Bahrani

The Bahrani are Shia Arab inhabitants of historical Bahrain, including Bahrain, Qatif and Al-Ahsa, commonly held to be its original settled population, descended from Aramaic-speaking farmers, Nestorian Christian Arabs and Persian settlers before Islam. They entered Islam in 628, when the Prophet's envoy Al-Ala'a Al-Hadrami won over their ruler Munzir ibn Sawa, their Bahrani Arabic still keeping Akkadian and Aramaic farming words.

Medieval dynasties, Qarmatians, Uyunids and Jarwanids among them, ruled them, and Shia scholar Maitham al-Bahrani (died 1299) made Bahrain a Shia learning center. A Portuguese fleet under António Correia seized the islands in 1521, after which Safavid Persia shaped their Twelver faith.

Omani and Persian invasions troubled the eighteenth century until 1783, when Najd's Sunni Al Khalifa conquered Bahrain, leaving the Bahrani subjects in their own land; many migrated to Kuwait, Basra and Iranian ports, bringing shipbuilding, pottery and palm weaving.