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Bushehri A., “The Ajaam School,” private report.
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Fortna B., Imperial Classroom: Islam, the State, and Education in the Late Ottoman Empire, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2002.
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Īyālat‑e Fārs dar dorān‑e Nāṣirī 1313 hijrī‑qamarī – 1895 mīlādi, Tehran, Sahab Geographic and Drafting Institute, Ordibehesht, 1383.
Jamal M., Old Crafts, Trades, and Commercial Activities in Kuwait, Kuwait, Center for Research and Studies on Kuwait, 2009.
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Laffan M., Islamic Nationhood and Colonial Indonesia: the Umma below the Winds, Curzon, Routledge, 2003.
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Onley J., “Transnational merchants in the nineteenth‑century Gulf: The case of the Safar family,” in M. Al‑Rasheed, Transnational Connections in the Arab Gulf, London, Routledge, 2005, p. 59–89.
Onley J., The Arabian Frontier of the British Raj: Merchants, Rulers, and the British in the Nineteenth‑Century Gulf, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2007.
Parvin N., “Ḥabl al‑Matīn,” Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. XI, Fasc. 4.
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Al‑Rumaihi M., Social and Political Change in Bahrain Since the First World War, PhD Dissertation submitted to Durham University, 1973.
Salih K., “The 1938 Kuwait Legislative Council,” Middle Eastern Studies 28, no. 1 (1992), p. 66–100.
Stephenson L., Rerouting the Persian Gulf: The Transnationalization of Iranian Migrant Networks, c.1900–1940, PhD Dissertation submitted to Princeton University, 2018.
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Notes
Sayyid ‘Umar ‘Āṣim and Ḥāfiẓ Wahba are two examples of Islamic modernist teachers (from Izmir and Egypt respectively) who were recruited after meeting Kuwaiti merchants in Bombay to come to Kuwait and teach in modern schools. For more details, see Al-Rashoud, 2016, p. 61–74.
My choice of the word “‘Ajam” to describe these communities who migrated from Iran to the western shores of the Gulf is derived from local usage. The British Government’s use of the term “Persian” is problematic because it suggests a common linguistic or ethnic origin. “Iranian” is more acceptable in that it ties people to the territory from which they migrated. In this article however, the schools served, and were built by, members of the community who were known collectively, and have long referred to themselves as the ‘Ajam — particularly in the case of Bahrain.
During this time, tens of thousands of people migrated from the southern shores of Iran to Kuwait, Bahrain, and Dubai. Stephenson, 2018, p. 51–77. For example, the Political Resident in Bushehr estimated that the number of ‘Ajam in Kuwait had risen from 1,000 out of a population of 38,000 in 1910 to 10,000 of a total population of 65,000 in 1938. IOR R/15/5/205, f258 Political Resident, Bushehr to J.P. Gibson, The India Office, London, 19 October 1938.
Fortna argues that modern education in the Ottoman Empire was neither inherently “secular” nor “Western” and that the religious ulama were deeply involved in developing and managing the so-called secular, modern education. See Fortna, 2002, p. 13–18.
Al-Khalīfa, 1999, p. 116–120.
Ibid., p. 464.
The Legislative Council instated free public education in Kuwait in 1938. See Al-Rashoud, 2016, p. 130.
Al-Rumaihi, 1973, p. 185; al-Khalīfa, 1999, p. 106.
Although girls attended the traditional kuttāb, the first modern and locally-run girls’ school in Bahrain was opened in 1928. Despite the criticism it received, a second public girls’ school was opened two years later. Al-Rumaihi, 1973, p. 196–197.
Al-Rashoud, 2016, p. 59–67. Riḍā visited Kuwait in May 1912 on his way back to Cairo from Bombay.
Tārīkh al-Taʿlīm fī Dawlat al-Kuwayt, vol. 1, 2002, p. 105–115. The organizers later rescinded their request after Riḍā’s contentious visit to Kuwait.
Al-Rashoud, 2016, p. 66–67.
IOR/R/15/1/713/2: Administration Report 1921, p. 65.
Al-Rashoud, 2016, p. 71. These updates to the curriculum were similar to others appearing across the Muslim world at the turn of the 20th century, for example the Ḥaḍramī Jam‘īyyat al-Khayr (Benevolent Society) opened in 1906 in Java and taught geography, mathematics, English, Islamic history, and Arabic. See Freitag, 1999, p. 165–83; Bang, 2007, p. 461. For more details on Islamic modernism and education in Indonesia, see Laffan, 2003.
