'File 12/1 II Persian Claim to Bahrain, April 1946-December 1950' [‎4r] (7/20)

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separate in religious matters, they do not generally worship
in the same mosques, they have separate matems and, to a
certain extent, in Manamah, they occupy different districts
in the town* There are no Persians living in the Bahama
villages.
3# I have recently discussed the question of Persian
influence in Bahrain with a number of different people and
all that I have heard lately supports my own previous opin
ion which is that the Bahama as a whole have no sympathy
or liking for the Persians. The villagers know little
about the Persians and have little contact with them and they
form the majority of the Bahama; the Manamah Bahama, who
are better educated, who travel more and who are interested
in politics, would not welcome Persiem rule in spite of
their inherent dislike of the Ruling Family which is based
upon the fact that the Ruling Family now own the property
which used to belong to the Bahama and also because many
of the older men remember the oppressive measures of the
Ruling Family in the past. There are however among the
town Bahama individuals who have strong personal reasons
for disliking the present regime, such as the ex-Qadi, Shaikh
Abdullah bin Mohomed Saleh and others, and who would be will
ing to intrigue with Persia though they would not come out
into the open and if they tried to get support from the
Bahama community as a whole they would meet with no success«j
I feel that I should say that because the Bahama regard me
as their supporter they talk to me very freely about their
feelings and their political aspirations.
4. There are three different categories of Persians
in Bahrain, Persian Shias "Ajen", Persian Sunnis and Holis Group of people who migrated from the Arab shores of the Gulf to the Persian side over the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, many of whom have since returned to the Arabian Peninsula. ,
the last two categories overlap. The Persian Shias are
far the most numerous, they include most of the coolies A term used to describe labourers from a number of Asian countries, now considered derogatory. ,
boatmen, bakers, small shopkeepers, coffee shop proprietors,
domestic servants, taxi drivers, many of the water carriers