BAHREIN, an archipelago named from its chief island, in the gulf of the same name occupying the angle formed by the Qatar peninsula and the Hasa coast of Arabia. Bahrein island, 27m. long and loin. wide, lying north and south is a low flat expanse of sand, with a number of luxuriant oases, and the rocky crater like hill of Jebel Dukhan, 400f t., is its central and most promi nent feature. Manama, the port and capital, generally referred to as "Bahrein," extends 3m. along the shore with a population of about 40,00o. It is connected by road, suitable for motors, with Sukhair, 18m. and Budaia, 12m. distant and has a municipal council. Opposite Manama across a narrow strait lies Muharraq, with 20,000 inhabitants, capital of the island of the same name; it is semicircular in shape and 4m. long by im. broad. With the ex ception of Sitra on the east, 3m. by 1m., the other islands of the group are unimportant. Besides the towns mentioned there are about loo villages distributed over the islands. The archipelago is the headquarters of the Persian Gulf pearl trade, in which over 1,00o sailing boats of various sizes are engaged, and employ some 20,000 men. Its average annual value is over £1,5oo,000. Dates form the chief agricultural product. The islands produce a fine breed of white donkey, which however is no longer exported. Shipbuilding and the making of sail-cloth and reed-mats are the chief industries. The climate is humid but not unhealthy, a re markable feature of the locality being an abundant supply of sub marine fresh-water, which was formerly tapped by the insertion of reed pipes. Latterly, however, more modern methods have been employed to tap this water-supply which probably originates in the highlands of the central-Arabian plateau, 15om. to the west. The population consists mainly of Arabs with a good sprinkling of negroes. There is also a considerable community of Persians and of Indian (Hindu) merchants. In the northern part of Bahrein island is an extensive plain covered with a vast number (probably running to six figures) of burial tumuli of various sizes, containing two-chambered sepulchres built of slabs of limestone. A number of these have been explored by Durand, Bent, Prideaux, Mackay and others, who have found numerous relics and specimens of pot tery, but nothing sufficiently distinctive to indicate the age of the necropolis. It was considered by the earlier explorers that it was of Phoenician origin, but this is not accepted by archaeologists.
The Portuguese occupied the islands in 1 507 but were dispos sessed in 16o2 by Arab subjects of Persia from the opposite shores of the Gulf, during the reign of Shah Abbas. They were in turn ejected in 1783 by Arab hordes from the Arabian mainland, mainly of the Ataiba tribe, who have remained in possession up to the present day. The ruling family, of the Al Khalifah section of that tribe, was represented during a reign of 6o years, up to 1922, by Shaikh Esa bin Ali. In that year, having regard to his extreme old age and the prevalence of intrigues among his sons, Shaikh Esa was persuaded by the British authorities to abdicate in favour of his son Abdullah. The principality is recognized as independent, but is in treaty relations with the Government of India, who are represented by a political agent, working under an order in coun cil. The territories are under the protection of Great Britain, which has been several times called upon to intervene in order to defeat the attempts of various Powers to assert dominion over the islands, e.g., the sultan of Oman, the Wahabis, the Turks, and the Persians. The latter Power has periodically and without any justi fication advanced a claim to sovereignty over Bahrein, the last occasion being as late as Nov. 1927. In their reply to the Persian Government, despatched on Jan. 18, 1928, with copy to the League of Nations, the British Government refused to consider the claim and declared the intention of Great Britain to protect the islanders as heretofore against any attempt to subject them to foreign domination.
