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Amharic - አማርኛ | Arabic - عربي
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PEOPLE GROUP PROFILE

The Bahraini Shia Arabs of Bahrain

The Bahraini Shia Arabs of Bahrain, numbering approximately 741,000 people, are Engaged yet Unreached. They are an indigenous Arab ethnolinguistic community of Bahrain who speak Baharna Arabic and maintain a distinct identity shaped by Shia Islam, Gulf maritime heritage, village traditions, and deep historical roots in Eastern Arabia. They mostly adhere to Shia Islam and Baharna Arabic is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite: Bahraini Shia Arab

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Arab Peoples
Country: Bahrain
People Cluster: Arab, Arabian
Primary Language(s): Baharna Arabic (abv)
Primary Religion(s): Shia Islam
Population: 741,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Engaged yet Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG011297
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Pray for the Bahraini Shia Arabs of Bahrain

Join others around the world in praying for the lost to be saved, the gospel to advance, the global Church to grow, and for laborers to be sent out and sustained in the harvest.

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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Shia Islam
Religious Affiliation: Islam

84%
%
Shia Islam Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Baharna Arabic
Language Family: Afro-Asiatic

100%
%
Arabic, Baharna Speakers

Media Resources in Baharna Arabic:

Films:

No film resources are listed for this language.

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Baharna Arabic:

No Bible resources are listed for this language.

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Baharna Arabic bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

SPI: Unreached yet Engaged

The Bahraini Shia Arabs are Engaged yet Unreached, which means there are less than 2% evangelical Christian populations but there are sustained efforts at establishing self-sustaining churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice.

Next steps for the Bahraini Shia Arabs:
Continue prayer and fasting for this group
Continue gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group
Begin training up local leaders to lead and develop strategies to reach their own people

Pray specifically for the Bahraini Shia Arabs of Bahrain

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
readRomans 5:10

Pray that any who may be enemies of God will grasp the depth of God's love demonstrated through Christ's death for the ungodly, and be reconciled to Him.

More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
readRomans 5:11

Pray for the gospel to advance and for more people to be brought into God's family through the reconciliation Jesus offers them.

Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O LORD, God of host.
readJeremiah 15:16

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will find joy and delight in the Word of the Lord.

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
readJohn 12:24

Pray that God will raise up men and women who are willing to die to their own desires, bearing much fruit for the kingdom among individuals and in places where His gospel has not been proclaimed.

Arab, Bahraini, Shia Across Countries (ROP3 - 100772) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

2 people groups

PhotoPeople Group ID ▲NameCountryPopulationStrategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion
Bahraini Shia ArabsPG011297Bahraini Shia ArabsBahrain741,000Engaged yet UnreachedBaharna ArabicShia Islam
Bahraini Shia ArabsPG011871Bahraini Shia ArabsOman20,500Unengaged and UnreachedBaharna ArabicShia Islam

To download a comprehensive people group list in spreadsheet form, visit our Research Data page.

Peoplegroups.org relies on updates from the field and other organizations for much of our data, so if you have any updates, please contact us. We use various international naming standards. For a list of these standards and fields, visit our Data Standards section.

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