Utbah, the Al Khalifa family moved to Bahrain and settled in Jaww, later moving to Riffa. They were originally from Kuwait having left in 1766. Al-Sabah family traditions relates that the ancestors of their tribe and those of the Al-Khalifa tribe came to Kuwait after their expulsion from Umm Qasr upon Khor Zubair by the Turks, an earlier base from which they preyed on the caravans of Basra and pirated ships in the Shatt al-Arab waterway. The first ruler of the Al Khalifa was Shaikh Ahmed Al-Fateh.

In the early 19th century, Bahrain was invaded by the Omanis and by the Al Sauds. In 1802 it was governed by a twelve-year-old child, when the Omani ruler Sayyid Sultan installed his son, Salim, as Governor in the Arad Fort.