For more than five decades, from the 1910s to the 1950s, doctors from the Arabian Mission made regular visits to what is now Saudi Arabia.
They set up medical camps in towns and villages across the country. Leading these medical teams were Dr Paul Harrison, Dr Louis Dame and Dr Harold Storm, all of whom served as American Mission Hospital (AMH) chief medical officers, at different periods in Bahrain.
The first king of Saudi Arabia was King Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud (Ibn Saud), who was impressed by the work of the Arabian Mission.
An excerpt from Dr Harrison, published in Neglected Arabia, No. 105, April-June, 1918: “I went up to see the Great Chief himself then, a man whose personality and character stamp him as one of the world’s kings.
“Never perhaps since the Prophet himself has Arabia been united as it is now, and no one marvels at who meets the man who has united them. I have never been entertained by a more courteous and gracious host anywhere, and have never seen, I think, a man of more perfect democracy of spirit.”
In 1919, during the Spanish Flu pandemic, Ibn Saud sent for Dr Harrison to treat his wife Jawhara and son, Turki. Ibn Saud had arranged a long camel caravan which was waiting to take the medical team to Riyadh, as soon as their boat touched the shores of Arabia. Sadly, the two had died by the time Dr Harrison reached Riyadh. But the medical team stayed for several weeks treating hundreds of patients.
In the following years, Dr Dame and his teams visited many other villages and camps, providing medical care to remote areas.
Before the 1930s and 1940s, camels were the main way to travel in the region. The arrival of cars allowed doctors to travel faster and reach more people.
Dr Harold Storm also made several medical trips to Qatar and the Trucial States; now the United Arab Emirates.
The Arabian Mission of the Reformed Church in America, headquartered in New York, was at that time operating American Mission Hospitals in four locations: Bahrain, Basra, Muscat (Muttrah), and Kuwait. They continued to provide healthcare services until the 1960s and 1970s.
By that time, the local governments had discovered oil and become economically strong enough to establish their own government hospitals.
Today, only Bahrain’s AMH remains as a legacy of the Arabian Mission. The others have been handed over to local authorities and transformed into museums or interfaith religious centres.
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