Page 281 - Journal of Asian History_Neat

50 s Journal • >/ the American Oriental Society. !V).d (l!)70)
stationed on patrol between U:us Tunuru and . Gulf trade wen: carried out by the governor
Kattf in the .sixteenth century.1,0 Even here, it general of Basra.1**
his authority was in terms of line of com- In short, LatisA could be used :ut a minor naval
seems
U1d indirect. The unit, which during the few staging base for the few campaigns across the
short periods of active naval war might be en- water against Bahrein. It offered refuge to Otto-
larged to as many as fourteen galleys,1*1 was com- man ships pursued or disabled in enemy action,
manded by a high-ranking naval officer of the Sometimes a few ships were stationed there to
Basra fleet holding the title of kapud&n of Labs£.m police local shipping and the pearling fleet. The
Basra was the naval headquarters of the Gulf; its main concern of the province, however, was
governor general, acting sometimes independently directed not at the Gulf but at the gardens and
of sometimes subordinate to Bagdad, was ulti- inhabitants, their welfare and their taxes. The j
mately responsible for the provisioning of LafcsA Gulf was left to Basra,
and the defense of Gulf shipping. When the
Portuguese raided Katif in 1552, 1559 and 1573, Communications and supplies i
s'
orders for defensive naval action went to Basra or Hundreds of miles of desert separated LafcaSj
Bagdad, not Laljsa.lM Again, when raids sponsored from Basra and Bagdad. This was not an
by the “ruler of L&r were reported on the LafysA penetrable wasteland of waterless sand. There were '2
pearling fleet in 157S, orders were dispatched to watering points at intervals, and in the proper1
Basra to send down a galley to police the pearl season, properly equipped, travel could be!
beds.1*4 In loSS, in anticipation of increased raid- pleasant. But supplies and troops for war, urgent?
ing on the Gulf because of the Safavid \\ ar, the administrative orders, could not wait wholly on^
governor general of Bagdad rather than Basra tbe se&SQnm Land transport in any case was liable:
was ordered to keep an eye on the La^sS area. If ^ ^ by nomadic tribes. -q
threats from the ferenc should appear, he was to Because of this, practically all communications,^
dispatch two galleys to forestall attacks there.1**
men and supplies were carried to LatisS by water;'
Any negotiations with the Portuguese concerning
dowm the coast of the Gulf from Basra.117 They‘d
reached Basra also by boat from Anatolia;
cannon, four falconets, and eight other light cannon (see Northern Iraq and S>Tia, Diyarbekir and Aleppo,
I. A. Uzun^ar^Ul, Osrnanli DcvUtinin Mcrkez ve Bahriye
TcskilAti, Ankara, 1948, pp. 461-63). The oars of Ottoman by way of the Birecik Waterway,1*8 a river route;
ships in the Gulf were manned by criminals sent from running down the Euphrates from Birecik, 100,
the prisons of the eastern provinces, those of ships work­ miles northeast of Aleppo, southeast to the Gulf.1*?*
ing only on the Tigris, Euphrates, and on the Shatt by
men hired locally (Cengii Orhonlu and Turgut I$lksal, Even with this means there was some dependence;
"Dicle ve Flrat Nehirlerinde Naldiyat," Tarih Dergizi, on seasonal flood stages; and there were river
XIII (1963-63), p. 84). J
“* M Zeyli 3: p. 128, 22 Safer 983/2 June 1575. i
mM 27:190, 8 $a’bAn 983/12 November 1575; here, u‘ See above p. 488 f. ^
in preparation for the campaign planoed for the occupa­ UT In early 1643, 200 equipped musketeers were trana
tion of Bahrein. fered from Diyarbekir to LabsA. Orders were sent b
u* M 33:519, RebI ’l-Afoir (henceforth abbreviated as Basra to pass them on to La^sA by ship, if possible, axu
RA] 986/June 1578; **. . . Mefomed, KAhya (vice- if not by camel train; M 89:76-79, n.d. (late 1052/eadj
admiral?) of the Basra fleet and presently KapQdAn of 1643). %
At the time of this order he was in Basra. ™ Birecik tuyu (M 7:1349, 8 ZK 975/Q May 1562
“Kofcu* 88:102®, 7 RE 959/12 June 1552; M 3:1131, M 7:1402, 22 ZK 975/20 May 1568), also referred to 0
21 Sa’bAn 967/17 May 1560; M 22:631, 15 CE 981/12 Sep­ documents as the Euphrates Flood, /trdf {ugyOnS (a
tember 1573, In the latter case the governor general of 16:207, ZK 979/16 February 1572). See also M 27:23
Bagdad sent all ten of the galleys ready to move from 9 Sa'bAn 983/13 November 1575; M 12:1096, 11 ZK979^j
Basra. February 1572; M 27:465, 17 $ewal 983/19 January LOT
,MM 35:686, n.d. (ca. Ramazan 986/November 1578). u' The history of the Birecik Waterway is discusJ
UIM 64:535, n.d. (996-7/1587-88). in some detail by Orhonlu and I$lkaal, pp. 77-102. M

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