In 899 AD, a millenarian Ismaili sect, the Qarmatians, seized the country and sought to create a utopian society based on reason and the distribution of all property evenly among the initiates. The Qarmatians caused disruption throughout the Islamic world; they collected tribute from the caliph in Baghdad, and in 930 AD sacked Mecca and Medina, bringing the sacred Black Stone back to their base in Ahsa[disambiguation needed], in medieval Bahrain where it was held to ransom. According to the historian Al-Juwayni, the Stone was returned twenty-two years later, in 951, under mysterious circumstances; wrapped in a sack, it was thrown into the Friday Mosque of Kufa accompanied by a note saying "By command we took it, and by command we have brought it back." The Black Stone's abduction and removal caused further damage, breaking the stone into seven pieces.[15][16][17]

The Qarmatians were defeated in 976 AD by the Abbasids.[18] The final end of the Qarmatians came at the hand of the Arab Uyunid dynasty of al-Hasa, who took over the entire Bahrain region in 1076.[19] They controlled the Bahrain islands until 1235, when the islands were briefly occupied by the ruler of Fars. In 1253, the bedouin Usfurids brought down the Uyunid dynasty and gained control over eastern Arabia, including the islands of Bahrain. In 1330, the islands became tributary to the rulers of Hormuz,[20] though locally the islands were controlled by the Shi'ite Jarwanid dynasty of Qatif.[21]

Until the late Middle Ages, "Bahrain" referred to the larger historical region of Bahrain that included Ahsa, Qatif (both now within the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia) and the Awal Islands (now the Bahrain Islands). The region stretched from Basrah[disambiguation needed] to the Strait of Hormuz in Oman. This was Iqlim al-Bahrayn "Bahrayn Province". The exact date at which the term "Bahrain" began to refer solely to the Awal archipelago is unknown.[22] In the mid-15th century, the islands came under the rule of the Jabrids, a bedouin dynasty that was also based in al-Ahsa and ruled most of eastern Arabia.

The Portuguese invaded Bahrain in 1521 in alliance with Hormuz, seizing it from the Jabrid ruler Migrin ibn Zamil, who was killed in battle. Portuguese rule lasted for nearly 80 years, during which they depended mostly on Sunni Persian governors.[23] The Portuguese were expelled from the islands in 1602 by Abbas I of the Safavid dynasty of Iran, who instituted Shi'ism as the official religion in Bahrain.[24] The Iranian rulers retained sovereignty over the islands, with some interruptions, for nearly two centuries. For most of that 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.

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History

Bahrain is rich in history and ancient civilizations have only recently been discovered by international archaeologists. Its believed that for tens of thousands of years, nomads traveled over Bahrain's desert and primitive flint tolls found, testify to this history.

Recent finds have evidenced that Bahrain was indeed the site of the lost civilization of Dilmun dating from the third millennium BC, often refereed to as the fabled Garden of Eden and described as "paradise" in the Epic of Gilgamesh.

The land is repeatedly mentioned in Sumerian , Babylonian and Assyrian inscriptions as an important seaport between Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley, due to the perennial abundance of sweet water. By 600BC, Bahrain was absorbed into the new Babylonian Empire and once again flourished as a prosperous entreaty.

In 323BC, two of "Alexander the Great" ships arrived and new trade routes opened, resulting in such a strong Greek influence that Dilmun was renamed Tylos. Bahrain was also the site of the largest prehistoric cemetery in the world. At once stage an estimated 170,000 burial mounds covered the central and western areas.

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