The Arab states of the Gulf have been characterised by a prolonged history of patrimonial rule by tribes and families descending from the eighteenth century. Unlike most other dynastic institutions in the rest of the Middle East, the Gulf 's ruling dynasties have maintained power and are still functioning monarchies, though they have all faced external threats and local pressures. Furthermore, the shaykhdoms of the Gulf have experienced bloody struggles within the ruling tribes. The Al Khalifa of Bahrain epitomises a surviving dynasty that has substituted its extra-constitutional rulership succession for primogeniture and established dispute resolution measures to overcome intra-tribal ambitions for power and wealth. Since their control over Bahrain began in 1783 until the British withdrawal from the Gulf in 1971, the Al Khalifa dynasty was led by ten senior ruling shaykhs, seven of whom experienced turbulent successions, and almost all of whom faced both in-house rivalries and power-seeking disputes. Arguably, the in-tribe power struggles began when the senior ruling shaykh ceased – in 1825 – a decades-long practice of joint rule, through which the senior ruling shaykh shared power, territories and wealth with a junior co-ruler. This practice, traces of which can still be observed today, reduced the prospects for any in-tribe rivalry and drew on the unspoken notion that the junior co-ruler was the designated heir, thereby smoothing his accession. The turning point in the nature of succession came in 1932, when the Al Khalifa ruling shaykh peacefully acceded to full rulership without any substantial local opposition. In the same year, oil extraction started in Bahrain, with exports beginning in 1934. The pre-oil era raises another question as to how rivals recruited in-tribe supporters and hired alliances from other tribes (all of which were exogenous to Bahrain) to engage in prolonged disputes that produced heavy losses. If one adds the fact that the British Government, as a dominant power in the region, had not made any serious interventions into Bahraini rulership until 1868, and that its first direct involvement in Bahrain's local affairs only began in the early twentieth century, this raises additional questions: What kind of direct and indirect roles did the British play in outbalancing, mediating and settling the Al Khalifa's dynastic disputes?