Page 22 - The Pirate Coast (By Sir Charles Belgrave)

Correa, and the King of Portugal granted him permission to add
the title Baharem to his name and to display ‘a Moorish King's
head, decapitated, with blood, with turban and crown* on his
escutcheon. The present descendant of the Correa family, the
Count ofLousa, still bears this, quarterly, on his arms.
After Portuguese rule was established in the Gulf, piracy seems
almost to have ceased. Muscat, Hormuz and Bahrain were under
the domination of the Portuguese, and the seas were ‘covered with
a wood of ships, the product of the Government’s great care*.
There were occasional rebellions against the Portuguese garrisons,
which were ruthlessly suppressed. In the middle of the 16th
century a new opponent challenged the Portuguese. In 1534,
Suliman the Magnificent took Baghdad from the Persians and
began to extend his influence southwards. A Turkish fleet com­
manded by Piri Beg arrived in the Gulf. After attacking and
taking Muscat, the Turks made an unsuccessful attempt to take
Hormuz. Finally, the Turkish fleet retired to Basra with the
Portuguese on their heels. Piri Beg had with him in his ship the
Portuguese Governor of Muscat, who had been taken as a hostage.
Acting on his advice the Turk left Basra with three galleons loaded
with loot. He evaded the Portuguese fleet and sailed out of the
Gulf, but he lost one of his ships off Bahrain. The sunken ship
has never been found. Piri Beg was eventually tried, convicted
and executed in Turkey, and his vast wealth, acquired by acts of
piracy was confiscated by the Sultan. During the following
years the Turks gained many successes.
They attacked Kishm and Katif and twice occupied Muscat, but
were expelled from these places by the Portuguese. They at­
tempted to land at Bahrain, but were ignominiously repulsed. By
the middle of the 16th century, the Turks were vigorously chal­
lenging the Portuguese in the Gulf. The Portuguese ships were
superior to those of the Turks and their men were better armed,
but the religious sympathies of the Arabs were with the Turks,
for the Portuguese were regarded as infidels. The Turks had the
advantage of being nearer to their base; they were less affected by
climate and disease, and they had not then acquired the reputation
for cruelty and rapacity for which the Portuguese were notorious.
After 1580, the power of Portugal in the East began to wane,
owing to the domination of Portugal by Spain, which lasted for
sixty years. The Portuguese had difficulty in maintaining their
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