Page 51 - Journal of Asian History_Neat

n TUf ANI) POKTUOUESE IN THE PKItSIAN GliDK G7

!
The instructions given to Piri Reis for his campaign of 1552, ordered
him to bring under Ottoman control not only Hormuz, but also
Bahrayn.79 He had not been able to realize these aims. It was not until
: 1559 that the Ottomans made a serious effort to establish themselves
in Bahrayn. In this year, Mustafa Pasha, the beylerbey of Lahsa, under­
1 undertaken,
v took a campaign against the island. This campaign was
tt however, with no permission from the Sultan. According to an order of
Sultan Suleyman, sent to the ruler of Bahrayn and dated 23 Zilhicce
K
960/1 October 1559, the Sultan made specific reference to the fact
that Mustafa Pasha had acted without orders from Istanbul.80 Mustafa
Pasha went against the island with two fighting galleys (kadirga)t
seventy light ships of various kinds and one brigantine. He had with
him, according to Couto, 1,200 soldiers including a certain number of
Janissaries from Baghdad, and ample supplies and munitions.81 A
Turkish document81 from an Ottoman bey who fought in this campaign
mentions that before the expedition set out, 200 mounted troops and
\ 400 arquebusiers had been sent from Basra to Lahsa. On 26 Ramazan
;
! 966/2 July 1559, the Turks began to besiege Manama, the fortress of
Bahrayn, on the northern coast of the island. The news of the Ottoman
descent on Bahrayn reached Hormuz, and a Portuguese fleet consist­
i • ing of twenty-two grabs was sent to save the island. Their cajntao mor

was D. Joan de Noronha, the nephew of the Portuguese governor of
r Hormuz. With the aid of Joao de Quadros, a captain endowed with a
long experience of navigation in the Persian Gulf, the Portuguese set
on fire the Ottoman supply ships and captured the two Ottoman galleys.
Confronted with a shortage of supplies and munitions and the death of
their beylerbey, Mustafa Pasha, the Ottomans decided to end the
struggle. The Portuguese on the other hand, with their fleet in complete
control of the island, also had reason to put an end to this rivalry. The
east winds (os levantes) had begun to blow, bringing with them
malignant fever and causing numerous deaths among the Portu­
guese and the Ottomans. Under these circumstances there was little

19 Kogu§lar 888, fol. 487 v.
,# . . haliya Lahsa beylerbeyisi olan Mustafa Sudde-i Saadetime arz ve
ilam itmeden fuzfrli bazi umera ve AAA kirle taht taarifinde olan Cezire-i Bah-
reyn’o ge<?ib .. (see Saffot Bey, “Bahreyn'de Bir Vak’a,” in Tarih-\ Osmant
EnciXmenx Mtcmuasx, III, (Istanbul, 1328/1910), p. 1142).
•l Dtc. VII, Liv. VII, p. 110.
fl Topkapi Sarayi Muzeei Ar$ivi, nu. N.E. 3004, in C. Orhonlu, 1559 Bah-
reyn..., pp. 1-10.