The recent history of the Arabian Seas by R.J.
Barendse, provides a broad comparative view of the Gulf in its wider relation
to what he terms as the Arabian Seas, that included the Gulf, the Arabian Sea,
the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea (Barendse R. ,
2005). His first volume on the 17th
century has now been expanded into a 3-volume study of the 18th
century.
The Persian invasion ordered by Nadir Shah into
Oman in 1737 began a decade of intervention in Oman until Nadir Shah’s death in
1747 (Kelly J. B., 1968, p. 9). Nadir Shah also ordered an occupation of
Bahrain that rivaled Ottoman power or interest in extending power and domain
southward from Basrah into Kuwait and al-Hasa.
In Persia, the Safavid Empire and dynasty that dominated the Iranian
regions of the 17th century was divided by a struggle during the 18th
century between the Zand dynasty based in Fars in southern Persia from 1765
until 1795 and the Qajar dynasty in northern Persia. Shiraz was a key city that was caught
between these two factions in the late 18th century where after the
fall of the last Zand dynasty ruler in 1795 the city of Shiraz was sacked by
Agha Muhammad Kahn the Qajar ruler. (Kelly J.
B., 1968, p. 41).
Throughout all of this strife, the port of
Bushire remained relatively protected and surpassed Bandar Abbas the primary
Persian port city in importance. Bushire
probably remained somewhat autonomous because of its role as a naval base and
center of factory production for the Dutch and then the British agencies and
trading companies of the East India Company that were licensed to operate
there. The decision of the English East
India Company to transfer its factory
from Bandar Abbas to Bushire in 1763 was a key event that would have
ramification throughout the Gulf for the next 150 years. Yet despite this role, Bushire in the late 18th
century probably only had a population of around 10,000 (Kelly J. B.,
1968, p. 43). By contrast Bandar Abbas had only about 3,000
to 4,000 residents and was in relative decline by the 1820s. Britain had first
obtained permission to operate a commercial port and factory at Bandar Abbas,
Shiraz and Jask through a royal grant or firman issued to the English East
India Company by the Safavid Persian ruler Shah Abbas in 1616. This marked the beginning of the end for the
Portuguese in the Gulf who had previously monopolized trade in the Gulf during
the 16th century. But the
Portuguese had been forced out of Bahrain by Shah Abbas in 1602 and from Ras
al-Khaimah in 1619-20. Shah Abbas joined
forces with British naval forces under the command of the East India Company
based at Jask and in 1621 forced the Portuguese out of their island fortresses
at Hormuz. A combined naval and land
assault by the British and Persians forced the surrender of the last Portuguese
forces in 1622 (Kelly J. B., 1968, p. 51).
But Shah Abbas also allowed the Dutch to
establish a rival factory at Bandar ‘Abbas that began a period of Dutch
presence in the Gulf that would last until the end of the Seven Years War in
1763 when the British defeated the Dutch.
During the late 17th century the Dutch gained an advantage in
purchasing silk from the Persians. The
death of Nadir Shah in 1747 created a period of uncertainty for Bandar ‘Abbas
that saw its factories destroyed by a French naval force in 1759 as part of an
operation of the Seven Years War between France and Britain that took place in
America and in Europe and now extended here into the Gulf (Kelly J. B.,
1968, p. 51).
The Dutch relied on a factory system based on
islands in the Arabian Gulf. These were
allowed through a system of payments or licenses paid to the Persian ruler or
other sultanates in the Arabian Gulf and Indian ocean. In return the Dutch VOC (Vernigde
Oost-Indische Compagnie, or Dutch East India Company) was allowed to
operate. Most of these however operated
at a loss or only a break even point in profits. They would manufacture cloth using local textiles
purchased from the mainland and resell these to other markets in the Dutch sea
based empire (Barendse R. ,
2005, pp. 396-400).
By about 1793 the ruler of Muscat, Sultan ibn
Ahmad refused permission for Europeans to crate trading factories like those at Bushire and Bandar ‘Abbas in
Persia. While a limited trade was
allowed the Muscat merchants were able to profit from reselling goods captured
by French naval ships that operated in the Gulf during this period (Kelly J. B., 1968, p. 65).
A valuable source by the contemporary traveler
Carsten Niebuhr is his Description de l’Arabie (Niebuhr, Description de l'Arabie,
1773),
and Voyage en Arabie et en d’autres pays circonvoisins (Niebuhr, Voyage en Arabie et en
d'autres pays circonvoisins, 1775-9).
The Dutch and English relied upon their own
separate East Indies Trading Companies to finance their military and trade forts. In addition they established merchant
factories run by factors or local agents who negotiated with the Sultanates in
India or Persia to operate them in the coastal towns on the Persian and Indian
side of the Gulf and Indian Ocean. The
defeat of the Portuguese gave the Dutch an advantage at Bandar Abbas over the
English who were based further east at Jask, but with whom they cooperated
during the late 17th and early 18th century. The Dutch
were also aggressive in establishing trade and political agents in Basra in
Southern Iraq. It was only after the end
of the Seven Years War and the defeat of the Dutch by the British in Europe,
that the Dutch abandoned their interests in the Arabian Gulf in 1765. Thereafter the Arabian Gulf was opened up to
the British to dominate and rival the Ottoman Empire.
