Bahrain

Bahrain was the heart of the ancient Dilmun civilisation, a Bronze Age trading power that linked Mesopotamia with the Indus Valley and was remembered in legend as a paradise. For millennia the islands were celebrated for their pearls. Ruled in turn by Persians, Portuguese, and others, Bahrain came under the Al Khalifa family in the late eighteenth century, who rule to this day. A British protectorate for much of the modern era, it became fully independent in 1971 and, having found oil decades earlier, transformed into a modern state.

Bahrain is a small, low-lying, and largely flat archipelago of one main island and many smaller ones, set in the warm, shallow waters of the Persian Gulf. The land is mostly desert, with a hot climate and very little fresh water, though freshwater springs, including some that rise offshore beneath the sea, supported life and the famous pearl oysters in ancient times. Land reclamation has expanded the islands, and a causeway links Bahrain to the Arabian mainland.

The flag of Bahrain is red, the traditional colour of the region, with a white band along the hoist separated from the red by a zigzag line of five white triangles. The five points of the serrated edge represent the five pillars of Islam, the core duties of the faith. The simple red-and-white design, similar to those of neighbouring Gulf states, has long been associated with Bahrain and its ruling family.

Bahrain is a Muslim country, and Islam is the state religion, but it is unusual in the Gulf for the makeup and relative openness of its religious life. Its citizen population includes a Shia majority alongside the Sunni community to which the ruling family belongs, a division that has been a sensitive feature of its politics. Bahrain is also known for a degree of tolerance, hosting churches, a Hindu temple, and a small Jewish community among its large and varied population of foreign residents.

Bahraini cuisine is part of the wider Gulf Arab tradition, shaped by the sea and by trade across the Indian Ocean. The national dish is machboos, spiced rice cooked with meat or fish, often the fresh seafood for which the islands are known. Dates, eaten daily and offered to guests, fish, and flatbread are staples, and the food carries the flavours of Persian and South Asian influence brought by centuries of trade. Cardamom-scented coffee is central to hospitality.

Agriculture in Bahrain is very limited by the small size of the islands, the desert climate, and the scarcity of fresh water, and it has shrunk as the country has modernised. Date palms have long been the most important crop, watered by springs, along with some vegetables grown in irrigated plots. Historically, however, it was the sea rather than the land that sustained Bahrain, through fishing and above all the famous pearl-diving industry, before oil and finance reshaped the economy.

The ancient Dilmun civilisation and the long history of pearl diving are sources of national pride and identity. The discovery of oil in 1932, the first on the Arabian side of the Gulf, set Bahrain on the path to modernity ahead of its neighbours, and as its oil has dwindled it has reinvented itself as a regional centre for banking and finance. Independence came in 1971, and in 2011 the country saw significant protests during the wider unrest of the Arab Spring.

Bahrain has a population of around 1.5 million people, of whom a large share are foreign workers drawn by the economy from South Asia, other Arab countries, and beyond. The citizen population is Arab and Muslim, divided between Shia and Sunni communities. The country is highly urban, with most people living in the capital, Manama, and the surrounding towns on the main island. Compact, modern, and cosmopolitan, Bahrain hosts international finance and the region's Formula One motor racing.