Page 239 - Journal of Asian History_Neat

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\\ \ \i»\ vii.m: Tin' ()Houuv. /’•••* ' /*#» *•/ •ll-lhtMt IS?

\ . !\ • l - % • i • 1 (ipium.' Tin* ha- r»*li«*tl pm-| Him • in mind I havr nmPMitrd m\>*4f wilh
i
,-.p«M ' lll v Mpnli \r.tb Ii|'I<htim\ primarily tlm-i* of idling -nuro*- ullu»r tliaii tli** »nuhimmr doinimi’iits
I|i. . ir!\ Wahhabi mnvrmi’iil living at Ira.-t a only wIiimi ihi- w;u« ni*ci,»ary to maintain con­
cent *ir\ aft-T th withdrawal of th«* Ottoman tinuity in tin* narrative.
garrison- and heavily dependent for their inforina- The procedure followed in collecting the docu­
lion on local oral tradition.1 A few have used ments \v:w simple enough. I read through the
-om» •thing of each.4 indices of volumes of the series where they had
This article is based on documents found in the been completed by the archives staff. Where no
inuliininc series of the ItasiekfUct (Prime Minis­ indices were available I read through each volume
ter's) archives in Istanbul.7 In it is described the itself. Using this method I covered volumes one
story of the first Ottoman occupation of al- through ninety-six, skipping for the most part
Hasa, pieced together from the humdrum reports the luJiuil and but/unwlu dejurUri}
and complaints and queries of the men who them- The period of time thus covered by the survey
selves had the job of supervising the clearing of runs from 1544 (the odd volumes found in the
the irrigation ditches, rebuilding countless times Topkapi Museum were included)* to 1679, with
the fortifications, and making the tax rounds., important breaks in the series during 1545-52,
My intention is to present a part of that broad 1605-09, 1GIS-26, 1646-56, 1665-6S, and with
base of facts upon which sound generalization several other lacuna* of shorter duration.10
might be made concerning Ottoman imperial The article is written in two sections. The
policy in the Persian Gulf during the sixteenth first will present a detailed description of the
and seventeenth centuries. With this limited major events of the period under review’, and the
historiographic problems to which they give rise.
' K g. Arnold T. Wilson, The Persian Gulf, London, Section two will describe the system of adminis­
102S. pp. 124-27; G. W. F. Stripling. The Ottoman Turks tration of the province by the Ottomans.
and the Arabs, 1511-1574, Illinois Studies in the Social The system of transliteration used is that of the
Sciences, Vol. XXVI, No. 4, Urbana, 1042, pp. 93-06; M. Islam Ansiklopedisi except for commonly ac­
L. Dames, **The Portuguese and Turks in the Indian
Ocean," Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, January cepted administrative, geographic and archival
1021. terms, which arc treated as modem Turkish or,
'E K' \1' Sl’ John Philby. Sa'uJx Arabia, London. where obvious, English, words. The Christian
rn #' PP' r!2, 24-261 Abmad Abu Hakima, History of (Gregorian) calendar alone is used for dates in
*• r°. la’ ^l3e Development of Bahrein and the text; both Christian and hicri dates are given
Kuwait, Beirut, 1965. pp 33.39
in the notes.
l°r S* H. Longrigg, Pour Centuries of
hJoih/T’ °X.ford* l925» PP- 3S-I1. 107-15, who with a
man rH h“lonaQa of Ira9 adds a few published Otto- For a discussion of the buyuruldu types see Heyd,
Has4 . r0n,c fa ^d *oca^ histories which mention &1- op. cit., pp. 29-30. The tahvil register is a record of
source«. KPaSS,u 8 Longri«« does not uac the Wahhabi changes and renewals of grants of timars and zc'amels.
hecio**'. Ut- * * conlcmP°rary Iraqi local histories that I have, however, incorporated Maliye'den Mudewere
*cveoteentVn m&ny caaca morc ^eful, especially for the no. 17642, from the Ba^vekAlet archives, which appears
the onlv r»»v,CCfUUry' a6ou,d bc mentioned here that
on'the . he^C0?t<;mPorary literary source available to be a fragment of a ruznam^e defter of the year 961/
but neith^K er5'T hiatoriea» have not b*«n ignored, 1553-54.
^example AT ""l «*»<>**<• • Topkapi Saray Arplvl, Ko£u$ Collection no. 8S8
New York ’ Farou8hy» The Bahrein Islands, 750-1951, (henceforth abbreviated to Ko£u$ 8S8) and GeneraJ
» Bri#»fl ' u ’ PP' 62-64 ^d bibliography pp. US-21. . 12321 (henceforth abbreviated to Topkapi
°rders issued documents are copies of all Sencs no>
Humauun) F * k* °Uomao Imperial Council (Dxvan-i 1232U-
•liscuaaio ' ^ ^ mo<Jt deta‘led readily available " For a preliminary survey and catalog of the dates
Ottoman D ° *lC °f aeries, see Uriel Heyd, and type of each register in the series see Midhat Ser-
Pp. XV YV ^a^*llrxe> IMt-1616, Oxford, 1960, tofclu, Muhteva baklmlndan Basvekdlet Arjlwl, Ankara
I_39* and bibliography pp. IX-XI. (1955) pp. 16-22.

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