Ext 1133/47 'Foreign Office print: Persian Frontiers (with map)' [‎9v] (18/30)

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any further examination of the frontier by
a special commission, it being stated that:
“ This frontier shall be regarded as
definitely settled in accordance with the
agreement of 1896, and no further claim
shall be made in respect of it.”( 9 )
60. The present position is that two por
tions of the border remain undemarcated;
these portions are, first, the stretch from
Gwatar bay on the coast to the Mashkel
river, and, secondly, the stretch from the
south-west of the Hamun-i-Mashkel to the
Kuh-i-Malik-i-Siyah. So long as any part
of the frontier remains in this unsettled
state, not only are tribal quarrels likely to
occur, but more serious complications might
ensue, if, after the war, attempts are made
to obtain oil or other mineral concessions
in those regions.
YI.—Frontier in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
61. Although Persia’s claims to
sovereignty on the littoral of her side of
the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. and its approaches have
seldom been seriously challenged or over
ridden during the last four centuries, the
case is very different in regard to certain
of the islands in the Gulf, notably the
Bahrein group.
62. Portugal was the first European
Power to establish a permanent foothold
in the Gulf. In 1507 her forces
under Albuquerque seized the island of
Hormuz, which occupies a strategic posi
tion on the northern side of the entrance
to the Gulf. Although a mutiny caused
the Portuguese to withdraw in the follow
ing year, they returned in force in 1515
and forced the Shaikh of Hormuz to become
a vassal of Portugal. They likewise
established themselves on the adjoining
island of Qishm, on the Bahrein islands
and, later, on the mainland to the north of
Hormuz.
63. Portuguese naval supremacy in the
Gulf was soon challenged by the Turks. In
1553 the Portuguese defeated the Turks in
a naval battle off Muscat, and in 1559 they
drove them out of Bahrein, which they had
invaded.
64. The first two Safavi monarchs, Shah
Isma'il (1502-24) and Shah Tahmasp I
(1524A76), were too much preoccupied with
their wars with the Turks to be able
seriously to dispute the intrusion of the
Portuguese into their southern dominions.
However, when Shah Ahbas I (1587-1628)
came to the throne, matters began to take
a different course. In 1602 the Persians,
under the Khan of Shiraz, wrested the
Bahrein islands from the Portuguese, and
in 1615 they recovered the strip of main
land to the north of Hormuz. Seven years
( 9 ) See Aitchison, op. cit., Vol. XI, pp. 381-82.
12
later, a combined English and Persian
force drove the Portuguese from their
principal stronghold of Hormuz, as well
as from Qishm island. Thenceforward the
Portuguese made no attempt to secure
dominion over any Persian territory. In
fact, their power and influence in the G^'
were already on the wane, partly because
of the growing strength of the English and
Dutch East India companies.
65. Early in the XVIIIth century the
growing maritime power of the Arabs of
Muscat began to make itself felt in the
Gulf. By this time Persia, under the effete
Shah Sultan Husain, had practically no
authority in that area; moreover, she had
no navy. The only vessels which she might
have been able to use against the Omani
Arabs, had she been stronger, were those
owned and manned by the Huwala Arabs
and others from northern Oman( 10 ) who had
settled on her side of the Gulf. These
Arabs, however, were virtually, if not
entirely, independent; even if the Persians
had been in a position to demand their aid,
they would, moreover, have been most
reluctant to take action against their fellow
countrymen from the other side of the
Gulf.
66. In 1717 the Imam Sultan ibn Saif II
of Muscat seized the islands of Qishm and
Larak, and in the following year his forces
made a successful descent upon Bahrein.
Two years later, the Persians, using ship
ping lent by the Portuguese, recovered
Bahrein.
67. So seriously did the Persian Govern
ment regard the menace of Muscat that
they carried on protracted negotiations
with the French Government and the
representatives in Persia of the French
Compagnie des Indes with a view to
obtaining French naval aid against the
Arabs. They were prepared, in the event
of success, to share the booty with the
French and to hand Muscat itself over to
them; it appears that they were even dis
posed for a time to allow the French to
establish themselves in Bahrein. They also
made similar overtures to the Portuguese
(who defeated the Muscat Arabs in a sea
fight off Kung in 1719), but French
intrigues rendered these negotiations abor
tive.
68. However, the proposed Franco-
Persian alliance itself came to nothing,
because of the Afghan conquest of Persia
in 1722. In the state of chaos that ensued
in the Gulf the Huwala Arabs of Tahiri
C 0 ) These Arabs of northern Oman have often
been incorrectly called the Qawasim One of the ruling families of the United Arab Emirates; also used to refer to a confederation of seafaring Arabs led by the Qāsimī tribe from Ras al Khaima. or Jawasim (in
old records the name is distorted to Joasmee);
strictly speaking, the term Qawasim One of the ruling families of the United Arab Emirates; also used to refer to a confederation of seafaring Arabs led by the Qāsimī tribe from Ras al Khaima. should be
applied only to the family to which the Shaikh of
Sharja belongs.