Page 15 - The Pirate Coast (By Sir Charles Belgrave)

the unknown waters of the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf,
arriving at Ahwaz after a voyage of 146 days. The voyage of
Ncarchus, the places which he visited, and the inhabitants of the
coast - barbarians as he calls them - are fully described by Arrian. s
He mentions the tides, which were strange to the Greek sailors, = =
accustomed only to the tidclcss Mediterranean Sea, and he remarks
e
on the arrow-shaped fish traps, built of palm stick fences, which 1=
arc still a curious feature of the seascape along the coasts of the
Gulf, very conspicuous when seen from the air.
Other Greek and Roman writers refer to the Gulf, but they
often repeat the statements which were made by Ncarchus in his
journal. There is frequent mention of the pirates who infested
the seas, and Pliny describes the archers who were kept on the
ships to defend them from piratical attacks. The people of the
coast were, generally, said to be cruel and treacherous. In a.d. 45,
the pilot I-Iippalus discovered the theory of the monsoons which
till then had been known only to the mariners of the Eastern seas.
The Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, a nautical directory of the
Red Sea and Indian Ocean, written by a Greek towards the end
of the first century, contains some remarks about the Gulf. He,
too, mentions the pirates. In about a.d. 116, the Roman Em­
peror Trajan, in emulation of the exploits of Alexander, after
defeating the Parthians, led a naval expedition into the Gulf, and
ravaged the coast of Arabia, whence most of the pirates came.
Again, in the reign of Shapur II, who was King of Persia from
a.d. 310 until 379, a naval force was sent against the Arabs of
Hajar, which is now called Hasa, in retaliation for their piratical
raids on the Persian coast. The Arabs who were taken prisoners
in this expedition had their shoulders pierced, and were strung
together with ropes to prevent their escape. From his barbarous
treatment of die prisoners, Shapur earned the name of‘Zulaklaf’
- Lord of the Shoulders - by which he is known in Arab history.
In the period before the coming of Islam, while Persians and
Byzantines were engaged in warring against each other, the Gulf
Arabs continued their sea trade with India. Silk from China
became one of the most valuable commodities in which they
traded. They carried some of their merchandise from the ports
of the Gulf by camel trains on the desert caravan routes leading
northward and westward. Although it almost certainly existed,
there is no mention of piracy at this period: it was always most
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