1717 Omani invasion of Bahrain
Encyclopedia
In 1717 the Sultanate of Oman
Oman
Oman , officially called the Sultanate of Oman , is an Arab state in southwest Asia on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by the United Arab Emirates to the northwest, Saudi Arabia to the west, and Yemen to the southwest. The coast is formed by the Arabian Sea on the...

 invaded Bahrain
Bahrain
' , officially the Kingdom of Bahrain , is a small island state near the western shores of the Persian Gulf. It is ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family. The population in 2010 stood at 1,214,705, including 235,108 non-nationals. Formerly an emirate, Bahrain was declared a kingdom in 2002.Bahrain is...

 bringing an end to a 115 year rulership by the eroding Safavid dynasty
Safavid dynasty
The Safavid dynasty was one of the most significant ruling dynasties of Iran. They ruled one of the greatest Persian empires since the Muslim conquest of Persia and established the Twelver school of Shi'a Islam as the official religion of their empire, marking one of the most important turning...

. Following the Afghan invasion of Iran at the beginning of the eighteenth century which weakened the stronghold of the Safavids, the Omani forces were able to undermine Bahrain and culminated in victory for the Akhbari
Akhbari
The Akhbārīs are Twelver Shī‘a Muslims who reject the use of reasoning in deriving verdicts, and believe only the Qur'an, aḥadīth, and consensus should be used as sources to derive verdicts . The term Akhbārī is used in contrast to Usūlī...

.

Bahraini theologian, Sheikh Yusuf Al Bahrani
Yusuf Al Bahrani
Yusuf ibn Ahmed al-Bahrani was a Bahraini theologian and a key figure in the intellectual development of Twelver Shia Islam.Al-Bahrani grew up in Safavid-ruled Bahrain, at a time of intellectual ferment between Akhbari and Usuli Shi'ah Islam. His family were Usuli clerics who also worked as pearl...

, provides his personal account of the invasion in his biographical dictionary of Shia scholars, Lu’lu’at al-Baḥrayn (The Pearl of Bahrain):
However, when the Omanis relinquished control it did not bring peace to Bahrain; the political weakness of Persia meant that the islands were soon invaded by Huwala
Huwala
The Huwala meaning "Those that have changed or moved". Originally the "Huwala" word is Arabic, but since Persian does not contain the pharyngeal fricative "ح" present in Arabic, it pronounced it Huwala...

 Bedouins, who Al Bahrani says 'ruined' Bahrain. Almost constant warfare between various Sunni bedouin tribes, the Kharajite Omanis and then the Persians under Nadir Shah 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 - German Arabist Carsten Niebuhr
Carsten Niebuhr
Carsten Niebuhr or Karsten Niebuhr , a German mathematician, cartographer, and explorer in the service of Denmark, is renowned for his travels on the Arabian peninsula.-Biography:...

 found in 1763 that Bahrain's 360 towns and villages had through warfare and economic distress been reduced to only 60.

Later from 1783 Bahrain would be ruled by a succession of sheikhs from the House of Al-Khalifa which rule to this day.
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