| House of Khalifa آل خليفة | |
|---|---|
| Royal house | |
 Lesser coat of arms of Bahrain | |
| Parent house | House of Utbah |
| Country | Bahrain |
| Founded | 1766[a] |
| Founder | Khalifa bin Mohammed[1] |
| Current head | Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa |
| Titles | King of Bahrain Emir of Bahrain Hakim of Bahrain Crown Prince of Bahrain Sheikh |
The House of Khalifa (Arabic: آل خليفة, romanized: Āl Khalīfah) is the ruling family of the Kingdom of Bahrain. The Al Khalifas profess Sunni Islam and belong to the Anizah tribe. Some members of this tribe joined the Utub alliance which migrated from Najd in central Arabia to Kuwait, then ruled all of Qatar, more specifically Al Zubarah, which they built and ruled over before settling in Bahrain in the early 17th century. The current head of the family is King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, who became the Emir of Bahrain in 1999 and proclaimed himself King of Bahrain in 2002, in fact becoming a constitutional monarch.
As of 2010, roughly half of the serving cabinet ministers of Bahrain were members of the Al Khalifa royal family,[2] while the country's Prime Minister, Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, is also from the Al Khalifa family and is the son of the current King.
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- ^ "History of the Ruling Family of Bahrain". Archived from the original on 10 November 2010. Retrieved 10 October 2010.
- ^ Bahrain Shia demand cabinet change, Aljazeera.net, 5 March 2010