Edited sentence: 642-679), imparts to the reader city and village-level ethnic and religious statistics taken at the time that the area was still an Ottoman district (until 1912-1914) and free of religious suppression that follows with the Saudi takeover.8, Oman and Central Arabia, pp.A quick review of the British colonial sources, such as J.As such, the Shia cities like Hofuf, Mubarraz, Qatif etc.However, in view of the suppression of Shiism by the Wahhabi religious authorities who dominate most aspects of political and administrative life of the Saudi state, no Shia was openly allowed to practice his/her beliefs or confess to being a Shia.Like the rest of the al-Hasa/Ahsa oasis, Hofuf city boasts to a Shia majority, although thanks to the discovery of the largest oil deposits in the world--the Ghawar Field in this Shia region, a very large numbers of outsiders with various religious afliations have now settled the primary cities of Ahsa, such a Hofuf.Lorimer (Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, 1915, vol.Only after 2003 invasion of Iraq and the rise of the Shia fortunes has the Saudi government allowed for some local, but subdued expressions of Shia identity in the region.The city of Hofuf--one of the largest in the traditional al-Hasa/Ahsa district after the city of Qatif, is historically one of the primary centers of Shia Islam in the modern kingdom of Saudi Arabia.This is of course an error.are listed as having Wahhabi or Sunni Muslim majorities