Haji Al Balushi, from Oman

Bodybuilder, Fitness, Muscle Man,Haji Al Balushi, Oman

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A History of Bahrain through the National Museum

Yesterday, I visited the Bahrain National Museum in Manama for the first time in a year and I can just tell you, it was brilliant. The museum had sections on Dilmun (Bahrain's earliest name, discussed in previous posts here and here),  Tylos (Bahrain's Greek name), Islamic-era Bahrain.The arts & crafts section details life in Bahrain in the pre-oil era prior to the 1930s. The ancient document & manuscripts section was my favourite, to be honest. From gold-covered Qur'ans to documents from the Bahrain Theatre's charity night and Bahrain's first newspaper, I was truly amazed. Perhaps the spookiest but most-visited section of the museum is the 'Hall of the dead', a room with reconstructed (and actually-moved) burial mounds.

I've taken loads of photos from my phone (and tweeted them), so mind you the quality isn't brilliant. Feel free to reuse the images, I'm releasing them into the public domain.

The earliest mentioning of Dilmun in a Mesopotamian tablet

Most of products in Dilmun were imported from Magan (Oman)

An artist's impression of Bahrain during the Stone Age

Dilmunites had style...

Date seeds (magnified) found in Dilmunite bodies

Distribution of early-Dilmun settlements.

Diraz temple

Distribution of burial mounds in Bahrain (Dilmun era)

5% of Bahrain's land consists of burial mounds

The Tylos era saw the "re-use" of burial chambers

Dismissing the "Dilmun was a necropolis" theory

Fluorosis was fairly common in Bahrain

A Qur'an, made in the 18th century

An 18th century Arabic romance poetry

Bahrain's first newspaper was plainly called "Bahrain". Photo dated 1939.

A map of the pearling sites in Bahrain, dated 1832.

The Private Education Law of 1961 (presumably legalizing private education)

A Manama municipality decree in 1938 about the measurements for selling milk

Pearl-diving license, dated 1924.

The Bahrain newspaper's article on the opening of the Manama-Muharraq bridge in the 1950s.

The first modern school opened in Bahrain

Bahraini driving license, with instructions! Dated 1932.

An invitation to a lecture by the Bahrain Literary Club. Dated 1926.

A document from the Bahrain Theatre, dedicating 2 nights earnings to the orphans of Bahrain

Ummayed Dirham coin, 81AH. Minted in Isfahan.

This is by-far, my favourite. The Khamis mosque and the (now-discontinued) Khamis souq

Mihrab stone of Al Khamis Mosque

Tombstone from the Tylos era.

A model of the Tylos fortress at Ras al Qal'ah, built by the Parthians in 100BC-200AD

Foundation of another mosque (unknown mosque)

The Qanats system, a system of underground water channels for irrigation.

Bahrain's second oldest mosque..

The baker (in the Arts and Craft section)

A traditional gathering.

If you ever get the chance to visit the museum, I strongly recommend that you do. The entry fee is a meager 500 fils (plus the ticket comes with a postcard!), there's also an art exhibition there so if you're one for the arts, you simply must go! I spent hours in the museum and to be quite honest, it was time well spent.

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Saif Ali and Kareena to premiere Agent Vinod in Oman

The Muscat International Film pageant (MIFF) at the top of the month can play host to Bollywood star couple Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor.

They will attend the seventh edition of the Muscat Film pageant (MIFF) on March twenty five to premiere their much-awaited movie 'Agent Vinod'.

The lead actors can fly right down to Oman when the premiere in India on March twenty three.

The spy thriller is directed by Sriram Raghavan below Saif Ali Khan’s home production, Illuminati Films. The trailers of the movie guarantees ton of action and a few adrenaline kick.

In the movie a series of seemingly unconnected events across the planet ends up in Agent Vinod endeavor a globe-trotting mission to get why his colleague was murdered.

Saif plays a slick, trendy and a daredevil undercover agent (Agent Vinod) along sweetheart Kareena Kapoor who plays the character, Iram. Kareena has conjointly done some deadly stunts within the film and later revealed that ation isn't her cup of tea.

The movie was shot in Morocco, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Latvia, besides alternative countries.

Saif said, “Agent Vinod could be a business movie, packed with action, journey and fun, to a small degree bit Tintin, to a small degree little bit of Bond, and to a small degree of the Alistair McLean type. briefly i might say, the Muscat audience will expect a fun ride! Expect fun, journey and a Sriram Raghavan (director) movie with Agent Vinod! after I say a ‘commercial’ movie, expect to a small degree little bit of everything, I don’t mean that the character could be a copy of a Tintin or a Bond, no approach --Agent Vinod is original. the $64000 thing!”

Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Sriram Raghavan and Dinesh Vijan (partner-producer) are in Oman for the 'Agent Vinod' premiere.

