Editing History of Bahrain (section)

== Islamic Caliphate ==

[[File:Muhammad Bahrain letter facsimile.png|thumb|left|[[Facsimile]] of the letter written by [[Muhammed]] to the ruler of Bahrain.]]
Prior to Islam, researchers claim that Bahrain was inhabited by [[Arab Christians|partially-Christianized Arabs]],<ref name="maj">{{cite book |last1=Holes |first1=Clive |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bJLjAKH7-rIC&pg=PR24 |title=Dialect, Culture, and Society in Eastern Arabia: Glossary |work=Clive Holes |publisher=BRILL |year=2001 |isbn=978-9004107632 |pages=XXIV–XXVI |quote=Thus the elements in the pre-Islamic ethno-linguistic situation in eastern Arabia appear to have been a mixed tribal population of partially Christianised Arabs of diverse origins who probably spoke different old Arabian vernaculars; a mobile Persian-speaking population, possibly of traders and administrators, with strong links to Persia, which they maintained close contact; a small sedentary, non-tribal community of Aramaic-speaking agriculturalists; a Persian clergy, who we know for certain, used Syriac as a language of liturgy and writing more generally, probably alongside Persian as a spoken language.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Netton |first1=Ian Richard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_--lK2ZGp8gC&pg=PA14 |title=A Popular Dictionary of Islam |date=2006-03-09 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781135797737}}</ref><ref name="Usmani2">{{cite book |last1=Husain Syed |first1=Muzaffar |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eACqCQAAQBAJ |title=A concise history of Islam |date=2011 |publisher=Vij Books India Pvt Ltd |others=Syed Saud Akhtar, Babuddin Usmani |isbn=9789382573470 |edition=unabridged |pages=421–3 |access-date=1 September 2015}}</ref> [[Aramaic]]-speaking agriculturalists,<ref name="maj" /><ref name="om">{{cite book |last1=Smart |first1=J. R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W8glrgh87kEC&pg=PA305 |title=Tradition and Modernity in Arabic Language And Literature |work=J R Smart, J. R. Smart |publisher=Psychology Press |year=2013 |isbn=9780700704118}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Houtsma |first1=M. Th |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Va6oSxzojzoC&pg=PA98 |title=E.J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913-1936, Volume 5 |work=M. Th. Houtsma |publisher=BRILL |year=1993 |isbn=978-9004097919 |page=98}}</ref> [[Persians|Persian]] [[Zoroastrianism|Zoroastrians]], and a small amount of [[History of the Jews in Bahrain|Jews]].<ref name="orig">{{cite web |last=Al-Rumaihi |first=Mohammed Ghanim |year=1973 |title=Social and political change in Bahrain since the First World War |url=http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/7942/1/7942_4940.PDF?+UkUDh:CyT |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20220817145042/https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/16669322.pdf |archive-date=17 August 2022 |work=[[Durham University]] |pages=46–47}}</ref> According to archeological finds, Bahrain was indeed a centre of [[Nestorian Christianity]].<ref name=":0" /> The Bahraini population is said to have spoken [[Syriac language|Syriac]] and [[Persian language|Persian]] (likely [[Middle Persian|Middle "Pahlavi" Persian]]) at the time.<ref name="maj" />

Islamic [[Hadith|narrations]] claim that Bahrain was majorly a [[Zoroastrianism|Zoroastrian]] population, before the [[Early Muslim conquests|Arab conquest]], and that [[Muhammad|Mohammed]] took the [[Jizya]] from them.<ref>{{Cite web |title=أخذ رسول الله ﷺ الجزية من مجوس البحرين – سنن الترمذي |url=https://hadithprophet.com/hadith-59792.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240227133154/https://hadithprophet.com/hadith-59792.html |archive-date=2024-02-27 |access-date=2024-09-07 |website=hadithprophet.com |language=ar |quote=«أخذ رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم الجزية من [[Zoroastrians|مجوس]] البحرين» |trans-quote=The Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, took the jizya from the [[Zoroastrians|Magians]] of Bahrain.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=الموقع الرسمي للشيخ محمد صالح المنجد – 09- حديث مال البحرين |url=https://almunajjid.com/courses/lessons/262 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240414170048/https://almunajjid.com/courses/lessons/262 |archive-date=2024-04-14 |access-date=2024-09-07 |website=almunajjid.com}}</ref><ref>{{href|tirmidhi|1588|b=yl}}</ref>

From the time when Islam emerged in the 7th century until the early 16th century, the name ''Bahrain'' referred to the wider [[Bahrain (historical region)|historical region of Bahrain]] stretching from [[Basrah]] to the [[Strait of Hormuz]] along the Persian Gulf coast. This was ''Iqlīm al-Baḥrayn'', i.e. the province of Bahrain, and the Arab inhabitants of the province were descendants of the [[Tribes of Arabia|Arab tribe]] [[Bani Abd al-Qais]].<ref name="Usmani2"/>
[[File:Khamis Mosque 1956.jpg|thumb|The Khamis Mosque in 1956.]]
Bahrain embraced Islam in 629 (the seventh year of hijra); [[Muhammad|Mohammed]] ruled Bahrain through one of his representatives, [[Al-Ala'a Al-Hadhrami]]. During the time of Umar I the famous companion of the Prophet, Abu Hurayrah, was the governor of Bahrain.  Umar I also appointed Uthman bin Abi Al Aas as governor of the area. [[Al Khamis Mosque]], founded in 692, was one of the earliest [[mosque]]s built in Bahrain, in the era of [[Umayyad]] caliph [[Umar II]].<ref name="Usmani2"/>

The expansion of Islam did not affect Bahrain's reliance on trade, and its prosperity continued to be dependent on markets in Mesopotamia. After [[Baghdad]] emerged as the seat of the [[caliph]] in 750 and the main centre of Islamic civilization, Bahrain greatly benefited from the city's increased demand for foreign goods especially from China and South Asia.<ref name=Robinson>{{cite book|editor-last1=Robinson|editor-first1=Francis|title=The Cambridge illustrated history of the Islamic world|date=1998|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=9780521669931|page=132|edition=Repr.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fz5kgjMDnOIC&pg=PA132|access-date=1 September 2015}}</ref> Bahrain became a hub for intellectuals for hundreds of years stretching from the early days of Islam in the 6th century to the 18th century. Philosophers of Bahrain were highly esteemed, such as the 13th century mystic, Sheikh [[Maitham Al Bahrani]] (died in 1299).