The rice on the big platter has a faint amber color. Rising with the steam are the deep sweet aroma of dates and the clean scent of cardamom. Beside it lies a whole fish, fried until golden. Taking sweet rice and salty fish into the mouth together is a well-known pairing at the Bahraini table. Muhammar is a traditional Bahraini rice dish in which basmati is cooked sweet.
Sweet rice from an island of pearl divers
Bahrain is an island nation in the Persian Gulf, and for a long era before oil was found, pearl diving supported island life. The story of muhammar's origin is also told in connection with this work at sea. The Indian magazine Outlook Traveller traces the beginning of the dish to pearl divers, who it says sweetened rice with date syrup (dibs). Today, besides date syrup, versions sweetened with honey or caramelized sugar are also widely seen.
The pearl diver story, however, comes down as a travel-magazine account, and there is no record that confirms when or by whom it was started. It is best taken as an origin handed down on the island. Even so, the very idea of cooking rice in a syrup made from the fruit of the date palm shows clearly the life of the Gulf, where dates were everyday food.
The date syrup used for muhammar is called "dibs" in Arabic. It is sold at specialty import grocery stores and online as date syrup or date molasses.
Sweet rice with fried fish
Hearing "sweet rice" makes you think of dessert, but muhammar is also a staple eaten with other dishes. According to Outlook Traveller, muhammar is typically served with fried or grilled fish. Local fish such as safi and chanab are used, rubbed with spices and salted, grilled or fried in a little oil, and served with greens and lemon juice. The contrast of sweet rice and salty fish is the greatest pleasure of this dish.
In a recipe presented by the Gulf newspaper Gulf News too, muhammar is described as a dish that can be a side for fried fish or eaten as a dessert on its own. It can be a plate at a meal or a sweet after it. That breadth is probably one of the reasons this rice has long been loved in Bahraini homes.
To pair it with fish at home, lightly coat fillets of mackerel, sardine, or white fish with salt and a little turmeric or cumin and pan-fry them in a little oil, and it balances well with the sweetness of muhammar. This is a pairing for a home kitchen, and it does not taste the same as the local fish.
Ingredients (serves 4)
The ingredients are the date syrup recipe published in Gulf News (serves 6, 1 kg rice) cut in half to be easy at home. Even with the amounts reduced, the ratio of water to rice to syrup is unchanged.
Date syrups vary in thickness and sweetness by product. The thicker and more syrupy, the sweeter and the darker the rice cooks. The first time, cook with the amounts in the table and adjust to your taste from the next. Use basmati rice, not short-grain rice. The grains are long and low in stickiness, so even after absorbing the sweet syrup they do not turn sticky and finish loosened grain by grain.
Before using cardamom in its pods, press lightly with a finger to crack them, and the aroma of the seeds inside moves into the cooking liquid more easily. Cracking is enough; there is no need to crush them.
How to make muhammar
Choose a heavy pot with a lid that closes tightly. The sugar in the syrup makes the bottom of the pot scorch easily, so a heavy pot gives fewer failures than a thin one.
Cooking liquid with date syrup dissolved in it contains a lot of sugar, so it gets hotter than ordinary hot water, and if it splashes it sticks to the skin and burns easily. When stirring, stand a little back from the pot and use a long wooden spoon. Also, even while cooking over low heat, turn off the heat at once if you smell scorching.
If the rice still has a core after 14 minutes, pour only 2–3 tbsp hot water in along the side of the pot, cover again, and cook another 3–5 minutes over very low heat. If instead a lot of liquid remains, remove the lid and heat for 1–2 minutes over low heat to cook off the excess liquid, and the grains loosen more easily.
The faint brown crust that forms on the bottom of the pot is a sweet, fragrant, delicious part. If it scorches black, though, it turns bitter. On a stove whose low setting runs strong, putting a grill rack under the pot softens the heat.
Muhammar made with honey and saffron
The sweetness of muhammar does not come only from date syrup. The American food blog The Foreign Fork presents a recipe sweetened with honey and brown sugar and finished with ground cardamom, saffron dissolved in rose water, and plenty of ghee. In this method, the rice is boiled first for about 8 minutes and drained, returned to a pot with melted ghee to mix in the sweetness and aroma, covered, and steamed over very low heat for 10–15 minutes. The crisp part at the bottom of the pot is also considered one of the pleasures.
Cooked in date syrup, the color is brown and the sweetness is deep and date-like. Made with honey and saffron, the color is bright yellow and the festive aroma of rose water rises. Outlook Traveller also writes that today's muhammar is scented with cloves, cardamom, and rose water. Neither is the correct one; this is a dish where the choice of sweetness and aroma produces each household's own taste.
How to eat it
Heap freshly cooked muhammar on a large platter and add fried fish, lemon, and greens, and you have a plate from the Bahraini table. Squeeze lemon hard over the fish and eat it with the sweet rice, and sweetness, sourness, and saltiness come together in the mouth. Serving it in a small bowl as a sweet after a meal, without fish, is also a way Gulf News presents it.
For another Gulf rice dish, compare it with Bahrain's machboos, in which meat is cooked into the rice with spices, and you can see clearly how the same basmati becomes an entirely different dish depending on whether it is cooked sweet or with salt and spices. If you like the sweetness of dates, spooning date syrup over the UAE's fried dumplings, luqaimat, is also recommended.
Frequently asked questions
What can I use if I have no date syrup?
There is a version made with honey and sugar. As in The Foreign Fork recipe, sweeten with honey and brown sugar and scent with saffron and rose water, and you get a bright yellow muhammar. The color and aroma differ from the date syrup version, so enjoy it as a different formulation.
Can I make it with short-grain rice?
It is not impossible, but short-grain rice is very sticky and tends to turn clumpy when cooked in a sweet liquid. For the loosened-grain texture that is characteristic of muhammar, use basmati.
Can I make it less sweet?
Reducing the date syrup makes it less sweet. But reducing the syrup also reduces the total amount of liquid, so add about the same amount of water as you removed to keep the cooking liquid the same.
Can I store leftovers?
Let the heat drop, then put it in a storage container, refrigerate it, and finish it soon. Do not leave cooked rice at room temperature for long. To reheat, sprinkle with a little water and heat in a microwave or similar until hot all the way through.
Sources
- Gulf News, "Muhammar or Bahraini sweet rice," updated 21 April 2021. Accessed and checked: 22 October 2026. https://gulfnews.com/food/cooking-cuisines/muhammar-or-bahraini-sweet-rice-1.1609665316753
- Outlook Traveller, "Foodie Alert: Top 7 Authentic Dishes And Drinks To Try In Bahrain," updated 1 March 2025. Accessed and checked: 22 October 2026. https://www.outlooktraveller.com/experiences/food-and-drink/foodie-alert-top-7-authentic-dishes-and-drinks-to-try-in-bahrain
- The Foreign Fork, "Muhammar: Sweet Rice from Bahrain," updated 8 August 2020. Accessed and checked: 22 October 2026. https://foreignfork.com/muhammar/
