Mundus Incognitus

Barem (revisitado)/Bahrain (revisited)

Este fim-de-semana estive no Barem. Nao ha' muito mais a acrescentar aquilo que ja' disse, apenas algumas observacoes.

A auto-estrada que liga Riade ao Barem e' excelente, com seis amplas vias, e atravessa, nao desertos de finas areias douradas (embora tb haja uma pequena amostra), mas no essencial um enorme deserto feito de gravilha, terra, pedras e pouco mais que isso.
Para os que nao sabem uma das oracoes e' feita poucos instantes depois do sol desaparecer no horizonte. E' interessante ver as pessoas pararem os seus carros nas bermas, e ver familias inteiras, disporem dos seus tapetes, organizarem-se e comecarem a rezar. E' um espectaculo interessante de observar, diria mesmo unico.

Tirando isto nada mais ha' para ver a nao ser a imensidao e o vazio do deserto ou, tendo alguma sorte, grupos ocasionais de camelos que parecem deambular 'a solta.

O Barem e' um mundo de contradicoes. Se por um lado a capital (Manama) parece fervilhar com grandes projectos arquitectonicos, nas imediacoes encontra-se o mundo rural, em que o pequeno agricultor ocupa-se do seu pequeno pedaco de terra, ainda 'a maneira antiga, ou seja, sem maquinas nem animais que o possam ajudar (ver foto). Tambem a ilha e' feita de contrastes. O norte urbano e verde, contrasta com o sul arido e cinzento. A sul nao ha' grandes projectos ('a excepcao do circuito de formula 1), mas imensos bairros "de lata", sem a perigosidade dos seus equivalentes europeus.

Desta vez aproveitei para revisitar com mais detalhe o Forte Portugues, em que incluo algumas fotografios, e devo dizer-vos que e' uma belissima construcao militar, em que as palavras serao sempre poucas, para se descrever a emocao que se sente ao observar o nosso patrimonio, em terras distantes do Golfo Persico.

E' tambem interessante observar o relevo que os barenis dao 'a nossa historia conjunta. No Museu Nacional do Bahrain ha' uma copia enorme de um mapa portugues do seculo XVI ilustrando o Barem desses tempos, bem como o destaque que e' atribuido a Lisboa durante o periodo arabe na Peninsula. Para ambos inclui fotos.

Outro forte que visitei foi o forte de Arad, anterior ao periodo portugues, e por nos cartografado como se pode ver no mapa.

This week-end I was in Bahrain. There is not much more to add, but I'd still stress some aspects.

The high-way connecting Riyadh to Bahrain is excellent, with six lanes, e crosses the desert. Unlikely imagined the desert is not made of fine, gold-like sand (even though part of it are like this), but in it's majority is made of graville, rock, and hard-land.

For those of you unaware, one of the Islam prayers is to be conducted a few instants after the sun disappears bellow the horizon line. It's really interesting to watch people park their cars in the service lane, grab their carpets, and see entire families praying. It's really something worthwhile observing, and from it you can have an understanding of the devotion of this people to God. It's indeed a unique experience.

In the desert there's not much to see, but it's vast emptiness and the occasional groups of camels that pass by.

Bahrain is a world of contradictions. If on one hand the capital (Manama) is booming with very modern and interesting architectonic projects, the suburbs is still very rural, with the small farmer taking care of his small farm, doing it in the old way; that is, without the aid of machines or animals (see photo). Likewise, the island is also made of constrasts. The north is urban and green, whereasas the south is arid and gray (except for the Formula 1 grand prix circuit). In the south one doesn't find great projects, but chanty towns without the levels of danger found in Europe.

I used this chance to re-visit with some more detail the Portuguese Fort, see new pictures bellow, and I have to tell you that the fort is indeed a great military construction.
It's also interesting to notice how much importance the bahraines give to the Portuguese period of their history. In the National Museum of Bahrain there's a huge copy of a Portugue map from the XVI century, depicting Bahrain as it was then. There's also another map of the Islam expansion and special mention is given to Lisbon (as having had an important battle there), even though other battles were likely to have been more important.

The other fort I visited was the Arad fort and this existed before the Portuguese period, as documented in our map.


Forte Portugues/Portuguese Fort

posted by Olindo Iglesias @ sexta-feira, junho 17, 2005