Notes Prepared for Reference during Curzon’s Tour of the Persian Gulf, and Other Papers on Persia and the Persian Gulf [‎160r] (319/678)

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Geo.—-Sykes—Second Eevise.
The story of Sennacherib then informs us that navigation was
known in the Persian gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. at least as early as the eighth century b.c.,
and it is unlikely that it was ever entirely suspended, as the land routes
lay across the deserts of Central Asia, ever the haunt of predatory
tribes, which routes are not, even in the twentieth century, opened
up to commerce.
We next come to the period when Babylon was at her zenith, and
trade was so flourishing that peacocks and rice were known even in
distant Athens at the time of Sophocles and Aristophanes, and that by
their Tamil names.* * * § Under Persian rule Babylon declined, and at her
fall direct intercourse with India may have gradually ceased, so that
when Nearchos appeared on the scene in 326 B.c., he practically re-dis
covered what was already a very ancient trade route. I cannot dwell on
his famous voyage from the mouth of the Indus to the Karun, although
I shall incidentally refer to it, and as Persia throughout the period of
her history never was a sea-faring nation, we come to the times when,
in the fifth century after Christ, Chinese ships were Seen in the
Euphrates.f This extraordinary commercial activity was eclipsed by
the teeming prosperity of the Arabs in the ninth century, when the
trade from the East, enriching Balsora ^ and Baghdad, gilded Asia
with those imperishable legends that are embodied in the‘Thousand
and one Nights,’ and are responsible for Milton’s l ' gorgeous East.” §
It was from Balsora that Sinbad set forth on his adventurous voyages
which quaintly portray the ideas of the period when the world was
but little known, and even to-day the lovely palm-groves and romantic
creeks that render Basra an Eastern Venice, retain a glamour of departed
glory; while the same high-pooped buggala in which Sinbad and his
companions launched forth upon the deep, can be counted by scores in
the Shat-el-Arab.
When misgovernment began to close the Basra route, the great
caravan road via Tabriz to Bandar Abbas took its place. Hormuz, at
first situated on the Minab river, and, when the mainland became unsafe,
on the island of Jerun, became the emporium of the East, until perhaps
one of the greatest events in history occurred—the arrival of European
ships in Eastern waters. Although it is impossible to doubt the ultimate
benefit that has been derived from the opening of this great trade-route,
which perhaps saved Europe from Asiatic domination by a final severance
of the two arteries of the world’s commerce via the Persian gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. and
the Red sea, yet it is hard not to feel hurt that our representatives
first appeared as pirates far surpassing in their methods the general
cruelty of the times. In the Persian gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. the behaviour of Albuquerque
was atrocious, and it is difficult to read how he mutilated his prisoners
“ for the glory of God ” without a deep sense of humiliation. For more
than a hundred years the Portuguese, by holding Hormuz, kept their
hands on the throat of Eastern trade, while cruising occasionally up the
Red sea, until, at the beginning of the seventeenth century, the English
appear on the scene.
The recently published diary of Sir Thomas Roe,|| our first ambas^
sador to India, is, I would venture to suggest, of immense historical
value as showing our actual position in those days. A most salient
future appears to be the smallness of the trade, the whole of India
not being able to furnish more than four or five cargoes a year. It
was on this account that a ship, the James, was sent to Jask to try
and open up trade with Persia; but even so there were difficulties,
not only on account of the Portuguese, but also because Shah Abbas
* B.A.S. Journal, “ The Early Commerce of Babylon with India,” by J. Kennedy,
April, 1898.
f Vide ‘ Rise of the Portuguese Power,’ by Whiteway, p. 1. In the ninth century
they only came up the Persian gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. as far as Siraf.
J Balsora is the modern Basra.
§ Cf. ‘ Paradise Lost,’ book ii.
|| Edited by W. Foster, Esq,, under the auspices of the Hakluyt Society.
1 Cf. ‘ Sir Thomas Roe,’ p. 330: “ That the war with the Turks having blocked
commercial intercourse with Europe, there must be in Persia at once a dearth of cloth
and a plethora of silk; that it was absolutely necessary to find some vent for the large
stock of English goods in their warehouse, for which no immediate sale could be
hoped in India.”