Page 197 - Gulf Precis (V)_Neat

PREFACE.

rpho Ottoman Turk9 rose into power about the middle of the 15th century.
JL They seized Constantinople in 1453 and in a few years overrun Sou,th-east­
ern Europe, Syria and Egypt, and created powerful fleets which, on the one aide,
obtained full command over the Indian seas,, and, on the other threatened to
subjugate the whole Mediterranean,basin. But the wave of her conquers in
the West was turned back by the victories of the combined fleets of Spain, Venice
and other Italian states ; while in the east a power, having its birth in the
small kingdom in the extreme west of Europe, fresh from her victories in her
orusades against the Moors that had established themselves in the Ib.eriin Pen-
ninsula, turned their enterprise against the Mussulman dominion in the Eastern
seas and turned the flank of Islam in its grapple with Christendom. Actuated
by the spirit of the crusaders, tho Portuguese pursued the Moors (as they called
all Mahomedans) and all who traded with them, with barbaric and relentless
ferocity, and established like the Phoenicians of old factories at overy impor­
tant port in tho Eastern seas.
To secure their command over tho Indian seas, the Portuguese knew that
they should obtain a hold on the Persian Gulf. They accordingly attacked and
captured Ormuz, Maskat, Bahrein and other important places and established
their factories at every important town in tho Persian Gulf. The Ottoman
8ultans had exorcised a nominal jMasi-political and religious control over
Arabia. Whatever power they onjoyed on the eastern coast of Arabia they
lost on tho establishment of the Portuguese power in the Gulf. With the
decline of the Portuguese Empire, the Persians and the Sultans of Maskat
made ineffective efforts to establish their supremacy on tho Arabian coast of
the Persian Gulf, only to let loose the marauding spirit of the Bedouin Arabs
in the shape of piratical enterprises. Tho British Government then stepped
ia to restore ordor and peace in tho Gulf. But with tho riso of the Wahabi
power in Arabia at the commencement of the 19th century, a new element of
disorder was introduced. While tho British were checking these disorders in
the sea, the Ottoman Government, as the protector of Islam against the aggres­
sion of Wahabism, despatched expeditions from Egypt to destroy the new-born
aggressive power. It was crushed only to revive soon with greater vitality.
The Wahabi Amirs had learnt, however, to be wise by experience and with
the objoot of pursuing their designs of aggrandizement undisturbed, they chose
to acknowledge the Sultau as their suzerain, although the vassalage was merely
nominal. But it soon furnished the Porto with an excuse to meddle in Arabian
affairs, when its chieftains foolishly engaged themselves in interneoino wars, and
to gradually extend its power in tho peninsula, which at the same timo served
as a counterpoise against the decline of its power in the west. The conquest of
Hasa and Kutif districts was tho result of this move. The Turks sought to
extend their powor still to the south by right of the privilege of the Sultan, as
the religious head of the Sunni Mussulman Church or what may be called
Holy Ottoman Empire, or as the suzerain of the Nejd principality, although
the Nejd Amirs never welcomed this expansion of the Turkish power.
The Turkish dominion ia admittedly established in the Hasa and Katif
districts. The Turks, however, have not established an effective hold over the
tribes in their newly-acquired districts, so as to be able to preserve order and
peace among them. On the contrary the introduction of the Turkish element
has only given a fresh impetus to disorders in the interior and disturbances on
the sea. The Katif coast has in fact turned into a piratical stronghold in
place of what was formerly called the Pirate Coast, a little to the south of it,
whioh has now been converted, under the British control, into one of the most
peaceful districts in the Arabian peninsula. The Turkish Government has
never taken any efficient measures to suppress piraoies and enforce order and
peace on this Neto Pirate Coast.
This precis deals accordingly with the extension of the Turkish dominion
on the Arabian littoral of the Persian Gulf in the nineteenth century, the
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