Page 91 - Life & Land Use on the Bahrain Islands (Curtis E Larsen)

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centers such as Qais and Qishm, but administered by distant rulers, This shift
foreshadowed the later trade network of the kingdom of Hormuz that continued, in
form at least, until the end of the eighteenth century.
By A.D. 1320, Bahrain and Qatif were controlled by the prince of Hormuz,
who gained greater influence on the coast as the hold of the Uyunid Dynasty
weakened (Teixeira 1902, Stiffe 1901). Hormuz, however, did not appear to have
firm control of the islands. Ibn Battuta recorded that Kutb ed-Din, the prince of
Hormuz, had lost both Bahrain and Qais to his nephews in A.D. 1344 (Gibb 1962), and
Hormuzi rule was not regained until A.D. 1347. Ibn Battuta echoed the reports of
countless earlier and later travelers when he noted that Hormuz was supplied with
pearls from the island of Bahrain. By A.D. 1384, the island was again tributary to
Qais, but under the jurisdiction of Sultan Ahmed al-Muzzafer of Fars.
Between A.D. 1384 and A.D. 1410, the patterns had changed again, perhaps
as a result of unsettled conditions in Persia during the Timurid period. Bahrain, at
this time, was combined with Hofuf and Qatif under the rule of Sheikh Ibrahim
al-Maliki. TTiis same interplay was characteristic of Bahrain's political position for
the following two hundred years. It was during this constantly changing pattern of
political uncertainty that the Portuguese entered the gulf. This is in marked
contrast to Williamson's (1972) view that the Hormuzis brought a general peace to
the gulf that had broken down with the demise of the Buy id state at the hands of
the Seljuks. Some degree of stability was connected with Hormuzi control of
Bahrain in the mid-fifteenth century, but Seljuk disruption is not indicated.
Rather, the Seljuk period coincided with the greater portion of the Uyunid dynasty,
apparently one of the more politically stable periods in eastern Arabia.
TTie later relationship of Bahrain with the ruler of Hormuz showed that a
pattern of unified control of gulf islands and ports was developing as early as the
late thirteenth century, and the ethnic majority was Arab. Commercial prosperity
continued to be mentioned throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
(Major 1857, Jones 1863). The longest continuous period of Hormuzi control of
Bahrain was approximately 65 years, during the fifteenth century, after which time
it was reunited with Qatif and Hofuf where it remained until about A.D. 1514, when
Afonso de Albuquerque visited it.