Bani Jamra ( ar, بني جمرة) is a village in the north-west of
Bahrain
Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...
. It lies west of the capital
Manama
Manama ( ar, المنامة ', Bahrani pronunciation: ) is the capital and largest city of Bahrain, with an approximate population of 200,000 people as of 2020. Long an important trading center in the Persian Gulf, Manama is home to a very di ...
, east of the coastal village of
Budaiya
Al Budaiya ( ar, البديع) is a coastal town located in the northwestern region of Bahrain Island, in the Northern Governorate of the Kingdom of Bahrain. It neighbors the villages of Diraz and Bani Jamra.
History
The town was founded by the ...
. It is administered under the
Northern Governorate
The Northern Governorate ( ar, المحافظة الشمالية , translit=Al-Muḥāfaẓat aš-Šamālīyah) is one of the four governorates of Bahrain. It includes parts of the former municipalities of Al Mintaqah al Gharbiyah, Al Mint ...
.
Before the
discovery of oil in Bahrain
As its name suggests, it is the first oil well in the Arabian side of the Persian Gulf and is located in Bahrain. The well is situated below Jebel Dukhan. It was discovered and operated by Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO), established in 1929 ...
, most of inhabitants were involved in
farming
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...
, especially
date palms. Bani Jamra is also famous as a center of traditional
fabric weaving, a rapidly dying art.
History
In
J. G. Lorimer's
Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf
The ''Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia'' (nicknamed ''Lorimer'') is a two-volume encyclopedia compiled by John Gordon Lorimer. The ''Gazetteer'' was published in secret by the British government in India in 1908 and 1915 a ...
(1908), he writes that the village consisted of 50 huts occupied by the
Baharna
The Baharna ( ar, بحارنة) are the indigenous Shia Muslim inhabitants of Bahrain who inhabited the area before the arrival of Sunni Muslim Arab tribes from Najd, particularly by Banu Utbah in the 18th century which the Bahraini royal fami ...
, whom were mostly farmers and weavers. There were an estimated 1,500 palm trees in the village.
Notable residents
*
Abdul Amir al-Jamri
Sheikh Abdul Amir al-Jamri ( ; ar, شيخ عبدالأمير الجمري; 1 March 1938 – 18December 2006) was one of the most prominent Shia clerics and opposition leaders in Bahrain. He was also a writer and a poet.
Born in the village of ...
,
Bahraini opposition
The Bahraini opposition refers to a group of political groups who are opposed to the Cabinet of Bahrain government and the ruling monarch of the Sunni House of Khalifa. Currently, the Bahraini opposition can be divided into the officially registere ...
leader
*
Mansoor Al-Jamri, editor-in-chief of
Al-Wasat
*
Nabeel Rajab
Nabeel Ahmed Abdulrasool Rajab ( ar, نبيل أحمد عبدالرسول رجب, born on 1 September 1964) is a Bahraini human rights activist and opposition leader. He is a member of the Advisory Committee of Human Rights Watch's Middle East ...
, Bahraini human rights activist
References
External links
Bani Jamra Cloth WeavingBani Jamra website
Populated places in Bahrain
{{Bahrain-geo-stub