Dictionary of islamic architecture

See also:
Iraq
Further reading:
J.Lassner, 
The Topography of Baghdad in the Middle Ages,
Wayne State University Press, Detroit 1970.
V.Strika and J.Khalil, 
The Islamic Architecture of Baghdad,
Naples 1987.
J.Warren and I.Fethi, 
Traditional Houses in Baghdad,
Horsham, UK 1982.
Bahrain
The State of Bahrain comprises a small island on the west
side of the Persian/Arabian Gulf located between Qatar
and Saudi Arabia.
During Antiquity the island may have been known
as Dilmun and during the early Islamic period was
known as Awal. The Islamic history of the country
is closely tied to its Persian and Arabian neighbours,
a fact which is reflected in its architecture and culture.
The island seems to have been an important trading
centre in the Sassanian period but seems to have
missed out from the general economic boom of the
early Islamic period. In the tenth century the island
escaped from the control of the Abbasid dynasty and
became one of the main bases of the Ismaili
Carmathian state which controlled much of the
northern Gulf during this period. With the collapse
of the Carmathians in the tenth century the island
came under the control of the Uyunids who were
another local dynasty. From the twelfth century
onwards Bahrain was under the influence of Persian
dynasties who used the island as a trading base with
pearls as the basic commodity. In 1504 Bahrain was
captured by the Portuguese who controlled the
island until 1602 when the country again fell under
the influence of Iran. In the 1780s the Khalifa family
came from Arabia and established themselves as
rulers of the island with British protection. In 1860
Bahrain became a British de-pendency until its
independence in 1971.
The building materials on Bahrain are similar to
those used elsewhere in the Gulf and include
limestone and coral blocks for masonry and palm trees
for wood and thatch. The country contains several
early Islamic sites the most famous of which is Qal
at
Bahrain on the north coast. The Qal
at as revealed by
excavation is a small rectangular building with round
corner towers, semi-circular buttress towers and a
projecting entrance made out of two quarter circles
with a gateway between. Next to this fort is a large
fortress built in the thirteenth century which is known
Bahrain

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as the Portu-guese fort because of its restoration in
the sixteenth century.
Bahrain contains several historical mosques, the
most famous of which is the Suq al-Khamis Mosque
founded in the eleventh century. The present building
has two main phases, an earlier prayer hall with a flat
roof supported by wooden columns dated to the
fourteenth century and a later section with a flat roof
supported on arches resting on thick masonry piers
(this has been dated to 1339). Another distinctive
building is the Abu Zaidan Mosque built in the
eighteenth century which has a long transverse prayer
hall with open sides and a triple arched portico.
The typical Bahrain merchant’s house is built
around several courtyards each of which forms a
separate unit opening on to a series of shallow rooms.
Upstairs the arrangement of rooms is repeated but
instead of the thick stone walls of the ground floor
the walls are built of a series of piers alternating with
panels made out of thin coral slabs. Sometimes two
layers of coral slabs were used with a cavity in
between to provide increased thermal insulation. The
temperature of the lower rooms is kept low by various
ventilation ducts connected to wind catchers. In
addition to coral panels plaster screens are used as a
means of ensuring privacy in the upper part of the
house. These screens are often decorated with
geometric patterns, the most common of which is a
series of intersecting rectangles producing a stepped
pattern. Most of the traditional houses of Bahrain are
located in the Muharraq district of the capital
Manama. The most famous house is the palace of
Sheikh Isa built in 1830 and recently restored as a
national monument. The house is built around four
courtyards and includes some beautiful incised stucco
panels in the upper rooms.