Page 49 - Journal of Asian History_Neat

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GG 8 ALIK 07.11 A KAN (

this moment, the Ottomans had no naval resources there sufficient to
encounter the advance of the Christians. In 155G D. Alvaro da Sil-
veirft, u Portuguese admiral (cupituo ttior) from Goa, sailed towards
Basra. This further expedition of the Portuguese to Basra was also
unsuccessful. When tho Portuguese fleet came off the Shatt al-Arab a
storm broke out, driving back the Portuguese to Hormuz with no
achievement to their credit. In fact, most of the Portuguese ships were
considerably damaged by the storm. Couto states that one purpose of
this Portuguese expedition of 1556 was to help the Arab chieftains v
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against their Ottoman masters.78 The Ottomans, their fleet lost in
A
course of recent operations, offered no resistance. On the other hand,
Ottoman control was now well established on the north-western shores
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of the Persian Gulf, where the beylerbeylilc of Lahsa had just been 3
*
created.
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STRUGGLE FOR THE ISLAND OF BAHRAYN

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Bahrayn, situated between al-Hasa and Qatar, was at this time an a
intermediate point of some importance on the sea route between Hor­
muz and Basra. It was also the center of pearl fishing in the Persian
Gulf. For these reasons, the island often attracted the attention <?f its
more powerful neighbors. Since 1521, after defeating the local ruler,
Mukrim, the Portuguese had exerted some degree of influence upon
the island. In 1535, however, the ruler of Bahrayn sent his submission |
to Sultan Suleyman just after the Ottoman conquest of Baghdad. The |
ruler of the island turned now* to the one and now to the other of his ?.
two powerful neighbors, depending on which one offered more advan­ u 2
tages.77 With the arrival of the Ottomans on the north-western shores l
of the Persian Gulf, the local rulers who had submitted to the Ottoman
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Sultan received from Istanbul the title of Sancak Bey. For example in 5
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1559 the then ruler of Bahrayn, Ra’is Murad, was given this status.78 ^
Even so, the influence of the Portuguese on the island was not negligi­ 1
ble.
*:
7‘ Deo. VII, Liv. I, p. 206.
77 To write, howover, aa Stripling has done (Tho Ottoman Turks and tho
Arabs 1511-1574, (Urbana 111., 1942), p. 94) that by 1554 the Ottomans had
conquered Bahrayn, is to misrepresent the actual situation. In 1554, during his -
journey towards Hormuz, Soydi Ali Reis obtained at Bahrayn information about '
tho Portuguese fleet.
71 MD, III, p. 139.

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