House of Khalifa in the context of "Bani Utbah"

Bahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is an island country in West Asia. Situated on the Persian Gulf, it comprises a small archipelago of 50 natural islands and an additional 33 artificial islands, centred on Bahrain Island, which makes up around 83 percent of the country's landmass. Bahrain is situated between Qatar and the northeastern coast of Saudi Arabia, to which it is connected by the King Fahd Causeway. The population is 1,588,670 as of 2024, of whom 739,736 (46.6% of the population) are Bahraini nationals, and 848,934 are expatriates (53.4% of the population). Bahrain spans some 760 square kilometres (290 sq mi) and is the third-smallest nation in Asia after Maldives and Singapore. The capital and largest city is Manama.

The area that straddles the present-day territory of Bahrain was once the site of the ancient Dilmun civilisation. It has been famed since antiquity for its pearl fisheries, which were considered the best in the world into the 19th century. Bahrain was one of the earliest areas to be influenced by Islam, during the lifetime of Muhammad in 628. Following a period of Arab rule, Bahrain was ruled by the Portuguese Empire from 1521 until 1602, when they were expelled by Shah Abbas the Great of the Safavid Iran. In 1783, the Bani Utbah and allied tribes captured Bahrain from Nasr Al-Madhkur. It has since been ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family, with Ahmed al Fateh as Bahrain's first hakim.

Hamad bin Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa (born 28 January 1950) has been the ruler of Bahrain since 1999. A member of the ruling Al Khalifa dynasty, he has reigned as King of Bahrain since 2002, having previously reigned as emir.
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The King of the Kingdom of Bahrain (Arabic: ملك مملكة البحرين Malik Mamlakat al-Baḥrayn) is the monarch and head of state of the Kingdom of Bahrain. The House of Khalifa has been the ruling family of the country since the 1783 Arab invasion that led to the end of Persian rule in Bahrain. Between 1783 and 1971, the Bahraini monarch held the title of hakim, and, from 1971 until 2002, the title of emir. On 14 February 2002, the emir of Bahrain, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, declared Bahrain a kingdom and proclaimed himself the first king. The king enjoys wide-ranging powers, which include appointing the prime minister and the cabinet, holding supreme command over the Defence Force, chairing the Higher Judicial Council, appointing the parliament's upper house and dissolving its elected lower house.

The history of Qatar spans from its first duration of human occupation to its formation as a modern state. Human occupation of Qatar dates back 50,000 years, and Stone Age encampments and tools have been unearthed in the Arabian Peninsula. Mesopotamia was the first civilization to have a presence in the area during the Neolithic period, evidenced by the discovery of potsherds originating from the Ubaid period near coastal encampments.

The peninsula fell under the domain of several different empires during its early years of settlement, including the Seleucid, the Parthians and the Sasanians. In 628 AD, the population was introduced to Islam after Muhammad sent an envoy to Munzir ibn Sawa who was the Sasanid governor of Eastern Arabia. It became a pearl trading center by the 8th century. The Abbasid era saw the rise of several settlements. After the Bani Utbah and other Arab tribes conquered Bahrain in 1783, the Al Khalifa imposed their authority over Bahrain and mainland Qatar. Over the following centuries, Qatar was a site of contention between the Wahhabi of Najd and the Al Khalifa. The Ottomans expanded their empire into Eastern Arabia in 1871, withdrawing from the area in 1915 after the beginning of World War I.

The Bahārna (Arabic: بُحارنة, lit. 'Buharnah', or Arabic: اِلبحارنه, lit. 'il baharneh'), are an ethnoreligious group of Shia Muslim Arabs indigenous to the historical region of Bahrain. Regarded by some scholars as the original inhabitants of Eastern Arabia, most Bahraini citizens are Baharna. They inhabited the region before the arrival of the Banu Utbah, which the Bahraini royal family descends from, in the 18th century.

Outside the modern country of Bahrain, Baharna populations are found throughout Eastern Arabia (Bahrain, Qatif, and al-Ahsa). There are also significant populations in Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, Iraq (specifically Najaf and Karbala), as well as Khorramshahr and Hormozgan province in Iran.

The Bani Utbah invasion of Bahrain led to the end of Persian rule in Bahrain and the annexation of Bahrain by the Al Khalifa clan of the Bani Utbah.