'Persian Gulf Gazetteer, Part I Historical and Political Materials, Précis of Turkish Expansion on the Arab Littoral of the Persian Gulf and Hasa and Katif [al-Qaṭīf] Affairs' [‎1f] (16/164)

IF
PREFACE.
The Ottoman Turks rose into power about the middle of the 15th century.
They seized Constantinople in 1453 and in a few years overran South-east
ern Europe, Syria and Egypt, and created powerful fleets which, on the one side,
obtained full command over the Indian seas, and on the other threatened to
subjugate the whole Mediterranean basin. But the wave of her conquests in
the West was turned back by the victories of the combined fleets of Spain, Venice
and other Italian states ; while in the east a power, having its birth in the
small kingdom in the extreme west of Europe, fresh from her victories in her
crusades against the Moors that had established themselves in the Iberian Pen-
ninsula, turned their enterprise against the Mussalman dominion in the Eastern
seas and turned the flank of Islam in its grapple with Christendom. Actuated
by the spirit of the crusaders, the Portuguese pursued the Moors (as they called
all Mahomedans) and all who traded with them, with barbaric and relentless
ferocity, and established like the Phoenicians of old factories at every impor
tant port in the Eastern seas,
To secure their command over the Indian seas, the Portuguese knew that
they should obtain a hold on the Persian .Gulf. They accordingly attacked and
captured Ormuz, Maskat, Bahrein and other important places and established
their factories at every important town in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . The Ottoman
Sultans had exercised a nominal gwm-political and religious control over
Arabia. Whatever power they enjoyed on the eastern coast of Arabia they
lost on the establishment of the Portuguese power in the Gulf. With the
decline of the Portuguese Empire, the Persians and the Sultans of Maskat
made ineffective efforts to establish their supremacy on the Arabian coast of
the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , only to let loose the marauding spirit of the Bedouin Arabs
in the shape of piratical enterprises. The British Government then stepped
in to restore order and peace in the Gulf. But with the rise of the Wahabi
power in Arabia at the commencement of the 19th century, a new element of
disorder was introduced. While the British were checking these disorders in
the sea, the Ottoman Government, as the protector of Islam against the aggres
sion of Wahabism, despatched expeditions from Egypt to destroy the new-bom
aggressive power. It was crushed only to revive soon with greater vitality.
The Wahabi Amirs had learnt, however, to be wise by experience and with
the object of pursuing their designs of aggrandizement undisturbed, they chose
to acknowledge the Sultan as their suzerain, although the vassalage was merely
nominal. But it soon furnished the Porte with an excuse to meddle in Arabian
affairs, when its chieftains foolishly engaged themselves in internecine wars, and
to gradually extend its power in the peninsula, which at the same time served
as a counterpoise against the decline of its power in the west. The conquest of
Hasa and Katif districts was the result of this move. The Turks sought to
extend tneir power still to the south by right of the privilege of the Sultan, as
the religious head of the Sunni Mussalman Church or what may be called
Holy Ottoman Empire, or as the suzerain of the Nejd principality, although
the Nejd Amirs never welcomed this expansion of the Turkish power.
The Turkish dominion is admittedly established in the Hasa and Katif
districts. The Turks, however, have not established an effective hold over the
tribes in their newly-acquired districts, so as to be able to preserve order and
peace among them. On the contrary the introduction of the Turkish element
has only given a fresh impetus to disorders in the interior and disturbances on
the sea. The Katif coast has in fact turned into a piratical stronghold in
place of what was formerly called the Pirate Coast, a little to the south of it,
which has now been converted, under the British control, into one of the most
peaceful districts in the Arabian peninsula. The Turkish Government has
never taken any efficient measures to suppress piracies and enforce order and
peace on this New Pirate Coast.
This precis deals accordingly with the extension of the Turkish dominion
on the Arabian littoral of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. in the nineteenth century, the
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