Sawt al-Bahrain

Sawt al-Bahrain (Arabic: The Voice of Bahrain) was a monthly political magazine published in Manama, Bahrain, between 1950 and 1954.^[1] It was the first independent publication by the Bahraini intellectuals.^[2] The magazine laid the basis for the High Executive Committee (Arabic: al-Hay'a al-Tanfidhiyya al-Uliya) which was a cross-sectarian nationalist political movement in Bahrain founded in 1955 and inspired other publications including Al Isha which was a cultural journal.^[2][3]

Sawt al-Bahrain

Categories	Political magazine
Frequency	Monthly
Founded	1950
Final issue	August 1954
Country	Bahrain
Based in	Manama
Language	Arabic

History and profile

Sawt al-Bahrain was launched by the progressive Arab nationalist intellectuals in 1950.^[2][3] The idea to start a publication first emerged in 1949 during a meeting of the political activists led by Abdul Rahman Al Bakir.^[2] The headquarters of Sawt al-Bahrain was in Manama,^[4] and it was published on a monthly basis.^[5][6] The magazine was circulated in the Gulf countries and read by people with progressive ideas in distinct places, including Gulf cities, Riyadh, Mecca, Medina, Cairo, Iraq, the Levant, Yemen, Tunis, Zanzibar, Karachi and London.^[2]

Editors

In order to avoid government pressure James Belgrave who was the son of the King's advisor Charles Belgrave was appointed to the magazine to manage the advertisement and distribution.^[2] With the same concerns Ibrahim Hasan Kamal who was the secretary to the Bahraini minister of education was made the editor-in-chief.^[2] Bahraini veteran journalist Ali Sayyar started his journalism career in the magazine's first issue.^[7] One of the regular contributors was a Saudi Arabian leftist activist from Qatif, Abdul Rasul Al Jishi.^[3] Another Saudi Arabian contributor was Mohammad Said Al Muslim.^[8]

Sawt al-Bahrain had also women contributors. Although contributions from Bahraini women were very limited, leading Arab female writers such as Lebanese Rose Gharib and Palestinian poet Fadwa Tuqan frequently contributed to the magazine.^[2] Charles Belgrave also contributed to Sawt al-Bahrain in which he used the term Arabian gulf instead of other alternatives being "the first Westerner to use [it]."^[9]

Content and political stance

Sawt al-Bahrain attempted to create a modernist, Arab, Islamic and anti-colonial agenda through the exchange of ideas amongst the progressive intellectuals in the region.^[2] The magazine featured articles on social justice, economic equality and anti-colonialism^[2] as well as political events in the region such as labour strikes at the Saudi Aramco in the early 1950s.^[3] It supported the unity based on nationalism and aimed to narrow the gap between the two sects, Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims in the country.^[10] The editors of the magazine harshly criticized the Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO) which was run by foreigners calling it Tyrannical BAPCO, a small state, and the colonialist company.^[4] The monthly praised the overthrown of the royal establishment in Egypt in 1952.^[2] On the other hand, various airlines from the Arab world published their advertisements in Sawt al-Bahrain^[6] which also covered literary work.^[11]

Closure and legacy

Sawt al-Bahrain ceased publication in 1954 due to the pressure from the British authorities as a result of the conflicts about the Suez Canal.^[3][12] The last issue of the monthly appeared in August 1954.^[4] The same year another Bahraini publication, Al Qafilah, was also closed, and the advisor of the king, Charles Belgrave, reported the reason for these closures as their "offensive remarks about neighbouring friendly states."^[13]

Sawt al-Bahrain inspired a Saudi Arabian opposition magazine Al Isha (Arabic: The Shining Light) which was published in Khobar in the period 1955–1957.^[8] In 2011 Bahraini dissidents based in London established a bilingual publication with the title Sawt al-Bahrain.^[14]

References

1. Troy Michael Carter (2014). Traditions of protest, institutional sectarianism, and oil rentierism in authoritarian Bahrain (MA thesis). American University, Beirut. p. 58. hdl:10938/10241.
2. Wafa Alsayed (1 July 2020). "Sawt al-Bahrain: A Window onto the Gulf's Social and Political History". London School of Economics. Retrieved 22 April 2021.
3. Toby Matthiesen (2014). "Migration, Minorities, and Radical Networks: Labour Movements and Opposition Groups in Saudi Arabia, 1950–1975". International Review of Social History. 59 (3): 473–504. doi:10.1017/S0020859014000455.
4. Hamad Ebrahim Abdulla (2016). Sir Charles Belgrave and the Rise and Fall of Bahrain's National Union Committee (PhD thesis). University of East Anglia.
5. Mohammed Ghanim Al Rumaihi (1973). Social and political change in Bahrain since the First World War (PhD thesis). Durham University. p. 359.
6. Nelida Fuccaro (2013). "Shaping the Urban Life of Oil in Bahrain". Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East. 33 (1): 59–74. doi:10.1215/1089201X-2072721.
7. "Veteran Bahraini journalist Ali Sayyar mourned". GDN Life. 9 October 2019. Retrieved 23 April 2021.
8. Toby Matthiesen (2014). The Other Saudis. Shiism, Dissent and Sectarianism. New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 72–73. doi:10.1017/CBO9781107337732. ISBN 9781107337732.
9. Kamyar Ebdi (2007). "The Name Game. The Persian Gulf, Archaeologists, and the Politics of Arab-Iranian Relations". In Philip L. Kohl; Mara Kozelsky; Nachman Ben-Yehuda (eds.). Selective Remembrances: Archaeology in the Construction, Commemoration, and Consecration of National Pasts. Chicago, IL; London: University of Chicago Press. p. 225. ISBN 978-0-226-45059-9.
10. Kylie Moore Gilbert (2016). "From Protected State to Protection Racket: Contextualising Divide and Rule in Bahrain". Journal of Arabian Studies. 6 (2): 163–181. doi:10.1080/21534764.2016.1247521. S2CID 157736846.
11. Alaaeldin Mahmoud (2017). "Does Persian/Arabian-Gulf Comparative Literature Exist? An Exploration of the Practices of Comparatists in the Gulf Council Countries". Revista Brasileira de Literatura Comparada. 19 (30): 107–118.
12. Derek Jones, ed. (2001). "Bahrain". Censorship: A World Encyclopedia. Vol. 1–4. London; New York: Routledge. p. 169. ISBN 978-1-136-79864-1.
13. Marc Owen Jones (2016). Methods of Repression in Bahrain during the 20th and 21st Century: From the Civil List to Social Media (PhD thesis). Durham University. p. 234.
14. Thomas Fibiger (2020). "Silencing the voice of Bahrain? Regime-critical media and Bahrain's London diaspora". Journal of Arab & Muslim Media Research. 13 (1): 51–66. doi:10.1386/jammr_00010_1. S2CID 216384414.