Crown Mosque & Bahrain National Museum

This morning, L. and I went to the Crown Mosque near our hotel. R. was able to drive us there again, which made it convenient. L. and I came prepared with our abayas, but it's good to know that there are head coverings and abayas at the mosque for visitors such as ourselves.

The Crown Mosque is the largest mosque in Manama, if not Bahrain itself. It's only twenty years old. Even though it is modern, it does retain some of the old mosque traditions, such as a courtyard and a stone curved acoustic amplifier carved into the wall that is closest to Mecca. Our tour guide for the morning was a very nice woman from Egypt who was very knowledgeable and patient with our questions. In the main mosque area, the carpet lining the floor has lines woven into the fabric to help keep the prayer lines straight and organized. As a mostly Sunni mosque, anyone can be a prayer leader for the line. The men pray on the main level while the women pray in the back or in the balcony. Our guide explained that the purpose of this was to put everyone at ease and to create minimal distractions for prayer, especially when everyone is in the prostrate position.

On the wall at the front of the mosque are five adjustable clocks that indicate the five prayer times for the day. I didn't realize that Friday noon prayer is obligatory for men, but not for women. Women can come if they want, but they can also pray on Fridays from their homes. When praying, all stand with their feet touching the persons next to them and their hands up with the palms facing Mecca, recite the first chapter of the Qur'an, bow, stand, prostrate, and then can either recite excerpts from the Qur'an or pray to God in the prostrate position. The reason for placeing one's head on the floor when in the prostrate position is to show submission to God. At the front, there can be someone reading or speaking from the Qur'an over the loud speaker. From a young age, everyone learns the intonations and pitches of the words, especially the counts for the vowels. In watching some of the mosque services on TV and hearing the prayer calls outside, it's very lyrical and intriguing.

At the end of the tour, our guide talked to us about reasons why women of Islam must cover. I was surprised to see that a part of the Qur'am that talks about this comes from one of the sections in the middle that refers to the Virgin Mary. Women are allowed to have their hands, feet, and face exposed, but there are arguments between scholars whether the whole face should be covered or not. When our guide used to live in Egypt, she didn't cover herself, but decided to cover herself starting seven years ago so that she didn't draw any unwanted attention from a friend's uncle who had made a comment about how nice her hair was in the presence of his wife. The look on the wife's face revealed an image of someone crestfallen and worried that her husband might favor someone else. In order not to compete with other women and to avoid creating unrest between married couples, our guide has decided to always wear the abaya when around strangers.

After the mosque, we headed to the Arad fort, which used to be a Portugese fort when the Portugese occupied the area. Made of limestone and palm trees, it was truly an engineering marvel to me. R. and I walked around it for maybe 25 minutes, in 43-degree heat, while L. waited for us in the car. I wish that she could have seen all of the underground compartments and towers with us, but she really can't take the heat so well.

Our final tourist attraction for the day was the Bahrain National Museum. As an air-conditioned facility, L. was able to fully participate in this excursion. The museum houses exhibits on Bahraini traditions, natural history, grave mounds, documents and manuscripts, and has mannequin displays of how old Souqs (traditional open markets) may have looked and operated. Turns out that Bahrain has a long tradition of pearl diving.

I've had a good time the past couple of days with L. and R. For the rest of the afternoon, I plan to take advantage of the pool once more and then try to do some writing. Depending on when my med check information gets submitted to the Saudi embassy tomorrow, I may leave tomorrow afternoon, or I might have to wait until Monday. Regardless, I hope to go back to the mosque tomorrow to take pictures of the outside.