Bahrain
- Karen Darnell
- Apr 22, 2020
- 4 min read
I see potential here for a literary renaissance in Bahrain. Let me explain. I’m not seeing this renaissance as being the same as the Italian or English Renaissance which brought new ideas about art and culture more than 500 years ago. I’m thinking more about the American Renaissance which brought us new literature built from materials already endemic in the United States, but thought of in new ways by Emerson, Thoreau, Melville and Hawthorne.
What materials does Bahrain, a small island country off the east coast of Saudi Arabia, have to build from? Their presence in the Gilgamesh epic, their rich history of pearl fishing, the superpowers which have fought over them, the missions that have tried to change them, the wealth that oil has brought them, the tension between Sunni and Shite, the questions about human rights abuses. There are stories here – there must be stories here – but I’m having a hard time finding them written by Bahraini authors.
This also presented a challenge to Ann Morgan. She listed two books for Bahrain (https://ayearofreadingtheworld.com/thelist/), Ali Al Saeed’s Quixotiq and Sarah A Al Sahfei’s Yummah, but neither are highly recommended and both are hard to find, so I started with documentaries and TV shows and learned more about Bahrain’s resources in “Pearl Islands: The Story of Bahrain's Natural Gems,” more about Bahrain’s recent history in “Bahrain: Shouting in the Dark” and “Bahrain: Breaking the Silence,” and more about Bahrain’s lifestyle in the series “Deals in the Desert.” All of these are available on Amazon. “Shouting in the Dark” and “Bahrain: Breaking the Silence” are also available on YouTube.
I decided I wanted to take a deeper dive, so I looked with some serious online tools:
· Searching the 37 million resources in The Digital Public Library of America at https://dp.la/ I found more than 1000 images from Bahrain (a set of Persian Gulf photographs from the Smithsonian was particularly notable and pictures of mission houses caught my attention as evidence of unknown stories). Most of the couple hundred text references were about trade, treaties, and a geological survey. Still looking for stories, I found a book published in 1955 about the nineteenth century British-Iranian controversy over Bahrain, the menu for a luncheon honoring the king of Bahrain at the White House during the presidency of the second George Bush, and a daily diary entry mentioning a telephone call with the same person (but at that time an Amir) during the presidency of the first George Bush. But all this is more like research than traveling, so I went on to other resources.
· A search of the the Central Intelligence Agency's Freedom of Information Act Electronic Reading Room found 1598 items, but again it felt more like research than armchair travel.
· I found material on the insects, birds, and mammals of Bahrain in the Biodiversity Heritage Library, but it wasn’t presented in an engaging way, so I still didn’t feel that I was traveling to Bahrain.
Since I never feel like I have truly visited a country virtually until I have put myself in the place of a person in the country through a novel, biography, or at least short story, I sent myself back to the library – not open but still available online – and checked out two books using Overdrive from the San Bernardino County Library. The young adult fiction Girl on a Plane by Miriam Moss is based on the author’s experience of being hijacked as a teenager on the way from her family’s home in Bahrain to school in England. It is only peripherally about Bahrain. The collection of short stories In the Country by Mia Alvar includes stories of Bahrain and so finally I feel like I have put myself in the place of a person in the country, but I still believe there are amazing untold stories out there. I’ll keep an eye out.
I also believe there is amazing Bahraini food to try out there, but all my Google and Yelp searches for Bahraini restaurants in California turned up empty and according to 15 Things You Didn’t Know About Bahrain by Alux.com (found on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ITpD4vfRzM), there aren’t any Bahraini restaurants in Bahrain either. If you want to eat authentic Bahraini food, you need to go to someone’s house or attempt to make it yourself.
Verygoodrecipes.com has several Bahraini recipes (https://verygoodrecipes.com/bahraini). If this was a normal time, I would invite some friends, we’d all make one, and have a party. I’ll have to break down the list and make them one or two at a time. The entrees are Chicken Machboos (Bahraini spiced chicken and rice) and Bahraini Kebab (chickpea fritters). Those would be served with Khubz (Bahraini flatbread). Desert is Umm Ali (Bahraini bread pudding) and Bahraini halwa. Sounds delicious!
If you are daydreaming about an actual trip to Bahrain, https://www.thecrazytourist.com/15-best-places-visit-bahrain/ can help.
Finally, when this pandemic is over, you might want to plan travel to Bahrain using your local travel advisor. Shout out to my favorite travel advisor, Kaitlin Darnell at Laura's Travel in Redlands. May the travel industry survive and thrive - may we all survive, thrive, recognize our mutual humanity, learn to deal with our conflicts, and allow peace and health to flourish in Bahrain and throughout the world.
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