Arks of Salvation Twixt the Seas: The Bahraini Ma’tam as Vessel of Commemoration, Contestation, and Performative Emancipation.

At the behest of the Sunni-Muslim monarchy and state apparatus, the densely-populated, GCC island-nation of Bahrain has undergone accelerated urbanization and architectural programs, particularly since the Arab Spring. This is most visible in Manama, the political capital, and in Muharraq, selected Arab cultural capital for 2018. However, the majority Shi‘i Muslim community has enacted different visual cultural and urbanism projects, largely beyond foreign attention. This presentation will focus on the ma’tam, a commemorative ritual space akin to the Husayniyyas of certain other Ithna‘ashari Shi‘ite societies.  We examine why Shi‘ites in Bahrain have begun to adorn or re-adorn such spaces of memory in ornamental and epigraphic programs distinct from those on Sunni mosques. In contrasting their architecture and communal narratives, we investigate the different relations the communities prioritize with foreign interests, but also the different policies and populations that successive US administrations have prioritized in diplomacy with Bahrain and local reactions.