Page 33 - The Pirate Coast (By Sir Charles Belgrave)

taking Shiraz the Afghans made a descent on Bundar Abbas, but
the Europeans in their factories put up such stout resistance that
the Afghans retired, after obtaining some supplies. In the years
following the Afghan conquest, Persia was devastated by wars
and terrible massacres.
In 1730, after a war between the Turks and the Persians, which
lasted for several years, the Afghans were routed by a Persian
army under the command of an outstanding man, Nadir Kuli.
He started life as a shepherd, at one time he was a brigand, then
lie became a military leader. He came to the support of the
young surviving son of the Shah Husayn, but after some time, he
deposed and imprisoned the Shah and, in 1736, usurped the crown
of Persia and became known as Nadir Shah. He was a man with
great ambitions and one of his designs was to control the Persian
Gulf.
To control the Gulf, it was necessary for Persia to hold Oman
and Bahrain, the latter was in the possession of the Hawala Arabs
who had migrated from Arabia to the Persian coast. There are
in Bahrain many of these Arabs at the present time. The conquest
of Bahrain and Oman could not be achieved without a fleet. For
several years Latif Khan who had been appointed Admiral of the
non-existent fleet by Nadir, and Taqi Khan, the Governor of the
province of Fars, tried by persuasion and sometimes by threats to
obtain ships from the Dutch and English companies at Bundar
Abbas. Persia was at the same time engaged in hostilities with
the Turks and the English did not wish to endanger their position
with the Turkish authorities at Basra or with the ruler of Oman
at Muscat by providing ships for operations against them. The
Dutch and English, very reluctantly, did lend four ships for a
Persian expedition against the island of Kais in 1733 and, after
much bargaining and threats from the Persians, they arranged for
two vessels to be provided from Surat. At one time, owing to
the attitude of the Persians, the English considered evacuating
Bundar Abbas, but it was not until 1761 that Bundar Abbas
factory was closed, and two years later, the English opened a
factory in Bushire.
Bushire was chosen by the Persians as their naval base. By
1736, they had collected a number of vessels, some they purchased,
some they commandeered. In this year, they took Bahrain dur­
ing the absence of the Shaikh who was making the Pilgrimage.
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