Bahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is a small Arab monarchy in the Persian Gulf.

It is an island country consisting of a small archipelago centered around Bahrain Island, situated between the Qatar peninsula and the north eastern coast of Saudi Arabia, to which it is connected by the twenty-five kilometer (sixteen mile) King Fahd Causeway.

Bahrain's population is 1,234,567 (c. 2010), including 666,172 non-nationals.[9] It is 780 square kilometers in size, making it the third smallest nation in Asia after the Maldives and Singapore.

Bahrain is the site of the ancient Dilmun civilization.

It has been famed since antiquity for its pearl fisheries, considered the best in the world into the nineteenth century.

Bahrain is one of the earliest areas to convert to Islam (CE 628).

Following a period of Arab rule, Bahrain is occupied by the Portuguese in 1521, who in turn are expelled in 1602 by Shah Abbas I of the Safavid dynasty under the Persian Empire.

In 1783, the Bani Utbah clan captures Bahrain from Nasr Al-Madhkur and it has since been ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family, with Ahmed al Fateh as Bahrain's first hakim.

In the late 1800s, following successive treaties with the British, Bahrain becomes a protectorate of the United Kingdom.

In 1971, Bahrain declares independence.

Formerly an emirate, Bahrain is declared a Kingdom in 2002. In 2011, the country experiencea protests inspired by the regional Arab Spring.

Bahrain has the first post-oil economy in the Persian Gulf.

Since the late twentieth century, Bahrain has invested in the banking and tourism sectors.

Many large financial institutions have a presence in Manama, the country's capital.

Bahrain has a high Human Development Index and is recognized by the World Bank as a high income economy.