Agent Vinod planning to be|are} the first-ever film that's going to be premiered in Oman. it's already set the market abuzz with excitement and given a new fillip to the seventh Muscat International Film pageant (MIFF).

agent vinodh review

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The Omani Invasion of Bahrain and the "Century of Madness"

The Omani Invasion:

During the beginning of the 18th Century, an Afghan uprising (in Afghanistan) and subsequent invasion of Persia by the Afghans caused regional instability which resulted in the Persians pulling out their garrisons from Bahrain. Taking advantage of the confusion, the Sultanate of Oman (in 1717), then a regional power in the Gulf, invaded the island thus lifting 115 years of Safavid control of the island.

The Bahraini cleric, Shaikh Yousif al Bahrani (the cleric I previously mentioned) provided a detailed account of this invasion in his autobiography and book:

The earth shook and everything came to a standstill while preparations were made to do battle with these vile men [the Khārijite Omani invasion force]. The first year they came to seize it they returned disappointed, for they were unable to do so. Nor were they able to succeed the second time a year later, despite the help they received from all of the Bedouin and outlaws. The third time, however, they were able to surround Bahrain by controlling the sea, for Bahrain is an island. In this way they eventually weakened its inhabitants and then took it by force. It was a horrific battle and a terrible catastrophe, for all the killing, plunder, pillage, and bloodshed that took place.

After the Khārijites had conquered it and granted the inhabitants safe passage, the people—especially the notables—fled to al-Qaṭīf and other regions. Among them was my father—God have mercy upon him—accompanied by his dependents [i.e., wives] and children, who traveled with them to al-Qaṭīf. But he left me in Bahrain in the house we owned in al-Shākhūra because some chests filled with bundles of our possessions, including books, gold coins, and clothes, were hidden there. He had taken a large portion of our possessions up to the fortress in which everyone had planned to [take refuge] when we were besieged, but he had left some behind in the house, stored in hiding places. Everything in the fortress was lost after the Khārijites took it by force, and we all left the fortress with nothing but the clothes on our backs. So when my father left for al-Qaṭīf, I remained in Bahrain; he had ordered me to gather whatever books remained in the fortress and save them from the hands of the Khārijites. I did manage to save a number of books that I found there along with some that were left in the house, which I sent to him a few at a time. These years passed in an utter lack of prosperity.I then traveled to al-Qaṭīf to visit my father and stayed there two or three months, but my father grew fed up with sitting in al-Qaṭīf because of the large number of dependents he had with him, the miserable conditions, and his lack of money, so he grew determined to return to Bahrain even though it was in the hands of the Khārijites. Fate, however, intervened between him and his plans, for the Persian army, along with a large number of Bedouins, arrived at that time to liberate Bahrain from the hands of the Khārijites. We followed the events closely and waited to see the outcome of these disasters; eventually the wheel of fortune turned against the Persians, they were all killed, and Bahrain was burned. Our house in the village [of al-Shākhūra] was among those burned.During this time, I was traveling back and forth to Bahrain in order to take care of the date palms we owned there and gather the harvest, then returning to al-Qaṭīf to study. [This continued] until Bahrain was taken from the hands of the Khārijites by treaty, after a great sum had been paid to their commander, because of the Persian king's weakness and impotence, and his empire's decline through bad administration. 

Political Limbo in Bahrain:

No clear historical evidence suggests that the Omanis had stayed for a significant period of time aside from the data above. It is widely believed that Bahrain had been pillaged by the Omanis simply for wealth. However, when the Omanis had left, political instability in the island had led to many invasions by Huwala Bedouins. These were Sunni Arabs who had migrated to Persia in the early centuries, it also applies vice versa( Sunni Persians settling in Arabia). Al Bahrani says that these tribes had 'ruined' Bahrain.

A map (in Arabic) showing the extent of the Omani Empire

Almost constant warfare between various Sunni bedouin tribes, the Kharajite Omanis and then the Persians under Nadir Shah (who had sought to re-establish Persian dominance in the island) and Karim Khan Zand laid waste to much of Bahrain, while the high taxes imposed by the Omanis drove out both the ulema,pearl merchants and the pearl divers .

In 1736, Bahrain had been recaptured by Persia , along with the aid of the British and the Dutch. But afterwards, it was ruled by the Arabs of Abu Shahr of the Bushire-based Al Madhkur family but it was indirectly a vassal state to (then De Facto Shah) Karim Khan of the Safavids.

The years of almost constant warfare and instability in the period led to a demographic collapse - German geographer and Arabist Carsten Niebuhr found in 1763 that Bahrain's 360 towns and villages had, through warfare and economic distress, been reduced to only 60.The influence of Iran was further undermined at the end of the 18th century when the ideological power struggle between the Akhbari-Usuli strands culminated in victory for the Akhbaris in Bahrain (Bet you thought they all died out :P )

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Issa Al Hasni (Mr. Oman)

This is Issa Al Hasni, he started bodybuilding in 2003 and his goal is to become a IFBB Pro bodybuilder. We wish you good luck Issa :)











Country: Oman  
Birthdate: 1980  
Height: ? 
Off season weight: ?
Competition weight: ?

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