Page 14 - The Pirate Coast (By Sir Charles Belgrave)

The Persian Gulf is one of the oldest sea routes in the world, and
is probably the sea on which mankind first practised navigation.
Danish archaeologists, who have been working in Bahrain, and
elsewhere in the Gulf, for the last ten years, have now established
the fact that the Bahrain islands arc the ancient Dilniun, famous
as a trading centre since the third millennium. In ancient times
Dilmun traded with the cities of the Indus valley. Ships from Ur
of the Chaldees, and later from Babylon, sailed down to Dilmun,
and carried back to Mesopotamia cargoes of gold, precious stones,
ivory, frankincense, teak wood, and copper from the mines of
Makan in the mountains of Oman, where the ancient workings
can still be seen.
These recent archaeological discoveries disprove the belief which
used to be held by many historians that the Persian Gulf was the
original home of the Phoenicians, and that it was they who built
the vast necropolis in Bahrain. The thousands of sepulchral
mounds, covering large areas of the islands, arc now rapidly dis­
appearing as the lorries of contractors remove the material from
the tombs for building and road work.
As early as the 8th century b.c., there were pirates in the Gulf.
Ships sailing in the Gulf in those days used to hug the coast,
anchoring at nightfall, and continuing their voyage at dawn; the
crews often slept on shore, and it was then that they were liable to
be attacked. So serious was the danger from pirates that in about
690 b.c., Sennacherib, the Assyrian King, sent an expedition
against them, and forced many of them to settle at Gerrha in
Hasa, on the Arabian coast opposite Bahrain. Gerrha afterwards
became an important port, whence caravan routes led northwards
to Mesopotamia and westwards, skirting the Arabian desert.
Gerrha is identified with cither Oquair or Katif, most probably
the latter.
In classical times more was known about the Persian Gulf. In
326 b.c., Alexander the Great was forced to abandon his project
of advancing farther into India because his Macedonian troops
refused to proceed. He decided to send part of his army back to
Babylon by sea, while he and the rest of his troops returned by
land, following the coast. He assembled a great fleet at Jhelum,
in the Punjab, and after almost a year, the army and the fleet
arrived at the mouth of the Indus. The command of the fleet was
given to Nearchus, a man from Crete, who successfully navigated