hat period, they resorted to governing Bahrain indirectly, either through Bushehr or through immigrant Sunni Arab clans, such as the Huwala, who where returning to Arabian side of the Gulf from the Persian territories in the north, namely Lar[disambiguation needed] and Bushehr (whence the name, Hawilah, "the returnees").[23][25][26] During this period, the islands suffered two serious invasions by the Ibadhis of Oman in 1717 and 1738.[27][28] In 1753, the Huwala clan of Al Madhkur invaded Bahrain on behalf of the Iranians, restoring direct Iranian rule.[29] Origin of the Bani Utbah Tribe This article is part of the series on: History of Bahrain Ancient Bahrain Dilmun Tylos and Mishmahig Awal Historical region Islam in Bahrain Al-Ala'a Al-Hadrami Qarmatians Portuguese occupation Muqrin ibn Zamil Antonio Correia Safavid hegemony (1602-1717) 1717 Oman invasion of Bahrain Al Khalifa and the British Protectorate 1783 Al Khalifa invasion of Bahrain Perpetual Truce of Peace and Friendship (1861) First Oil Well (1932) 20th Century Bahrain National Union Committee March 1965 Intifada 1981 coup d'état attempt Uprising 1994-2000 2000s in Bahrain Topical Military history of Bahrain Timeline of Bahrain history The Al Bin Ali Tribe are the original descendants of Bani Utbah tribe being that they are the only tribe to carry the last name Al-Utbi in their Ownership's documents of Palm gardens in Bahrain as early as the year 1699 - 1111 Hijri[30]. They are specifically descendants of their great grand father Ali Al-Utbi who is a descendant of their great grand father Utbah hence the name Bani Utbah which means sons of Utbah. Utbah is the great grandfather of the Bani Utbah which is a section of Khafaf from Bani Sulaim bin Mansoor from Mudhar from Adnan. The plural word for Al-Utbi is Utub and the name of the tribe is Bani Utbah. In 1783, Nasr Al-Madhkur lost the islands of Bahrain to Bani Utbah tribe whom which Shaikh Isa Bin Tarif, Chief of Al Bin Ali belongs to. Shaikh Isa Bin Tarif was a desecendant of the original uttoobee conquereres of Bahrain[31] This took place after the defeat of Nasr Al-Madhkur to the Bani Utbah in the battle of Zubarah that took place in the year 1782 between the Al Bin Ali from the Bani Utbah Tribe and the Army of Nasr Al-Madhkur Ruler of Bahrain and Bushire. Zubarah was originally the center of power of the Bani Utbah in which the Al Bin Ali Tribe in Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and U.A.E derives from. The Al Bin Ali were the Arabs that were occupying Zubarah[32], they were the original dominant group of Zubara.[33] The Islands of Bahrain were not new to the Bani Utbah, they were always connected to this island, whether by settling in it during summer season or by purchasing date palm gardens. The Al Bin Ali were a politically important group that moved backwards and forwards between Qatar and Bahrain[33]. The Bani Utbah had been present in the banks of Bahrain in the seventeenth century[34]. During that time, they started purchasing date palm gardens in Bahrain. One of the documents which belongs to Shaikh Salama Bin Saif Al Utbi, one of the Shaikh's of the Al Bin Ali, backs this statement about the presence of the Bani Utbah in Bahrain in the seventeenth century. It states that Mariam Bint Ahmed Al Sindi, a shia women has sold a Palm Garden in the Island Of Sitra at Bahrain to Shaikh Salama Bin Saif Al Utbi dating to the year 1699 - 1111 Hijri before the arrival of Al-Khalifa to Bahrain by more than 90 years.[35]. 1783: rising power of Bani Utbah After the Bani Utbah gained power in 1783, the Al Bin Ali had a practically independent status in Bahrain as a self governed tribe. They used a flag with four red and three white stripes, called the Al-Sulami flag[36] in Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, and Eastern province in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It was raised on their ships during wartime and in the pearl season and on special occasions such as weddings and during Eid and in the “ Ardha of war ”[37]. Al Bin Ali were known for their courage, persistence, and abundant wealth[38]. Later, different Arab family clans and tribes mostly from Qatar moved to Bahrain to settle there since the Persian sovereignty there had come to an end with the fall of the Zand Dynasty of Persia.  These families and tribes included the Al Khalifa, Al-Ma'awdah, Al-Fadhil, Al-Mannai, Al-Noaimi, Al-Sulaiti, Al-Sadah, Al-Thawadi, and other families and tribes. Most of these tribes settled in Muharraq, the capital of Bahrain and the center of power at that time since the Al Bin Ali lived there. There is still a neighborhood in Muharraq city named Al Bin Ali. It is the oldest and biggest neighborhood in Muharraq, members of this tribe lived in this area for more than three centuries.[citation needed] Al Khalifa ascendancy to Bahrain and their treaties with the British Fourteen years later after gaining power of Bani Utbah, the Al Khalifa family moved to Bahrain in 1797 as settlers in Jaww, and later moved to Riffa. They were originally from Kuwait but had left it in 1766. According to a tradition preserved by the Al-Sabah family, the reason why the ancestors of their section and those of the Al-Khalifa section came to Kuwait was that they had been expelled by the Turks from Umm Qasr upon Khor Zubair, an earlier seat from which they had been accustomed to prey as brigands upon the caravans of Basra and as pirates upon the shipping of the Shatt Al Arab.[39] In the early nineteenth centuriy, Bahrain was invaded by both the Omanis and the Al Sauds, and 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.