The Al Khalifa family ( / ALA-LC: / ) is the ruling family of Bahrain. The Al Khalifa profess Sunni Islam and belong to the Anizah tribe that migrated from Najd to Kuwait in the early 18th century. They are also from the Utub tribe. The current head of the family is Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, who became the Emir of Bahrain in 1999 and proclaimed himself King of Bahrain in 2002.
As of 2010, roughly half of the serving cabinet ministers of Bahrain have been selected from the Al Khalifa royal family,, Aljazeera.net, 5 March 2010 while the country's only Prime Minister, Khalifah bin Salman al-Khalifah, (serving since independence in 1971) is also from the Al Khalifa family and is the uncle of the current King.
Al Khalifa is commonly mistranscribed al-Khalifa. The Al (آل) particle here (written with the long (madda) alif and unconnected to the following word) means house, in the sense of family or dynasty, and is not the definite article particle al-.
List of monarchs of Bahrain of the Al Khalifa family