Mosque and Bait Siyadi, Muharraq, Bahrain

Siyadi House, also known as Bayt Siyadi (Arabic: بيت سيادي) is a

historic building This list is of heritage registers, inventories of cultural properties, natural and man-made, tangible and intangible, movable and immovable, that are deemed to be of sufficient heritage value to be separately identified and recorded. In many i ...

Muharraq Muharraq ( ar, المحرق, al-Muḥarraq) is Bahrain's third largest city and served as its capital until 1932 when it was replaced by Manama. The population of Muharraq in 2012 was 176,583. The city is located on Muharraq Island. Bahrain Int ...

City,

Kingdom 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 ad ...

. It is part of a larger complex of buildings constructed for the pearl merchant Abdullah bin Isa Siyadi, which further includes a

mosque A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...

and a majlis. While the Siyadi House was built under Ahmad bin Jassim Siyadi, the construction of the Siyadi Majlis was initiated by Ahmad bin Jassim Siyadi and the Siyadi Mosque was a shared initiative of Isa and Jassim bin Ahmad Siyadi. It is also a part of the

Bahrain pearling trail The Bahrain Pearling Path is a serial cultural heritage site inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List on June 30, 2012. It consists of three oyster beds in the northern waters of Bahrain, a segment of the coast and the seafront Bu Mahir fort ...

, the second

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

in the country.

History

The Siyadi family arrived to Bahrain in the early 19th century and settled close to the rulers’ houses in the Sh. Abdallah neighbourhood. The family's wealth originated from their involvement in the pearl trade, which blossomed in Muharraq in the 19th century.

Architecture

The oldest part of the complex is Siyadi Mosque, which Isa and Jassim bin Yousif Siyadi donated to the Muharraq community in 1865. The original building was later revised and, according to Yarwood, the preserved structure dates to 1910. the Siyadi Mosque is the oldest preserved mosque in Muharraq and is still used for daily prayers. Siyadi Majlis was constructed in two phases; the first phase initiated by Jassim bin Yousif Siyadi in 1850, which covered the ground floor and the upper-storey rooms constructed during the second phase in 1921. The largest part of the complex, Siyadi House is still used as a

private residence A home, or domicile, is a space used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for one or many humans, and sometimes various companion animals. It is a fully or semi sheltered space and can have both interior and exterior aspects to it. H ...

and is inhabited by Abdallah bin Hassan Siyadi, the grandson of the builder Abdallah bin Isa Siyadi. It is not open to accessible to public and cannot be visited. The 450 square meters residence was the last construction and is dated to 1931. The three buildings illustrate elaborate decorations of the late pearling era of Bahrain, in particular Siyadi Majlis has an inside room worth visiting.John Falagan: ''We're all men here'', 2007, p. 294 At present the Siyadi Majlis is under the responsibility of the Ministry of Culture, Bahrain.

Notes

Cultural heritage Islamic architecture 19th-century establishments in Bahrain Tourism in Bahrain {{bahrain-stub