Baharna: Difference between revisions

In Arabic, ''bahrayn'' is the dual form of ''bahr'' (sea), so ''al-Bahrayn'' means "the two seas". However, which two seas were originally intended remains in dispute.<ref name="bahrayn"/> The term appears five times in the [[Bahrayn in Quran|Qur'an]], but does not only refer to the modern island—originally known to the Arabs as Awal—but rather to the entire region of Eastern Arabia, especially the oasis of Qatif and Ahsa.<ref name="bahrayn">{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Rentz |first1=G. |last2=Mulligan |first2=W.E. |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of Islam |title=al-Bahrayn |url=https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/browse/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2 |edition=Second Edition |year=1960 |location=Leiden, NL |publisher=Brill |isbn=9789004161214}}</ref> The "two seas" refers to the salt and fresh water present above and below the ground.<ref name="seas">{{cite book |last=Faroughy |first=Abbas |date=1951 |title=The Bahrein Islands (750–1951): A Contribution to the Study of Power Politics in the Persian Gulf |url=https://books.google.com.bh/books?id=a1YxAAAAIAAJ |location=New York, US |publisher=Verry, Fisher & Co. |oclc=402008}}</ref> In addition to wells, there are places in the sea of Bahrayn where fresh water bubbles up in the middle of the salt water, noted by visitors since antiquity.<ref name="freshwater">{{cite book |last=Rice |first=Michael |date=1994 |title=The Archaeology of the Arabian Gulf |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kWRfe7AdVaYC |location=London, UK |publisher=Routledge |isbn=0415032687}}</ref>