Middle East Information Resource
Political Entities - al-Khalifa
Al-Khalifa is the ruling dynasty of sheikh (or emirs) of Bahrain. The al-Khalifa arrived in the islands in the mid-eighteenth century. They came from Kuwait and are related to the al-Sabah of Kuwait, whom they helped to establish their rule.
Their rule in Bahrain began in approximately 1782, when the Bahrain Islands were taken from Persia by raiding Arab tribes from the mainland. From the 1820`s until 1971, the sheikhs were under a British Protectorate. The rulers in the twentieth century were Sheikh Issa ibn (bin) Ali al-Khalifa (1869-1923) who was deposed in 1923 by his son, with British encouragement; Sheikh Hamad ibn Issa (1923-1942); Sheikh Salman ibn Hamad (1942-1961); and Sheikh Issa ibn Salman since 1961.
Other members of the House of Khalifa have served in key positions of government and administration, and as ministers since the establishment of a Council of Ministers in 1970.