History
The immigration of Persians to Bahrain might have begun when the Greek Seleucid kingdom which was ruling Bahrain at the time fell and the Persian Empire invaded the Bahrain islands, but it is often said that it started during the 1600s when Abbas I of Persia invaded Bahrain. After settling in Bahrain, the Persians were effectively Arabized, even having Arabic patronymics. They usually settled in areas inhabited by the indigenous Baharna, probably because they share the same Shia Muslim faith, however, some Sunni Ajam settled in areas mostly inhabited by Sunni Arab immigrants such as Hidd and Galali. In Muharraq, they have their own neighborhood called Fareej Karimi named after a rich Ajami man called Ali Abdulla Karimi.
According to the 1905 census, there were 1650 Bahraini citizens with Persian ancestry. Historian Ali Bushahri estimates that the Ajami population is about 100,000 or 20% of 550,000 Bahraini citizens.
Read more about this topic: Iranians In Bahrain
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