In his dissertation, Rumaihi remarks that the official date given by the Bahrain Government for the opening of the school is 1919, but after his extensive research he concludes that it couldn’t have been until several years later. Al-Rumaihi, 1973, p. 192–193.
The Government of Bahrain Administrative Report for the Years 1926–1937 recalls that many members of the educational committee were themselves illiterate, but wealthy, merchants. Ḥajjī Yūsuf Fakhrū, a Muharraq merchant of Iranian origin, was chosen to be the treasurer but was reported to have taken control of all finances and administration. IOR/R/15/1/750/1.
Khouri, 1980, p. 89; al-Rumaihi, 1973, p. 193.
IOR/R/15/1/750/1, The Government of Bahrain Administrative Report for the Years 1926–1937, p. 31.
Crystal, 1990, p. 41.
See for example IOR/R/15/1/750/1, The Government of Bahrain Administrative Report for the Years 1926–1937 and discussion in IOR/R/15/1/545 From Political Agent, Kuwait to Political Resident, Bushire 23 April, 1936.
Fuccaro, 2009, p. 73–75.
Fuccaro, 2009 and 2011; Onley, 2005 and 2009.
For further details on the waves of Iranian migrants arriving in Bahrain and Kuwait in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, see Stephenson, 2018, p. 51–77.
Onley, 2009.
Al-Khalīfa, 1999, p. 141.
In this context ‘Ajam refers to Iranians who are local to Bahrain, and particularly in the context of schooling it distinguishes local ‘Ajam teachers from “Iranis” who are sent to Bahrain to teach and eventually return to Iran.
Such as Ashkanānī’s multiple volumes of Ṣafaḥāt min al-Dhākira (2008–2011), and the encyclopedic compilation by al-Khurāfī, Murabbūn min Baladī.
Other interview-based publications such as Al-Loughani’s interview-based works on various districts of Kuwait often include similar information.
Neglected Arabia, No. 142, July, August, September 1927. ‘Abd al-Ḥusayn al-Sayyid Zāhid al-Mūsawī’s school is most likely one of the three. This school was held at night under an ‘arīsh and focused on English language instruction. Jamal, 2009, p. 432.
Neglected Arabia, No. 142, July, August, September 1927.
IOR R/15/5/195 273. From Political Agent, Kuwait to Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, Bushire, 10th July 1939.
Calverley, 1958, p. 14.
Other journals circulating throughout the Ottoman Empire, Russian Empire, and the Indo-Malay world carried on discussions pertaining to regional or communal matters, but also engaged with ideas in the Arabic speaking world. For example, the Jadidist newspaper Perevodchik/Tercüman published in Russian and Turkish; Kazan Muhbiri in Turkish; Persian-language Siraj al-Akhbar in Afghanistan; Urdu-language Tehzeeb-ul-Akhlaq in India.
Parvin, Ḥabl al-Matīn, p. 431–434.
As a widely circulated newspaper, it was also a proponent of and advocate for modern education throughout Iran.
The designation hijrī-qamarī is a way of distinguishing the hijrī date in the Iranian calendar calculated by lunar, Islamic months. This dating system was used until the beginning of the reign of Reza Shah on 31 March 1925 when the calendar was calculated by the Persian calendar using solar months.
It is referred to as the “mother of the schools of the south [of Iran].” See Mashāyekhī, 1395/2016; Dashtī, 2006, p. 146–160.
Mashāyekhī, 1395/2016, p. 42. He specifically mentions Mīrzā ‘Abbās Irānī and Mīrzā ‘Alī Dashtī.
Ḥabl al-Matīn (18 Rabī‘ al-Thānī 1332gh / 16 March 1914, SH 33), p. 10–11; Mashāyekhī, 1395/2016.
Mashāyekhī, 1395/2016, p. 42. He also mentions that the Cultural Administration of Bushehr contributed funds to the school.
Bushehri, p. 1.
The initial headmaster, a certain Agā Shaykh ‘Abd al-Karīm, was not up to the task.
Ḥabl al-Matīn (18 Rabī‘ al-Thānī 1332gh / 16 March 1914, SH 33), p. 10–11.
Al-Khalīfa, 1999, p.106. Here al-Khalīfa is likely referring to the King’s Order in Council.
Ibid., p. 106.
Ibid., p. 110.
Ibid., p. 162.
Khojasteh, 1338, Arabic translation in al-Khalīfa, 1999, p. 141.