[40] In 1820, the Al Khalifa rule to Bahrain became active, but it was buttressed when it entered into a treaty relationship with Britain, which was by then the dominant military power in the Persian Gulf. This treaty granted the Al Khalifa the title of Rulers of Bahrain. It was the first of several treaties including the 1861 Perpetual Truce of Peace and Friendship, which was further revised in 1892 and 1951. In the 19th century, the Al-Khalifas controlled the main archipelago of Bahrain, the Hawar Islands and the section of the Qatar peninsula around Zubarah called the Zubarah Bloc. The Al Bin Ali played a part in helping the Al Khalifa to retain possession of their new territory in the early days.[38] Between 1869 and 1872 Midhat Pasha brought the islands nominally under the authority of the Ottoman Empire with coordination with the British and Ottoman ships starting appearing in the area. This treaty was similar to those entered into by the British Government with the other Persian Gulf principalities. It specified that the ruler could not dispose of any of his territory except to the United Kingdom and could not enter into relationships with any foreign government without British consent. In return the British promised to protect Bahrain from all aggression by sea and to lend support in case of land attack. More importantly the British promised to support the rule of the Al Khalifa in Bahrain, securing its unstable position as rulers of the country. According to SOAS academic, Nelida Fuccaro: “ From this perspective state building under the Al Khalifa shayks should not be considered exclusively as the result of Britain’s informal empire in the Persian Gulf. In fact, it was a long process of strategic negotiation with different sections of the local population in order to establish a pre-eminence of their particularly artistic Sunni/Bedouin tradition of family rule.[41] ” 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.[42] 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 in to a modern state.[43] 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 hub of a web of trade routes across the Persian Gulf, Persia and the Indian sub-continent. A contemporary account of Manama in 1862 found: “ 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’. WG Palgrave, Narrative of a Year’s Journey through Central and Eastern Arabia (1862-3)[44] ” 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’.[45] 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."[46] The great trading families that emerged during this period have been compared to the Borgias and Medicis[47] and their great wealth - long before the oil wealth the region would later be renown for - 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 19th Century.[48] The Al Safar enjoyed an 'exceptionally close'[49] 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). Bahrain’s trade with India saw the cultural influence of the subcontinent grow dramatically, with styles of dress, cuisine, and education all 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.”[50] Bahrain underwent a period of major social reform between 1926 and 1957, under the de facto rule of Charles Belgrave, the British advisor to Shaikh Hamad ibn Isa Al-Khalifa (1872-1942). The country's first modern school was established in 1919, with the opening of the Al-Hiddaya Boys School, while the Arab Persian Gulf's first girls school opened in 1928. The American Mission Hospital, established by the Dutch Reform Church, began work in 1903. Other reforms include the abolition of slavery, while the pearl diving industry developed at a rapid pace. These reforms were often opposed vigorously by powerful groups within Bahrain including sections within the ruling family, tribal forces, the religious authorities and merchants. In order to counter conservatives, the British removed the Emir, Isa bin Ali Al Khalifa, replacing him with his son in 1923. Some Sunni tribes such as the al Dossari were forcibly removed from Bahrain and sent to mainland Arabia, while clerical opponents of social reforms were exiled to Saudi and Iran, and the heads of some merchant and notable families were likewise exiled. The Britain’s interest in pushing Bahrain’s development was motivated by concerns about Saudi-Wahabbi and Iranian ambitions. Discovery of petroleum Oil was discovered in 1932 and brought rapid modernization to Bahrain. This discovery made relations with the United Kingdom closer, as evidenced by the British establishing more bases there. British influence would continue to grow as the country developed, culminating with the appointment of Charles Belgrave as an advisor;[51] Belgrave established modern education systems in Bahrain.[52] After World War II, increasing anti-British sentiment spread throughout the Arab World and led to riots in Bahrain. The riots focused on the Jewish community, which counted among its members distinguished writers and singers, accountants, engineers and middle managers working for the Oil Company, textile merchants with business all over the peninsula, and free professionals. Following the events of 1947, most members of Bahrain's Jewish community abandoned their properties and evacuated to Bombay, later settling in Palestine (later Israel - Tel Aviv's Pardes Chana neighborhood) and the United Kingdom. As of 2007, 36 Jews remained in the country. The issue of compensation was never settled. In 1960, the United Kingdom put Bahrain's future to international arbitration and requested that the United Nations Secretary-General take on this responsibility. In 1970, Iran laid claim to Bahrain and the other Persian Gulf islands. However, in an agreement with the United Kingdom it agreed "not to pursue" its claims on Bahrain if its other claims were realized. The following plebiscite saw Bahrainis confirm their Arab identity and independence from Britain. Bahrain to this day remains a member of the Arab League and Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf. The British withdrew from Bahrain on 16 December 1971, making Bahrain an independent emirate.