The Origin of Bahrain: An Island in the Persian Gulf - Essay Sample

Introduction

The name Bahrain originates from an Arabic name "Bahr." Earlier the country was a part of the Dilmun Empire. Bahrain is a country that is a country that is officially known as the kingdom of Bahrain (Karolak, 2010). The country itself is an island that is situated in the Persian Gulf. Bahrain is a sovereign state which is made up of a small archipelago (many island that are in a large water body) that is concentrated around the Bahrain island which is located in between Peninsula and Qatar and also the north eastern parts of Saudi Arabia where the countries are linked up by a twenty-five kilometers long King Fahd Causeway (Karolak, 2010). Ad-Dukhan hill highest point is Bahrain island center point which is adjoined by salt marshes and sandy plains. There are also several aquifers along the northern parts and the north west of the island that are used for irrigation purposes (Karolak, 2010). There is scarce rain pour in the country that usually fall in the winter and the rest of the period is covered by a humid climate. Only one percent of the Bahrain land is suitable for crop growth, though there are over two hundred species of desert plants in the country, desert rats and mongoose, hares and gazelles in spite of the harsh climate (Karolak, 2010).

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

The country of Bahrain Islam is the state language but the percentage of people that practice the Muslim religion has gone down from the 20th century due to immigration from non-Muslim countries such as the Indians, Sri lanka and the Philippines (Winckler, 2008). In the Persian Gulf the Bahrain state were the first country in the post oil economy. According to the World Bank Bahrain is a high income economy because the country has a high human growth indication. The Bahrain kingdom is one o and springs of the members of the United Nations the Arabic league, the nonaligned movement, the gulf cooperation council and the organization of the Islamic organization. When compared to other neighboring oil rich countries of the Persian Gulf the Bahrain kingdom is seen to be proportionately poor. The oil in the kingdom has more or less dried up and the country now depends on tourism and international baking as their main source of revenue. Unemployment in the kingdom is in very high rates as compared to its neighbors (Winckler, 2008).

The demography of Bahrain according to CIA World Fact book was estimated to be 634,137 in 200o with the majority of the people being of the Arabic descent (Al-Said, 2005). A third of the population in the country are born from foreign immigrants and there are also very many temporary immigrants who are in the country for work related purposes. Ten percent of the people are non-Arabs of Bahrain, nineteen percent are Asians, and the Iran eight percent of the population. In the kingdom the population of men is higher than that of where with one third of the population being young people who are less than the age of fifteen. In the country there is a high birth rate and the death rate is slow (Al-Said, 2005). The official language of the Bahrain people is Arabic and it is the language that people use in their daily communications. The English language is understood in most areas while by the larger number of the population and Urdu and Farsi is widely spoken between the Persians and the Indians. The country has the national flag which is red in color with a serrated white brand of eight points that are placed along the left its left side (Al-Said, 2005).

The Bahrain has a traditional dress that is very popular among the people (Karolak, 2009). There is the Bahraini women dress that is known as the Abaya. It is a long black gown that is loose fitting, and it is worn alongside another black cloth and a hijab that covers the head. The men have a traditional dress that is called the throbe, and a traditional headdress that entails the ghutra, agar and the keffiyeh. The Bahrain traditional food entails meat, fish, dates, and rice dishes. The most popular dish in Bahrain though is the machboos that is rice served with meat or fish. Another popular dish is the muhammar which is sweet rice that is taken together with dates (Karolak, 2009).

The Bahrain kingdom is most famous because of its world class heritage cites, oil and pearls. Before oil was discovered in Bahrain it was popular because it was the port that connected the south east axis and the modern day Iraq. It is a popular tourist destination (Winckler, 2008). The Bahrain currency is the second currency with the highest value in the entire world. The country invests deeply in the banking and tourism sector, with its capital city having very many large financial structures making its financial industry very aggressive and successful making it one of the fastest growing economic centers according to the London's global financial centers index (Winckler, 2008). The demand of oil in the region has contributed to the rise of the financial services and the banking sectors with the petroleum products being the major export of the country accounting to sixty percent of the country's total export and seventy percent of the total country's revenues (Winckler, 2008).

References

Al-Said, J. (2005). The prevalence of hypertension in Persian Gulf countries and its correlation with demographic and socio-economic factors. Journal of hypertension, 23(6), 1275-1277.

Karolak, M. (2009). Preserving Arab culture in the Kingdom of Bahrain. In conference paper delivered at Inter-Disciplinary. Net Third Conference on Interculturalism, Meaning and Identity. Salzburg, Austria.

Karolak, M. (2010). Religion in a political context: The case of the Kingdom of Bahrain. Asia Journal of Global Studies, 4(1), 4-20.

Mansfeld, Y., & Winckler, O. (2008). The role of the tourism industry in transforming a rentier to a long-term viable economy: The case of Bahrain. Current Issues in Tourism, 11(3), 237-267.