PROCEEDINGS OF THE SIXTH Seminar for Arabian Studies held at the Institute of Archaeology, London...

HURMUZ AND THE TRADE OF THE GULF IN THE 14TH AND 15TH CENTURIES A.D.Author(s): Andrew WilliamsonSource: Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, Vol. 3, PROCEEDINGS OF THE SIXTHSeminar for Arabian Studies held at the Institute of Archaeology, London 27th and 28thSeptember 1972 (1973), pp. 52-68Published by: ArchaeopressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41223277 .

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fflJKMUZ AND THE TRADE OF THE GULF IN

THE ]АТН AND 15TH CENTURIES A.D.

Andrew Williamson

The l4th and 15th centuries are conventionally painted as a dismal period in the history of the Gulf. The prosperity of Iraq had been broken by the Mon- gols, while Iran was the prey of Mongols, Tinmrids, Qara Qoyunlu, Chaghatay and other destructive invaders. The devastation of Tirnur was particularly damaging, and areas like Khuzistãn and Slstãn never recovered their cAbbasid prosperity. The traders of the Gulf could not help being affected by the disasters suffered by their former customers1.

Sauvaget, the learned editor of the Aki}bar as-SIn wa'1-Hind, noted that the trade of the Gulf incAbbasid times had been exclusively based on luxury items, mostly carried from India and China, and was insuperably bound up with the fabulous prosperity of 'Abbasid Iraq. He expressed the concensus of most historians when he wrote that Gulf trade never recovered from the troubles which plagued Iraq and the Gulf in the 10th and 11th centuries. He considered that until shortly before the arrival of the Portuguese in 1507 the maritime traffic of the Gulf into the Indian Ocean had been reduced^.

While Iraq, Iran, and the Gulf itself were prey to Turkish invaders, Egypt remained immune and relatively peaceful under the strong hands of the Mamluks. Since Fischel's pioneer article in 1937-^ there has been a great deal of res- earch into the Indian Ocean trade of Mamluk Egypt, and especially on the group of powerful merchants known as KarimT who dominated this trade in the l4th and 15th centuries^". The commodities they traded were mostly spices and oriental luxuries which were consumed by Egyptians and by Europeans who flooded to Alexandria, "the market of the two worlds"^, to buy oriental goods. The trade was directed through Aden, which at most periods was the terminus for ocean-going ships. Transport up the Red Sea to Jiddah was generally by smaller craft". The best indication of the extent of the KarimT trade was the profits they made. For example, when one KarimT (Tãj al- Din Ibn al- Ruha'li) died in 1331, he left 100,000 dinars in cash, besides goods, per- sonal household effects, and real estate?. When another ( Abd al- Aziz ibn Mansur) arrived in Aden in I303 he had to pay ЗОО.ООО dirhams as duty on his fabulous cargo of silk, musk, jade, and porcelain". Among the largest sums



Map 1

f. vi чК ï í

О x

o X^S

1С s

f ¿p v 2



of money of which we hear are the huge government loans subscribed to by the Kãriml. In 139^+1 for example, they produced no less than a million dirhams to stave off the Mongol invasion^.

The Red Sea trade clearly flourished. So much so that it is close to be- coming an historical commonplace that during the l^fth and 15th centuries maritime trade to India was mostly carried out by Karimi and other merchants on the Red Sea, while the Gulf, on the other side of Arabia, languished in relative unimportance1^.

It is hoped in this paper to present the other side of that picture, which has been badly neglected. First the evidence for the commercial prosperity of the Gulf littoral states in the l*+th and 15th centuries will be examined and then historical and archaeological evidence for Gulf trade in that period will be presented. It is a large subject, so there is necessarily a great deal of simplification and omission in this brief survey.

There can be no doubt that Iraq never recovered its lAbbasid wealth. Baghdad and Basra too were mostly in ruins through this period11, but I suggest they were replaced by flourishing centres of luxury and patronage much closer at hand than Cairo. The Ilkhanid and Qãrã Qoyunlu capitals, Tabriz and Sul- tãniyeh, dazzled European observers. Oderic of Pordenone, early in the l^th century describes Tabriz thus:

"It is a nobler city and better for trade than any other. For there is nowhere on earth where such a variety of provisions and merchandise are available in such large quantities as Tabriz. • • • merchants come there from almost all over the world"1^.