Bushehri, p. 1.
Iranian National Archives (INA), 297–11197, p. 164wm.
Stephenson, 2018. For details regarding the nationalization program, see p. 115–144.
INA, 297–1197, p.1 wm–265wm.
Payk-i Khojasteh was named after the editor, Mostafa Khojasteh, but it is a play on words because “Khojasteh” means “good fortune.”
Some sources report “Naqī” while others report “Taqī.”
The paper notes that he was send by the head of the Ministry of Education in Bushehr. Payk-i Khojasteh, Year 26, No. 1159 (Sunday, 12 Sharivar, 1354 [1975]).
Mashāyekhī, 1395/2016, p. 45–46. From Payk-i Khojasteh, Year 26, No. 1159 (Sunday, 12 Sharivar, 1354 [1975]).
Al-Khalīfa, 1999, p. 117.
Personal communication, February 7, 2019. In fact, Būshehrī and al-Khalīfa (p. 126) describe the Iranian-born ‘Alī Akbar Pakrawan as having a similar influence during his reign as principal from 1926–1929.
Persian Gulf Administration Reports, p. 34.
INA, 297–11197, p. 165wm.
Al-Khalīfa, 1999, p. 13.
Across the Muslim world, a number of contemporary modern educational projects included the name “Tarbīyya”, which, beyond the meaning of simply “education”, gives the sense of proper rearing and nurturing.
Zār Muḥammad Ḥajjī Ḥaydar ‘Asīrī, who had been the headmaster of the Ittiḥād School from around 1925 to 1928, broke off to join Būshehrī as the headmaster of the second school, Tarbiyat/Akhovat. Cf. Bushehri. p. 3.
IOR L/P&S/10/1040, f 382–383.
IOR R/15/2/486, f 23–24.
Ḥabl al-Matīn (15 Shawwāl 1332 gh/7 September 1914, SH 18), p. 11. This differs slightly from the Bushehri Archive which does not mention Shaykh Muḥammad Āl ‘Aṣfūr or Mīrzā Muḥammad Ḥasan Tājer Javāherī Shīrāzī, but instead includes Abū al-Qāsim Luṭf ‘Alī Shīrāzī.
Dashti, 2009, p. 77. After killing the Shaykh of Bushehr, ‘Abd al-Rasūl Madhkūr, in 1832 the central Iranian government began to make serious attempts to control Bushehr. Shaykh Naṣr, the son of ‘Abd al-Rasūl, fled to Kuwait. Mozafarīzādeh, 1395/2016, p. 311.
Mashāyekhī, 1395/2016, p. 42–48.
The term “Avazi” has, in the century that has passed since the publication of the Ḥabl al-Matīn article in 1914, taken on new meaning around the Gulf. Therefore, it is important that we proceed with caution when trying to pinpoint exactly to whom this article is referring. At the most basic level it refers to people from the town of ‘Awaḍ, located between Lar and Khunj in the region of Fars. Although it is written in Ḥabl al-Matīn with the Persianized pronunciation “Avazi,” as late as 1895, the name appeared as ‘Awaḍ on an official Qajar map. See Īyālat-e Fārs dar dorān-e Nāsirī 1313 hijrī-qamarī – 1895 milādī, 1383.
This is also supported by the fact that one of the last names of the founders of the school is sometimes recorded as “Irani” and sometimes “Shirazi.” See Appendix. For more details on the geographical networks that connected southern Iran to Bahrain see Stephenson, 2018.
IOR R/15/2/138, f 51a–b.
For further discussion see Al-Dailami, 2014.
Khūdmūnī is a Persian/Persianate language term meaning “amongst ourselves.” It is a term that has gained traction in more recent years and embraces a non-Arab heritage, in contrast to the term “Hawala” which makes a claim to Arab origins. Khūdmūnī as it is used today encompasses Bastakī-s, ‘Awaḍī-s, Lārī-s, and Khūnjī-s, among others found in and around the Fārs region of Iran.
IOR R/15/2/138, f 50. Political Agent, Bahrain to Political Resident, Bushire, 4 November, 1929.
IOR R/15/2/138, f 52. Political Agent, Bahrain to Political Resident, Bushire, 4 November, 1929.
INA, 297-11197, p. 143wm.
IOR R/15/2/138, f 52. Political Agent, Bahrain to Political Resident, Bushire, 4 November, 1929.
Bushehri.
INA, 297-11197, p. 164wm.
