Ahmed ibn Muhammad ibn Khalifa

Ahmed ibn Muhammed ibn Khalifa was born in Kuwait in the first half of the 18th century.

Shaikh Ahmed, through his successful conquest of Bahrain in 1783, restored Bahrain’s Arab independence and sovereignty. Shaikh Ahmed was based in Al Zubarah on the Qatari Peninsula, an enclave and city state his father built after his departure from Kuwait. Shaikh Ahmed appointed a keeper, Ajaj, whose descendants still live in Bahrain, to Bahrain’s Al Diwan Fort. He appointed a relation, Ali bin Faris to govern Bahrain on his behalf. As for his former opponent, Nasir ibn Madhkur who had blockaded Al Zubarah the previous year, he allowed him to sail back to Bushire in Persia without any harm.

Shaikh Ahmed used to spend the winter in Zubarah, but the spring and summer in Bahrain. The famous hunting ground where Shaikh Ahmed used to hunt, was named “Jari Al Shaikh Ahmed” in his honor. Though the former hunting ground is currently an affluent and popular residential neighborhood in Bahrain’s Southern Governorate, it still carries Shaikh Ahmed’s name.

Shaikh Ahmed had proposed while in Qatar to build a canal to separate the Qatari peninsula from the mainland of the Arabian Peninsula in an attempt to prevent Wahhabi control of Bahrain and Qatar. At the time, the Wahhabi movement was slowly gaining momentum in Nejd or Central Arabia and Shaikh Ahmed was vigilant to protect his territories from foreign control.

Shaikh Ahmed died during the summer of 1795, reportedly after a severe heart attack he had after finishing his afternoon meal he used to consumed after the afternoon prayers. He was buried in Manama next to a well known grave of a pious religious scholar. He will be known for his conquest of Bahrain and his alliance with Bahraini and Qatari tribes in consolidating power and to deter external interventions.

He had five children: Abdullah, Salman, Mohamed and Yousif. His only known daughter, Amna bint Ahmed, was married to Rashid Al Fadhil, a distant relation of Shaikh Ahmed. Her son, Abdulrahman Al Fadhel, later a played a crucial role in Bahrain’s history by regaining Bahrain after it was briefly occupied by the Wahhabis in around 1809.