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HAALLA ARAB ANp THE ENGLIsH EAsr INDA COMPAN

IN THs 18rH CENTUR : TRAoE AND RIVARL

Piate lnterests and its Effects
By

Dr KgALID AL KgALIEFA
Asst. Pofessor of Gulf History,

Uniersity of Bahrairn

The Reltaion With The Haalla Arabs

The ie that there existed a 'pirate coast' in the second half of the eighteenth
century ihch ended olny ith the submission of the Ouaasims in the ifrst decades
of the inneteenth cenrty is deeply rooted in the reports of the Bnglish agents of the
period. These reports, hich ere highly ilfnuenced by personal interests, not misled
contemporary and modern ihstorians but also the compan'ys preailing decision
maers. Fe English sources meniton the commercial acitiites of the Haalla Arabs
preferring to concenrtate on the political dilemma posed by pirac.y

Niebu,rh ho isisted the Gulf in 1s, as probably the first European rtaeller
to g‫ﻫ‬en an account of the Haalla Arabs. In his boo Taels Throgl Arabia, he
remared: 'Our geographers are rong in presenting a part of Arabia as subject to
Monarcsh of persia. So far it is from being so, that, on the conrtar,y the Arabs possess
all the sea-coast of the persian empire, rfom the mouth of Euprhates, nearly to those
of the hndus."1 hTese Arabs ere commolny non as 'AI Haalla' literally the
ord means 'immigrants'. During the eighteenth cenutry in paritcular it means all the
rAabs setlted on the persian coast. But it is sitll not clear hether all the Arabs ho
esttled on the persian cost ere Haalla. Nieburh disting‫ﻫ‬ished some ho settled at
Busherh as not belonging to the Haalla he rote:

The Arabs inhabiting the district of Abu Schaehihar (Abu Shihr) are not of Houle
(Al Haanlla). Three are among them three eminient families the to ifrst of hich
hae been rfon time immemorial, settled in this counyrt, The third, name
Matarisch, came lately rfom Oman. Where they ree emplyoed in fishing, netreed
into alliance oith the other to, and found means to usur the soereign authori,yt
hich thye hae o held for seeral years'

Te Haalla Shaish, ho urled the island of Kgsmh iht its ort of Basidore,
‫ﺕ‬ung, Linga, Bander ig and Busherh, had long rtaded ith india. hTe Shaihs
htemseles ere merchans ho omned sihs mailny engaged in hte Gulf's reg‫ﻫ‬onal
rtade iht est lndia. Adbul Shaih of Kung, at the end of hte seenteenht centuyr
and into 'the ifrst decade of hte ne cenutr,y had many sihs trading reg‫ﻫ‬larly to the