"ملف (19/191 IV (C 103 مطالبة الفُرس بالبحرين" [و‎‎١‎١‎٠] (٦٨١/٢١٩)

Oopy
(8 113/113/91)
Ifti
TH8 HI8TCKY OF THE BAlli -.AIli ISLANDS
As the Persian Government renews its elsim to the Bshrsin
Islands from time to time, it may be of some interest briefly to
review the history of these islsn^s in order to see to what
extent that Government can justify their case on purely
historical grounds. *
The islands have been inhabited aince prehistoric times, as
is clear from the numerous tumuli or burial places which are to
be seen on the island of Manama. If we are to accept as correct
Ihe identification of Tilwun or Dilmun with Bahrain, the earliest
known fact about the islsnds is their capture by the Meaopotamian
King Sargon in or about 2672 B.C. (thia Ssrgon is not to be
confused with his much Ister Assyrian namesske, who reigned from
722 to 705 B.C.). Vbether or not the Phoeniciana or acme kindred
race were the people who inhabited the islsnds in those remote
times is an unaolved problem.
Though there was doubtless commercial intercourse between the
people of Bahrain and Persia in Sumerian and Achaexnenian time a, it
does not appear that Persia acquired any sovereign rights over the
islands until the reign of Ardashir, the first Saaanian monarch
(226-2U1 A.D.). Sasanian control was, however, short-lived, and
waa not revived until the time of Shapur II (310-379 A.D.)• That
king, enraged by raids carried out by Bahrainia on hie territories,
headed an expedition to Bahrain, whore he wreaked a terrible
vengeance. Thereafter, for over three centuries, Bahrain, as an
appanage of the great province of Fare, formed part of the Sasanian
empire.
Soon after the Muslim Arabs had overthrown the Sasanian
Monarchy that is to say, about the middle of the 7th century A .D.,
they conquered Bahrain and imposed their new faith on the
inhabitants, just aa they had done in Peraia. For the next 300
yeara Bahrain was included in the dominions of, successively, the
Orthodox, Umayyad and Abbaaid Caliphates. In the esrly yeara of
the 10th century A.D. the heretical sectariea known as the
Qarsmita or Carmathiana aeized Bahrain and held it for a time;
it subsequently underwent many vicisaitudea when a succession of
Arab tribea held sway in turn.
After the Mongols had captured Baghdad and overthrown the
Abbasid Caliphate in 1258 A. D., they extended their control over
the Persian Gulf and appointed rulers of their own over Bahrain.
Towards the close of the XlVth century A.D. the forces of Timur-i-
Lang (Tamerlane) overran the ialands and added them to hia vast
dominions. ^rhen his heterogeneous empire broke up, Bshrsin became
for some 50 or 60 years part of the realm of the semi-independent
kings of Kormux, who did lip-service but no more to the rulers of
Persis. Thus, once again, there wss a connection between Persia
and the Bahrain ialanda, but this time it waa a very tenuous one.
This shadowy Persian authority waa terminated by the Portuguese
during the first quarter of the XVlth century. The Portuguese
hold over the Bahrain ialanda lasted until 1602, when Shah Abbas I
succeeded in establiahing his authority over them. Bahrain
remained for rather more than a century part of the Safavi empire.
Early in 1718 the Arabs of Muscat took advantage of the
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