Despite the Tinmrid conquest and two changes of dynasties, when Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo passed through_between 1^03 and 1^+05 he was equally impressed by the immense trade of Tabriz. Of SultãnTyeh he wrote: "every year come merchants from India with cloves, nutmegs, cinnamon, manna, mace, and other spices and precious goods which do not go to Alexandria" (my italics). Other commodities sold in the bazaars were Gilan and Shiraz silks, cottons, and taffetas, as well as gems and pearls from Hurmuz and Cathay1^.

However, Tabriz and Sul tãniyeh were not the only Iranian cities to flourish at this time. Yazd and Kãshãn were large and enormously prosperous1 Л Herat thrived as the capital of the Ghürids and later the Timurids. Closer to the Gulf, 15th century ShTrãz was reputed to have 200,000 houses and to be larger and more beautiful than Cairo1^. How did this prosperity affect the Gulf? Under the Ilkhãnids the land routes to China were more open than ever before. Many merchants traded overland, including an enterprising Yazdi who died in Chinese Sinkiang and is recorded on a tombstone there of about 1304. Yet the major lines of communication were still by sea1". When Abd al- Razzaq was sent as envoy from Herat to the Indian kingdom of Vijayanagar he travelled not, as one might expect, overland, but by sea from Hurmuz on the Gulf1?.



Map 2

к то таЬпг^Ж, To Herat Âf

Basra*-. «МасЬй! vil /

NBahrain Kiab Í7 '

' U /' Rãs al-ühaima/ 7 I

MasqatX'

QalhãtÀs^^

AHurmuzi Fort X



Map 3

1415th CENTURIES P ° • # 0

o O 200 km.

'q ф /^' #ûbubayrà

Л ° ° о #о ' ф #Daaht-¡ Deh

^Ч^о ° SïràTN ^

' ф •

| Bahrain ^ '

л^ s - ^^^ '^ Settlement Size* -in hectares: #10-49 ф 50-99 ^100-199 2OO A Ovir A

Solid Circle-Archaeological Sites Visited Open Circle-Historical Evidence Only ^^



- 57 -

The history of the Gulf at this period is very much the history of Hurmuz. By the 13th century political and commercial control of the Gulf had slipped out of the hands of the rulers of Iran, and was disputed between the two rival maritime cities Hurmuz and Kish« Though nominally tributaries of the rulers of Firs and Kirmãn, these tiny states had their own dynasties and independent policies. They owed their existence to their naval power, and their wealth to maritime trade with India1 .

At the beginning of the l*+th century the rulers of Kish were particularly strong. Hafiz Abrü records that one of them, Jamal al- Din Ibrahim Tibí, who died in I3O6 aId. was so wealthy that he had one hundred ships on the sea lanes at any one time. His brother, the Marzuban al-Hind, had cornered the market in South India while Jamal al-Din himself farmed Fürs, Shabãnkara, and Iraq al-°Arab, including Wasit and Basra, for Ghazan Khan. Each year he shipped 1,^+00 horses to India, and on one occasion gave Ghazan 1,000 horses together with pearls and Chinese and Islamic vases. The value of these commodities is discussed below. When Kish was raided by the Hurmuzis, merchandise, mostly belonging to Jamal al-DÎn, was carried off and was worth over two million dinars1". He was, I suggest, as rich as any KarimT, and his activities had far-reaching effects. Vassãf records that he brought prosperity to the islands of the Gulf in particular and of other countries in general, of Iraq, Khurasan, and as far as Rum and the land of the Franks20.

Less than three decades after the death of Jamal al-Din Kish was occupied by Hurmuzl troops, and by the time of the introduction of Chinese blue and white porcelain to the Gulf between 1350 and l*+00, Kish was virtually deserted21. Hurmuzi dominance of the Gulf was complete, and was not seriously challenged till the arrival of D'Albuquerque with the Portuguese fleet in 1507.

