Bahrain Mirror- Exclusive: An institute linked to Exeter University in Britain opened an exhibition called "Remembering the dead in Bahraini Shia cemeteries". The exhibition is organized by Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies and supervised by Professor Timothy Insoll, archaeologist and Professor of African and Islamic archaeology at the Institute, and it contains photos, and traces from heritage of Shiite cemeteries in Bahrain.

Organizers say that arranging this exhibition is dedicated to show "an unstudied aspect of Bahraini life and illustrating the diversity of Muslim practice in Bahrain and the Gulf," according to Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies Exeter.

He added "Cemeteries are contexts in which the dead are remembered by Bahraini Shia communities through visitation, grave based commemorative practices, and material culture."

The exhibition kicked off on Thursday (January 18, 2018) and will run until March 28.

The institute says "Plastic flowers, incense burners, rosewater bottles, containers for watering plants, fragments of cloth wrapped around stones or other objects on the grave, and decorated flags are all items that can be left at the graveside," adding that "the artefacts, graves, and cemeteries are represented in the exhibition by images and a small display of material culture," indicating that they were "collected as part of a larger project recording historical gravestone inscriptions on Bahrain." Marc Owen Jones, assistant professor in the institute said the exhibition is "awesome".

Arabic Version