'The History of Persia, from the most early period to the present time: containing an account of the religion, government, usages and character of the inhabitants of that kingdom. By Colonel Sir John Malcolm, KCB, KLS Late minister plenipotentiary to the court of Persia from the supreme government of India. In two volumes.' [‎121] (150/786)

THE HISTORY OF PERSIA.
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Almost all the towns and villages were walled; and in a country chap.xviii
where the science of attack was but little known, the efforts of the
inhabitants (part of whom were always a militia,) in repelling
attack were often successful; and, consequently, though this part
of the population seldom furnished many recruits to an army, their
attachment was, in scenes of civil warfare, of great consequence to
the chief whose cause they espoused.
The fourth class of the inhabitants of Persia consisted of a
number of tribes of Arabians, who entirely occupied the level coun
try between the mountains and the shore of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . This
tract, which resembles, as has been before stated *, the peninsula of
Arabia more than any of the interior provinces of Persia, had been
long abandoned to this race, who had, from the most early ages, pos
sessed a superiority over the Persians at sea.- The latter indeed seem,
at all periods of their history, to have at once dreaded and abhorred
that element. The Arabs- had consequently not only possessed them
selves of the Islands of the Gulf, but of almost all the harbours along
the coast. Their children had maintained these possessions, yielding
at times a real, and at others a nominal, obedience to the government
of Persia: but their poverty, the heat of the climate, and the
barrenness of the soil of the countries they inhabited, combined
with the facility with which those tribes who dwelt near the coast
could embark in their boats, have at all periods aided the efforts
made by this race to maintain themselves in a state of rude inde
pendence.
Such was the character of that population over which Kurreem
Khan desired to establish his government. He was chief of a small
* Vide Vol. I, page 2.
vol. ii. r
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