The area under direct political control of Hurmuz (Map 2) included most of the Gulf littoral and even beyond. In Arabia, although there was no effect- ive control of the interior, a string of fortified settlements existed on the coast north of Rã 's al-Hadd including Sur, Qalhãt, Musqat, Suhir, and Khor Fakhan22. In the Gulf itself Hurmuz controlled R5fs al-Khaima, Julfãr2^, and Bahrain, and intermittently also Qatif2'

On the Persian coast the extremes of direct Hurmuz rule were Mãchul in Khuzistãn and Gwadar I8OO kilometres to the east in present Pakistan. Around Hurmuz itself, a tiny hinterland protected by a cordon of fortresses stretched barely 28 farsacç inland2" but included the rich date-growing areas on the Mïnib and Shamil Rivers where today almost k million palm trees are supported by irrigation methods such as were practised in the 15th century2' . These far-reaching possessions allowed the Hurmuzis to funnel trade to the city of Hurmuz itself, to protect the sea lanes of the Gulf against piracy, and to control the sources of almost all Hurmuz' s exports.

The archaeological evidence shows that the l^th and 15th centuries were a time of dense settlement around the Gulf (Map 3)« As a result of my exten- sive archaeological survey in the area, an attempt is made on this map to



Map 4

o HURMUZ ISLAND

Аль мД цмцаад В?^^в*ф

Illlllllílllí Salt Plug ''''x Approximate Mounded Area 14-15th Cinturita (PLACE NAMES IN CAPITALS)

Approximate Mounded Area 16-17th Centuries (place names in lower case)



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mark major archaeological sites, with their areas, in the l*fth and 15th centuries« o^he relevant excavation sites are lettered: my own at Tepe Dasht-i-Deh20, Dr. Fehérvári at Ghïïbayra29, Dr. Whitehouse at STrlf^O, and Dr. Bibby at Bahrain-^ • Several hundred smaller sites are not marked. The smallest indicated here were large villages of at least 10 hectares, that is 100,000 square metres^2, the largest is on Hurmuz Island, with over 200 hectares??. A marked concentration of smaller sites existed nearby.

But what of Hurmuz itself? A barren island of salt situated near the narrowest point of the Gulf, it is probably best known for its importance during the Portuguese period, for the fort the Portuguese built there, and for its mention in the pages of Milton as a synonym for splendid luxury. However, this paper is primarily concerned with Hurmuz before the coming of the Portuguese?^.

The year I3OO or thereabouts was a turning point in Hurmuzï history. As a result of attacks from Kish and from the Çhaghatay Turks, the capital was removed from Old Hurmuz on the mainland to Jurün Island, situated about k$ kilometres from Old Hurmuz, close to the narrowest portion of the Gulf. This island, which only supported a small fishing settlement, was obtained from the rulers of Kish through the intercession of a pious sheik called IsmaCïl by Teixeira and Danial by de Barros?^.

The new city was a cosmopolitan place and we are not short of descriptions of it. Its visitors in the l*fth century included: a Bohemian friar, Oderic of Por denone; a Florentine, John of Marignolli; and an Arab qãdl from the Maghreb, Muhammad ibn abd Allah Ibn Battuta. Despite the Timürid invasion of Iran, the 15th century saw no reduction in travellers to Hurmuz. Accounts of the city survive by Abd al-Razzãq al-Samarqandi , Josafa Barbaro and Nicolo Conti of Venice; Hieronimo di Santo Stefano, a Genoese; Athanasius Niki tin, a Russian; and shortly before the arrival of the Portuguese, Lud- ovico Varthema from Bologna? . Hurmuz 's visitors came even from as far as Ming China. The imperial fleet commanded by Cheng Ho called at Hurmuz on four occasions between I*fl3 and 1^+33* On the last voyage a fleet of over 100 junks spent almost two months there and according to an Islamic source, brought great quantities of Chinese textiles and other products??.

From the many descriptions of the island city of New Hurmuz, the earliest was that of Friar Oderic. He wrote that the city:

!'is on an island 5 miles from the mainland. On it no tree grows, and there is no fresh water, but the city is very splendid and well walled. Despite this, there is such an abundance of dates that for a very small coin [3 soldi] one can purchase more than one can carry away. But despite the great abundance of bread and fish and meat, it is not aQhealthy place. It is dangerous because of the incred- ible heat"?0.



- 6o -

None the less, he describes it as a city abounding in costly wares« Ma-Huan, a hundred years later, notes that "foreign ships from every place and foreign merchants travelling by land all come to this country to attend the market and trade; hence the people of the country are all rich"-5°.

