The al-Khalifa family, which is Sunni, has ruled over this small and majority-Shiite island nation since 1783. The current monarch, Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, took over in 1999 and in 2002 changed his title from emir to king. Though the constitutional monarchy grants Shiites some role in the government, it’s not much, and pro-democracy protests have roiled the country since 2011.
