It is an island country consisting of a small archipelago centered around Bahrain Island, situated between the Qatar peninsula and the north eastern coast of Saudi Arabia. It is 780 km2 in size, making it the third smallest nation in Asia after the Maldives and Singapore.

Bahrain is the site of the ancient Dilmun civilisation. It has been famed since antiquity for its pearl fisheries, which were considered the best in the world into the 19th century.Bahrain was one of the earliest areas to convert to Islam (ad 628).

In the late 1800s, following successive treaties with the British, Bahrain became a protectorate of the United Kingdom.

In 1971, Bahrain declared independence.

Bahrain had the first post-oil economy in the Persian Gulf. Since the late 20th century, Bahrain has invested in the banking and tourism sectors. Many large financial institutions have a presence in Manama, the country's capital. Bahrain has a high Human Development Index and was recognised by the World Bank as a high income economy.

In Arabic, Bahrayn is the dual form of bahr ("sea"), so al-Bahrayn means "the two seas".

Until the late Middle Ages, "Bahrain" referred to the region of Eastern Arabia that included Southern Iraq, Kuwait, Al-Hasa, Qatif, and Bahrain. The region stretched from Basra in Iraq to the Strait of Hormuz in Oman. This was Iqlīm al-Bahrayn's "Bahrayn Province". The exact date at which the term "Bahrain" began to refer solely to the Awal archipelago is unknown.