[4] The oil boom of the 1970s greatly benefited Bahrain, but its downturn hurt. However, the country had already begun to diversify its economy, and had benefited from the Lebanese civil war that began in the 1970s; Bahrain replaced Beirut as the Middle East's financial hub as Lebanon's large banking sector was driven out of the country by the war.[53] After the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, Bahraini Shi'a fundamentalists in 1981 orchestrated a failed coup attempt under the auspices of a front organization, the Islamic Front for the Liberation of Bahrain. The coup would have installed a Shi'a cleric exiled in Iran, Hujjatu l-Islam Hadi al-Mudarrisi, as supreme leader heading a theocratic government.[54] In 1994, a wave of rioting by disaffected Shia Islamists was sparked by women's participation in a sporting event. During the mid-1990s, the Kingdom was badly affected by sporadic violence between the government and the cleric-led opposition in which over forty people were killed.[55] In March 1999, King Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifah succeeded his father as head of state and instituted elections for parliament, gave women the right to vote, and released all political prisoners. These moves were described by Amnesty International as representing an "historic period of human rights".[56] The country was declared a kingdom in 2002. It formerly was considered a State and officially called a "Kingdom". Politics Bahrain This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Bahrain Constitution King: Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifah Prime minister Khalifah ibn Sulman Al Khalifah National Assembly Consultative Council Council of Representatives Political parties Elections: 2006 parliamentary Governorates Human rights Women's political rights Foreign relations Other countries · Atlas Politics portal view • talk • edit Main article: Politics of Bahrain See also: Bahraini parliamentary election, 2006 and Human rights in Bahrain The Bahrain Royal Flight (Boeing 747SP). Bahrain is a constitutional monarchy headed by the King, Shaikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa; the head of government is the Prime Minister, Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman al Khalifa, who presides over a cabinet of twenty-five members, where 80% of its members are from the royal family. Bahrain has a bicameral legislature with a lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, elected by universal suffrage and an upper house, the Shura Council, appointed by the king. Both houses have forty members. the first round of voting in the 2006 parliamentary election took place on 25 November 2006, and second round Islamists hail huge election victory.[57] The opening up of politics has seen big gains for both Shia and Sunni Islamists in elections, which have given them a parliamentary platform to pursue their policies. This has meant parties launching campaigns to impose bans on female mannequins displaying lingerie in shop windows,[58] sorcery, and the hanging of underwear on washing lines.[59] Analysts of democratization in the Middle East cite the Islamists' references to respect for human rights in their justification for these programmes as evidence that these groups can serve as a progressive force in the region. Islamist parties have been particularly critical of the government's readiness to sign international treaties such as the United Nation's International Convention on Civil and Political Rights.[60] At a parliamentary session in June 2006 to discuss ratification of the Convention, Sheikh Adel Mouwda, the former leader of salafist party, Asalah, explained the party's objections: "The convention has been tailored by our enemies, God kill them all, to serve their needs and protect their interests rather than ours. This why we have eyes from the American Embassy watching us during our sessions, to ensure things are swinging their way".[61] Both Sunni and Shi'a Islamists suffered a setback in March 2006 when 20 municipal councillors, most of whom represented religious parties, went missing in Bangkok on an unscheduled stopover when returning from a conference in Malaysia.[62] After the missing councillors eventually arrived in Bahrain they defended their stay at the Radisson Hotel in Bangkok, telling journalists it was a "fact-finding mission", and explaining: "We benefited a lot from the trip to Thailand because we saw how they managed their transport, landscaping and roads".[63] Bahraini liberals have responded to the growing power of religious parties by organizing themselves to campaign through civil society in order to defend basic personal freedoms from being legislated away. In November 2005, al Muntada, a grouping of liberal academics, launched "We Have A Right", a campaign to explain to the public why personal freedoms matter and why they need to be defended. Women's political rights in Bahrain saw an important step forward when women were granted the right to vote and stand in national elections for the first time in the 2002 election. However, no women were elected to office in that year’s polls and instead Shi'a and Sunni Islamists dominated the election, collectively winning a majority of seats. In response to the failure of women candidates, six were appointed to the Shura Council, which also includes representatives of the Kingdom’s indigenous Jewish and Christian communities. The country's first female cabinet minister was appointed in 2004 when Dr. Nada Haffadh became Minister of Health, while the quasi-governmental women's group, the Supreme Council for Women, trained female candidates to take part in the 2006 general election. When Bahrain was elected to head the United Nations General Assembly in 2006 it appointed lawyer and women's rights activist Haya bint Rashid Al Khalifa as the President of the United Nations General Assembly,[64] only the third woma