See Bent, Southern Arabia (London, 1900) ; Prideaux, in Report of Archaeological Survey of India (1908-1909) ; Hogarth, in Geo graphical Journal, vol. lxix. (1927).
the chief western affluent of the river Nile, N.E. Africa, which it joins in 9° 3o' N., 3o° 25' E. The Bahr-el-Ghazal (Gazelle river) is a stream formed by the junction of many rivers, of which the Jur (see below) is the most important. The basin of the Ghazal is a large one, extending north-west to Darfur, and south-west to the Congo watershed. The main northern feeder of the Ghazal is a large river, whose headwaters are in the country west of 24° E. where the Nile, Congo and Shari watersheds meet. It is reinforced by inter mittent streams from the hills of Darfur and by considerable rivers flowing north from Dar Fertit, among them being the Bahr el Homr, the Bahr el Arab and its tributary the Lol and the river Jur or Agur. The latter is the most important of the southern affluents and is known in its upper course as the Sueh. The upper courses of the Lol include the Boru, Banga, Sopo. The Lol re ceives the Cheu (with the Biri) and the Pongo. Deim Zubeir, formerly the chief station of Zobeir Rahama (q.v.), is near the Biri tributary of the Cheu. The town of Wau (7° 42' N., 3' E.), on the Jur, is the capital of the Bahr-el-Ghazal province of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. Meshra-er-Rek, the chief station and trading centre of the early explorers, is on a backwater south of the point where the Jur turns northwards to join the Bahr-el Ghazal. Between the Jur and the Nile, parallel with these rivers, several streams, including the Tonj, Rohl and Deleb, run north from the Congo-Nile watershed and join the Bahr-el-Ghazal. Lake No is a depression near the junction of the Bahr-el-Jebel and the Ghazal. The lake is about 7 m. long from west to east, and the Bahr-el-Jebel, after passing through its eastern corner, is known as the Bahr-el-Abiad or White Nile.
In their upper courses the southern affluents of the Ghazal cut deeply into the Central African plateau. North of 20' N. (where rapids interrupt the currents) the valleys open out al though their channels are often choked by sandbanks. This al luvial region, flooded in the rainy season, gives place about 9° N. to a wide area of marsh, forming part of the huge swamp region of the Nile (q.v.). Through these swamps it is almost impossible to trace the course of the various rivers. From the confluence of the Bahr-el-Arab with the Jur, above which point none of the rivers is called Bahr-el-Ghazal, to the junction with the Nile at Lake No, is a distance of about ioo m. Just above the Bahr-el-Arab confluence the Jur broadens out and forms a lake (Ambadi) 10 m. long and one mile broad at low water and very much larger in flood -time. This lake is the home of many sudd plants but the papyrus and ambach are absent. The whale headed Balaeniceps rex, elsewhere rare, is found here in large numbers. At first the Ghazal flows north with lagoon-like ex pansions having great breadth and little depth—nowhere more than 13 ft. Turning north-east the channel becomes narrower and deeper, and is characterized by occasional reaches of papyrus. Finally, the Ghazal turns east and again becomes broader until Lake No is reached. As a rule the banks in this section are marked by anthills and scrub. The rise of the Ghazal river and the lower reaches of its main tributaries in flood time is barely 3 ft., but this is sufficient to flood an enormous area of country.
Like the Bahr-el-Jebel the Bahr-el-Ghazal is liable to be choked by sudd. The river became almost blocked in this manner during the rule of the Mandists. Early in the loth century the sudd was removed by British officers from the Bahr-el-Ghazal, the Jur and other rivers, and uninterrupted communication was thus established during the flood season between Khartoum and Wau, a distance of some 93o m. In 1905-1907 R. C. Bayldon, C. Per cival and D. Comyn partly explored the northern and western affluents of the Ghazal. The whole area of the Bahr-el-Ghazal basin, some 200,000 square miles, contributes practically nothing to the volume of the White Nile. All the tributaries flow through a vast marsh area in which quantities of water are evaporated or transpired by vegetation. The maximum discharge of the Bahr el-Ghazal is about 1,700 cubic feet per second and often is nothing at all.
See NILE and the authorities there quoted, especially Sir William Garstin's Report upon the Basin of the Upper Nile, Egypt, No. 2 (1904), and Capt. H. G. Lyons's The Physiography of the River Nile and its Basin (Cairo, 1906) ; Geographical Journal, vol. xxx. 0907).