Page 77 - History of Portuguese in the Gulf_Neat

188 APPENDIX A.
with him another captain, an Arab of the tribe of Ben Iznfaf,
called Xcquc Mamed Raxet.
Xequc Maged was then captain of Katifa, and Palaon begged
troops of him, wherewith to make head against Mir Ageb. But
Maged, suspecting that they wanted to take Barhcn themselves,
not only refused their request, but seized them, gave them in
charge of a captain named Aly Maxady, and sent them, with all
due care, to Harmuz, to Turonxa. He, when informed of what
had happened, sailed for Barhen, taking them with him. On his
arrival, Mir Ageb asked him for the lordship of the isle, in reward
for his alleged service rendered in the killing of Xambe. The
king refused it, and thought rather of punishing him. Ageb, hear­
ing this, left Manama, the chief port of the isle, and took refuge
in another on the further side of it,1 called Thiar. Here the king’s
men sought him out and took him to their master, who had his
head cut off. The two prisoners he set free and rewarded, as he
found that their arrest was undeserved.
When the affairs of Barhen were settled, Turonxa wished to
see Katifa, which lies on the shore of the Arabian mainland over
against that isle, divided from it by a narrow sound. He went there
i|
with his people, and was well received and served by Xeque Maged.
When he had seen the land, and taken a few days’ pleasure in it,
• i J he returned to Barhen, and thence to Gerun, or Harmuz.
To this point our authority is Turonxa himself,2 who had peace
■
for the rest of his days, and died, after a reign of thirty years, in
the year of the Hyxara 779, a.d. 137S.3
it
1 « A las cspaldas,” meaning probably in the south of the island
as Manama is at the northern end.
2 We miss Thurdn Shah at once. After his death in 1378, we have
not a date until Albuquerque’s invasion in 1507. During this period,
•:
■ we are told, five kings, of only two generations, were busy doing
nothing, which seems unlikely in every way. The matter-of-fact style
Y the assistance of “ Raez Nordim” and “Raez Carnal” of “ Xilau,”
of this fragment must be Teixeira’s, but its reliability must be Thurdn
Shah’s ; and if any critic thinks his statements unreliable, he has
only to study the modern history of Mdskat and Zanzibar for a
parallel.
3 From the statements that follow, it is clear that the death of Turdn
Shdh must here be antedated by nearly a century (the preceding
dates being thereby affected), or else the names of some of his
successors must have been omitted. The latter seems the more
probable. Abd-er-Razzdk. who spent two months in Hormuz in the
early part of 1442, calls the “prince” of the island “ Mclik-Fakr-
Eddin-Touranschah” (Major’s India in the Fifteenth Century, Hakluyt
Soc., d. 5). Now, as this cannot possibly have been the historian > was under the tutelage and governance of Sufy Kalil Musulii, one of
king (presuming* that the dates given above for his reign be correct),
i we may well assume that it was this Fakhr al-Dfn Tunin Shdh, and
1 not the royal chronicler, who was the father of the four sons whose
reigns are recorded below. Unfortunately, we have no means of
ascertaining the length of this king’s rule; but if his son “ Massud”
KIN(;S OF HORMUZ. jS>)
Turonxa’s sons succeeded him in the kingdom of Harmuz, in
order as follows : First, Massud, the eldest, who possessed it in
peace all his life. Then Xabadin,1 the second son, in whose time
were some unimportant disturbances, soon settled. The third
son was Salgor Xa,2 in whose time arose in Persia the Suphy
Hhalila, of whom we have spoken in the narrative of the Kings of
Persia.1 He possessed all that country, and overran it as far as
reigned ten years, and was succeeded by his brother *• Xabadin” in
1465 (as suggested in the note infra), the close of Fakhr al-Dm Tunin
Shah's reign would fall in 1455, which cannot be very far out.—u. F.
1 It must have been during this man's reign that Josafa Barbaro,
the Venetian, visited Hormuz. ; for he says “The Lorcle” of the island
“is called Sultan Sabadin he also states that “ Ornuios” “ yeldeth
tribute to the King Assambei” (Travels in Tana and Persia, Hakluyt
Soc., p. 79). Now, as “Assambei” (U'zun Hasan Bey Ak-Koyunlu),
the Turkman ruler of Persia, died in 1478, it is evident that Barbaro’s
visit took place circa 1475. If “Xabadin” reigned eleven years, as
Barros asserts (see infra), we may fix his reign at about 1465-1476.
But it is plain that the figures given by Barros cannot be relied on as
entirely accurate.—D. F.
2 Barros (/z. s.) says that at his death “Torunxd left these sons,
Magdyud, Xabadim, Sargol, and Xavcz, and all reigned, each in
default of sons of the others: the first ten years, the second eleven, the
third one year and a half” (sic). Couto (it. s.), more intelligibly, says
that “Torunxd” left “four sons, Magcudxa, Xabadi, Xargol, and
Xaues, all of whom reigned by violence, except the eldest Magcudxa,
who reigned ten years, Xabadi eleven, and Xaues, who was the
last, one year and a half; as Xargol, who was the elder, had fled to
Lasac, because his brother rose against him, and took the kingdom
from him; and from there, with the help of that king, came against his
brother, and dethroned him, remaining as king, in which position he
lived thirty years.” Barros gives full details of the doings of “ Xargol,”
who, he says, was governor of Kalhdt when his younger brother
usurped the throne ; whereupon he fled to “ Lasah,” and later, with
succeeded in defeating “ Xaues,” whom he promptly blinded. Casta-
nheda (Liv. 11, cap. lix) has a similar account, but confused and
erroneous in details. He names only “ Corgol,” and says he was the
eldest son of “Tuxura.”—D. F.
3 In his Kings of Persia, Bk. 1, chap, xiv (cf. Appendix B infra),
Teixeira, after explaining how Shaikh Haidar and Shaikh Ismail
came to be called “Sufi,” adds : “A little before him had risen up in
Persia Hhalila, whom for the same reason they called .Sufy Hhalila.”
Again, in Bk. II, chap, lvii, in describing the reign of “ Baysangor
I Mirzdh” (a.d. 1492-1493), our author says that the king, “ being young,
his captains and goes on to describe various battles in which
“ Sufy Kalil” commanded the king’s troops, and his defeat and death
in 1493. I am doubtful if the same person is referred to in these two
passages ; and it is curious that in the first passage Teixeira states
that the Sufi rose up “a little before” the time of Shah Ismail, while