Page 11 - Journal of Asian History_Neat

(
a
r TURKS AND I’ORTUOUKHK IN TICK I’KRSl A N OULF 47
ruler of al-Hasa, son of Zaincl, refused tn pay to Hormuz the tribute
expected of him. He was also molesting ships sailing between Basra

i and Hormuz. For this purpose he had acquired vessels with oars made
for him by some Turks, “alguns Turcos.”5 Diogo Lopes de Sequeira
who had been appointed as governor ot India in 1518, was then at
Hormuz and agreed to send his nephew Antonio Correa against
*
,(1 Bahrayn. During the ensuing battle Mukrirn was killed and the Portu-
guese compelled tho people of Bahrayn to give to Hormuz tho tribute
due from them.4
The King of Portugal, D. Manuel, had decided earlier that Portu-
I guese officials should take tho placo of the native officials at the customs

house in Hormuz. Turan Shah resisted this change but in vain. He was
assassinated and a young prince, Muhammad Shah, was raised to the
i throne.7 On 15 July 1523 D. Duarte de Menezes, governor of India,
k concluded with the new prince, with his vizier Sharaf al-Din and with
c other amirs an agreement stipulating that the annual tribute should be
1 raised to 60,000 xerafins.8 This agreement also contained a number of

regulations through which the Portuguese sought to consolidate their
I own position at Hormuz and also control to their own advantage the
t.
flow of traffic to and from the island. The Portuguese assured freedom
’
of navigation in the Indian Ocean to the ships and merchants of Hor-
!
muz providing they became vassals of the King of Portugal. They
:
*
r- t *« . . . que Mocrira tinha feito alguns navioa de rerao por industria de alguns
s* Turcos” (Jo&o do Barros, Da Asia, (Lisboa, 1778), Decada III, Livro VI, p. 27).
* Turcos-o. word, tho prociso sonse of which is difficult to discern from its uso in
l
tho Portuguese sources. Sometimes it sooms to mean little more than Muslims
l or men from the lands under Ottoman rule. The Portuguese also made use of the
expression Rums*— i.e., men from the land of Rum, men, in short, from the ter­
: ritories under the Ottoman Sultan.
••• . • Mukrirn had at his disposal 12,000 men, among them 300 Arab horsemen,
' 400 Persian archers and 20 Rumes espingardeiros. Espingardeiro is, in Turkish,
*£.::|
Cii/enkgi, an arquebusier (see V. J. Parry, in ED, b.v. Harb). The espingardeiros
were engaged not only to fight, but also to teach some of the local population
i
the use of firo arms: ”... trezentos de cavallo Arabios, e quatrocentoa fxecheiroa
Parseos, e vinto Ruraea espingardeiroa, com outroa da terra a que ellea tinhorn
enainado este uso” (Barroa, Dec. Ill, Liv. VI, p. 33).
7 Ibid., Liv. VII, pp. 113£f.
k • As noted above, it was 15,000 xerafins in the time of Albuquerque (1509—
1515), and 25,000 in the time of Lopo Soarez (1615-1518). It was more than
100,000 xerafins in tho middle of tho sixteenth century (of. G. Schurhammer
Die Zeilgenossischen Quellen zur Oeschichie Portugicsisch-Asiens und seiner
►
NachbarlAnder, 1538-1552, (Romae, 1962), no. 4693).

•..
• •
•*. •> V