Editing History of Bahrain (section)

===Economic prosperity===
{{wide image|Bahrainharbor.jpg|700px|align-cap=center|Manama harbour, circa 1870.}}
Peace and trade brought a new prosperity. Bahrain was no longer dependent upon pearling, and by the mid-19th century, it became the pre-eminent trading centre in the Persian Gulf, overtaking rivals Basra, Kuwait, and finally in the 1870s, Muscat.<ref>James Onley, The Politics of Protection in the Persian Gulf: The Arab Rulers and the British Resident in the Nineteenth Century, Exeter University, 2004</ref> At the same time, Bahrain's socio-economic development began to diverge from the rest of the Persian Gulf: it transformed itself from a tribal trading centre into a modern state.<ref name="Larsen pg 72">{{cite book|last=Larsen|first=Curtis E.|title=Life and Land Use on the Bahrain Islands: The Geoarchaeology of an Ancient Society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q65mRSPPU6UC|year=1983|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-46906-5|page=72}}</ref> This process was spurred by the attraction of large numbers of Persian, Huwala, and Indian merchant families who set up businesses on the island, making it the nexus of a vast web of trade routes across the Persian Gulf, Persia and the Indian sub-continent. A contemporary account of [[Manama]] in 1862 found:

<blockquote>Mixed with the indigenous population [of Manamah] are numerous strangers and settlers, some of whom have been established here for many generations back, attracted from other lands by the profits of either commerce or the pearl fishery, and still retaining more or less the physiognomy and garb of their native countries. Thus the gay-coloured dress of the southern Persian, the saffron-stained vest of Oman, the white robe of Nejed, and the striped gown of Bagdad, are often to be seen mingling with the light garments of Bahreyn, its blue and red turban, its white silk-fringed cloth worn Banian fashion round the waist, and its frock-like overall; while a small but unmistakable colony of Indians, merchants by profession, and mainly from Guzerat, Cutch, and their vicinity, keep up here all their peculiarities of costume and manner, and live among the motley crowd, 'among them, but not of them'.<ref>James Olney, Chapter "Transnational merchants in the nineteenth-century Gulf: the case of the Safar family" in ''Transnational Connections and the Arab Gulf'' ed. Madawi Al-Rasheed, Routledge, p59</ref></blockquote>

[[File:Manama1926-EN.svg|thumb|upright=1.25|Map of [[Manama]] in 1926.]]
Palgrave's description of Manama's coffee houses in the mid-19th century portrays them as cosmopolitan venues in contrast to what he describes as the 'closely knit and bigoted universe of central Arabia'.<ref>Nelida Fuccaro, "Persians and the space in the city in Bahrain 1869–1937", in ''Transnational Connections and the Arab Gulf'' by Madawi Al-Rasheed Routledge 2005 p39</ref> Palgrave describes a people with an open – even urbane – outlook: "Of religious controversy I have never heard one word. In short, instead of Zelators and fanatics, camel-drivers and Bedouins, we have at Bahrain [Manama] something like 'men of the world, who know the world like men' a great relief to the mind; certainly it was so to mine."<ref>[[William Gifford Palgrave|WG Palgrave]], ''Narrative of a Year's Journey through Central and Eastern Arabia (1862–63)'' quoted in Nelida Fuccaro, "Persians and the space in the city in Bahrain 1869–1937", in ''Transnational Connections and the Arab Gulf'' by Madawi Al-Rasheed Routledge 2005 p39</ref>

The great trading families that emerged during this period have been compared to the [[Borgias]] and [[Medicis]]<ref>[[Jonathan Raban]], ''[[Arabia through the Looking Glass]]'', William Collins & Sons, 1979, p56</ref> and their great wealth – long before the oil wealth for which the region would later be renowned – gave them extensive power, and among the most prominent were the Persian Al Safar family, who held the position of Native Agents of Britain in the 19th century.<ref>Nelida Fuccaro, "Persians and the space in the city in Bahrain 1869–1937", in ''Transnational Connections and the Arab Gulf'' by Madawi Al-Rasheed Routledge 2005 p47</ref> The Al Safar enjoyed an 'exceptionally close'<ref>James Olney, "Transnational merchants in the nineteenth-century Gulf: the case of the Safar family" in ''Transnational Connections and the Arab Gulf'' ed. Madawi Al-Rasheed, Routledge, p71-2</ref> relationship with the Al Khalifa clan from 1869, although the al-Khalifa never intermarried with them – it has been speculated that this could be related to political reasons (to limit the Safars' influence with the ruling family) and possibly for religious reasons (because the Safars were Shia).

As a result of Bahrain's trade with India, the cultural influence of the subcontinent grew dramatically, with styles of dress, cuisine, and education showing a marked Indian influence. According to Exeter University's James Onley "In these and countless other ways, eastern Arabia's ports and people were as much a part of the Indian Ocean world as they were a part of the Arab world."<ref>James Olney, Chapter "Transnational merchants in the nineteenth-century Gulf: the case of the Safar family" in ''Transnational Connections and the Arab Gulf'' ed. Madawi Al-Rasheed, Routledge, p78</ref>