Page 126 - Records of Bahrain (1) (i)_Neat

116 Records of Bahrain

NAVIGATION OF TIfE

BAHREIN.
The island of Bahrein or Awal, and adjacent islands, were known to
the ancients by the name of Tylos, and are mentioned by Arrian. We
have no satisfactory accounts of them from that period, until in the
possession of the Portuguese, who, soon'afler Ormus was taken by Albu­
querque, established settlements here and at Katcef, and monopolised
a great portion of the pearl fishery and trade of the Gulf. They were
expelled coon after the fall of Ormus, by the Persians, who were shortly
after expelled by Houd bin Jamain, the Shaikh of Alassar’s people,
who possessed the island for several years, when it was again con­
quered, after a severe struggle, by the Persians, and the whole of the
Alassar town laid in ruins. Reinforcements soon arriving, the Alassar
people again made head, and drove the Persians out of the island, and
rebuilt several towns on the ruins of the former ones, which are to be
seen at the present time.
About seventy or eighty years back, the grandfather of the present
Shaikh, who was of a powerful family, originally from Alassar, of the
Uttoobee Tribe, entered into a secret treaty with the then Governor of
Bushire, stipulating to pay tribute to the Persian Government,