Discussions of the Arab world, particularly the Gulf States, increasingly focus on sectarianism and autocratic rule. These features are often attributed to the dominance of monarchs, Islamists, oil, and ‘ancient hatreds’. To understand their rise, however, one has to turn to a largely forgotten but decisive episode with far-reaching repercussions – Bahrain under British colonial rule in the early twentieth century.
Drawing on a wealth of previously unexamined Arabic literature as well as British archives, Omar AlShehabi details how sectarianism emerged as a modern phenomenon in Bahrain. He shows how absolutist rule was born in the Gulf, under the tutelage of the British Raj, to counter nationalist and anti-colonial movements tied to the al-Nahda renaissance in the wider Arab world. A groundbreaking work, Contested Modernity challenges us to reconsider not only how we see the Gulf but the Middle East as a whole.
CONTENTS
Preface
Introduction: Approaching Absolutism, Nationalism, and Sectarianism in the Gulf
1 The Ethnosectarian Gaze and Divided Rule
2 Politics and Society Before Divided Rule, 1783–1900
3 Al-Nahda in Bahrain, 1875–1920
4 Contesting Divided Rule, 1900–1920
5 ‘Fitnah’: Ethnosectarianism Meets al-Nahda, 1921–1923
Postscript: The Rise of Absolutism and Nationalism, 1923–1979
Conclusion: State and Society Between Sectarianism and Nationalism
Bibliography
IndexIndustry Reviews
‘This is a crucial corrective to misleading and injurious narratives about the perpetually “sectarian” Gulf and its people. Credit to AlShehabi for historicizing the interrelated problems of sectarianism and colonialism in modern Bahrain, the Gulf region, and the wider Arab world.’