Al-Khalīfa, 1999, p. 132.
Due to conventions for recording and remembering names in the variety of contexts (Persian publications in India versus Iran, the local Bahraini context, and the conventions from Iran that were brought to Bahrain when the Iranians migrated), uncovering the transregional history of these schools can be particularly complicated. The local Gulf sources recall names in such a way that the father’s name is often included. They also sometimes drop the second name of a personal name if it is a compound (murakkab) name. In addition to the title “Ḥajjī,” local sources also often record titles like “Kal,” meaning that the person had made pilgrimage to Karbālā’. For example, in Ḥabl al-Matīn, one name appears as “Ḥajjī ‘Abd al-Nabī Tājer Kāzerūnī,” whereas in the Bushehri Archive it is “Haji ‘Abdulnabi Kal ‘Awad Kazeruni.” The table in the Appendix highlights some of these discrepancies with regard to the founders of the ‘Ajam School of Bahrain.
The opening ceremony coincided with the first day of hajj of 1357h. Tārīkh al-Taʿlīm fī Dawlat al-Kuwayt, vol. 2, 2002, p. 210.
Mīrzā is a title that denotes noble lineage. It also is used for people who are related to the Prophet Muḥammad only through their mother’s lineage.
INA, 279-28035, Report from Headmaster 15 Khordād, 1309 Shamsī (5 June 1930), p. wm11.
Ibid., p. wm13.
INA, 297–11197, 1315 (1936), p. wm148.
Ibid.
Further information about these two personalities is not known at present. Uncovering more information about them would help to determine the possible connections between the Kuwait and Bahrain schools, and possibly the Sa‘ādat School in Bushehr.
INA, 279–28035, Report from Headmaster 15 Khordād, 1309 Shamsī (5 June 1930), p. wm14.
Biography of Mulla Ḥasan Muḥammad Ḥasan Ḥusayn al-Kandarī in Al-Khurāfī, 1998, p. 410.
Al-Ḥijjī, 1993, p. 83
INA, 27928035 Javāherī-Haqīqī report on the Parvaresh School to the Iranian Ministry of Education, p. wm8.
INA, 279-28035, p. wm8. Although interestingly enough the Anglicization of the school’s name on its official stamp is “Parwaresh” rather than the standard Persian “Parvaresh.”
For example, Jamal, 2009, p. 431; Tārīkh al-Taʿlīm fī Dawlat al-Kuwayt, 2002, p. 132.
From lists of students enrolled, INA 297-11197.
Jamal, 2009, p. 431.
Al-Khurāfī, 1998, p. 410.
While the tenure of principals prior to 1942 is unknown, it is known that Sayyid Muḥammad Ḥasan al-Mūsawī became the principal in 1942 and remained in that position for 25 years. Mīrzā Hasan was the principal prior to al-Mūsawī, but held the role after Jāsim Ismā‘īl Ma‘rafī. Tārīkh al-Taʿlīm fī Dawlat al-Kuwayt, vol. 2, 2002, p. 210.
For more details see Salih, 1992, p. 66–100.
The Council also exerted influence over the Baladīya (Municipality) administration, which decided to deport Iranian migrants back to Iran. 1998, p. 191.
There is a great deal that is unknown about Mulla Ṣāliḥ. While he is known very well in the British imperial records, there is much local debate in Kuwait about his ethnicity and sect. What is known is that he came from southwest Iran, spoke and was highly literate in both Persian and Arabic, and was a defender of the ‘Ajam community in the 1930s.
Al-Rashoud, 2016, p. 127–135.
Lt.-Colonel Harold Richard Patrick Dickson, Kuwait Diaries, 1 February 1939.
IOR R/15/5/197. Translation of letter dated 1 July 1944 from Shaikh Abdulla Al-Jabir As-Subah, Head of the Education Department, Kuwait, to Mr. F.J. Wakelin, Educational Adviser.
Tārīkh al-Ta‘līm fī Dawlat al-Kuwayt, 2002, vol. 2, p. 210.
For example IOR R/15/5/195 and IOR R/15/5/197.
Al-Khurāfī, 1998. For examples, see biographies on pages 919–936, 678–694, 1019–1026, 1030–1046.
Ansari, 1998, p. 41; Al-Rumaihi, 1973, p. 201.
Tārīkh al-Ta‘līm fī Dawlat al-Kuwayt, 2002, vol. 2, p. 204.
Ibid., p. 211.
Ansari, 1998, p.45.
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