Page 237 - Journal of Asian History_Neat

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THE OTTOMAN PROVINCE OK AL-HASA IN THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH
CENTURIES

Jon E. Mandaviu.k
I’lUTUvli Sr»T« l*NtV*K*ITT

Al-Htum, the present eastern province of Saudi Arabia, was occupied by the Ottoman Em­ i
pire from 1550 to 1670 This article first describes the major political events which occurred a
in »l-Ilium during thus occupation, concentrating upon relations between the local Ottoman
force and the Portuguese, the governor of Bahrein Island and the pre-Ottoman rulers of
the area, the Bani Khalid. It then describes tho Ottoman administrative apparatus of the 1
region, examining in turn the districts, the bureaucracy, land tenure and taxes, the mili­
tary structure, communications and supplies and the judiciary. The primary source used i
for this description is the muhimmt scries of the Ba^vckilct and TopkapI Saray Archives
in Istanbul, in which arc recorded several hundred orders issued by the Imperial Council
in Istanbul concerning al-Hasa. This is supplemented by land survey documents also found
in tho Ba?vekAlet Archives, the chronicles of Ibn Bishr and Ibn ’13a, and relevant second­ A
ary sources.
BIBLIOGRAPHIC INTRODUCTION1 the Black -Stone in a unique gesture of defiances
to established Islamic authority.1 Again in thi'
Historians of the Islamic middle east
context of Shl’ism, a few historians associate the
know the region of al-Hasa best as the head­
area with the extremist Shi’a Safavid movement
quarters of that extremist ShTa group the
of the sixteenth century; they know its population?
Rarmatls, as the place to which that group in
and that of Syria to have been used for the rei-
A.D. 930 brought back from a raid on Mecca
cruitment of educated Shl’is capable of filling'
administrative posts in the expanding Safavid1
1 I should like to take this opportunity to ofTer my
thanks to the directors and staffs of the Ba^vckAlct empire.1 This article is concerned with the six­
archives and the TopkapI Museum in Istanbul, in par­ teenth and seventeenth century history of al-*
ticular to Turgut I^lksal of the Ba^vckAlet archives, Hasa, but Shl’ism will play, considering al-.;
for the many pAticnt services and kindnesses offered Hasa’s historiographic reputation, a surprisingly’
me. I also owe a debt of thanks to the Portland State small role.
University Research Committee, whose grant of funds
enabled me to xerox from microfilm the documents In the middle of the sixteenth century' the area
mentioned in this article. was occupied by Ottoman forces and administered
Since the completion of this writing, an article by directly by them with varying degrees of effective--
Cenglz Orhonlu dealing with the 1550 Bahrein campaign ness for the next 130 years. The historians who';
has appeared: "1559 Bahreyn Seferine Aid bir Rapor," have discussed this first Ottoman period of al-,
Tarih Deryxsi, xvii (1067) pp. 1-18. The article ’is an edi­
tion with introduction of the text of a report found in Has& history' (the Ottomans re-occupied the
the TopkapI Museum urchi ves written by an unidentified territory in the late nineteenth century) can be
Ottoman officer who took part in the campaign. The divided into two groups. One has relied especially;
report gives a somewhat more detailed account than that upon European sources, primarily Portuguese
found in the MOhimrae Series; it does not, however, colonial reports and the histories and memoirs'
change the description given below. For bis introduction,
Orhonlu made use of the RuuxUr aeries (a file of provin­ of English and Venetian itinerant peddlers of
cial appointment papers), a aeries not consulted for this
*
article. The Ruualtr Dcflcrltri are of use primarily for U* Carmalhc* du BaX~
the chronology of appointments, but they may well 1 M. J. de Goeje, Mtmoire iur .1
offer information for the description of provincial ad­ rain tl It* Falimidt*, Leyden, 18S6, pp. 100-11.
ministration in LabsA in the seventeenth century *n 1 See, for example, E. G. Browne, A Literary Hixtory
view of the apparent lack of other materials. of Perxia, vol. 4, Cambridge, new ed , 1953, p. 360. *.

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