The fullest description of the trade of Hurmuz is given in an early Portuguese source, Duarte Barbosa, who died in 1515 i the year the Portuguese fortress at Hurmuz was built, and whose account reflects conditions before trade patterns were distorted by Portuguese enterprise:

"In this city are many rich merchants and many great ships« It has a very good harbour where all sorts of goods are handled which come from many lands, and which they barter with many parts of India. They bring there all sorts of spices, pepper, cloves, ginger, cardamons, aloes wood, sandal wood, brazil wood, myrobalms, tamarinds, saffron, indigo, wax, iron, sugar, a great quantity of rice, coconuts, many precious stones« porcelain, and benzoin, from all of which they make a great deal of money".

Several varieties of Indian textiles were imported and from Aden came copper, quicksilver, vermillion, rose water, and more textiles^"0.

Among the exports, the most important was horses. Some were reared in Persia, but most came from the Oman via the Hurmuzï settlements on that coast. These horses were greatly in demand in India, where they were used for warfare, and where war horses were not bred. The importance of the trade in horses is stressed by every source from Marco Polo onwards. Duarte Barbosa estimates the number exported from Hurmuz as between one and two thousand a year, with an aggregate value of up to 800,000 gold cruzados, a coin roughly equivalent to a Mamluk dinar .

Next in importance were pearls from the Gulf banks. The chief centres of the industry were Bahrain and Julfãr . Pearls were greatly valued, especially in India where they played a part in Hindu wedding ceremonial. The export of Gulf pearls, as estimated by Teixeira, was worth about 600,000 ducats (Indian ducats, roughly equivalent to a Mamluk dinar) a year ^. Other commodities which were exported to India were silks, carpets, alum, and raisins from Persia; dates from Minãb or Mesopotamia; sulphur from the coast near Hurmuz; and salt from the island itself .

The great variety of eastern imports to Hurmuz were secured by commercial contacts and colonies stretching far beyond the Gulf itself. Duarte Barbosa speaks of Persian and Arab merchantile colonies in Cambay, Calicut, and Malacca. In Bengal their colony was so large that, apart from having far- reaching trading contacts, it carried on its own manufacturing activities^. Indeed, Rashld al-Din records that in many towns of India the_Khutba was read in the name, of the Hurmuzl ruler* , and at some time a Hurmuzl colony existed at Zanzibar '. Apart from colonists, individuals travelled great distances from Hurmuz on trading missions. Ludovico di Varthema, for example, travelled



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with a jeweller from Herat who sailed from Hurmuz and visited the major ports of western India, Ceylon, Bengal, and as far east as Malacca and Indonesia . Little wonder then that when Cheng Ho set up an inscription in Ceylon the three languages in which he chose to record his voyages were Chinese, Tamil, and Persian, the language of Hurmuz^.

Oriental goods arriving in Hurmuz were unloaded and sent on by land or sea« A small portion was sent to Aden^0. A larger quantity was transported inland to Shlrãz, and thence to Tabriz and the rest of Iran« By the l4th century the mediaeval route which had led from Hurmuz to Shlraz through Furg and Darab was firmly in the hands of the Shabãnkara Kurds« A new and safer route was opened by the Hurmuzls across desolate land to Lar, through jChunj, across a major river, the Rud- i Mand, and up to Shlraz^l «

The desert stretch from Hurmuz to Lar is lined with caravanserai, many of which have unusual domed cruciform interiors, for which there appear to be no direct parallels in Islamic architecture« The foundation inscription survives on only one of them. It gives the date as 866 A.H. (1^+61-2), and the builder as Fakhr al-Din Túran-Shãh, King of Hurmuz. I would suggest that the other related caravanserai, which were all built at a period before l6l8, were con- structed by other Hurmuzi rulers-^ .

Further along the road is the town of j<hunj , where Sfoeik Danial had lived. This was the man, as was noted before, who secured Hurmuzi control of Jurun -, Island^. The Hurmuzi rulers expressed their gratitude in lavish buildings , some of which are still standing in jÇhunj . There survive three imamzadehs, a Masjid-i JamiC, and a minaret beside a ruined mosque, all of lA-th to 15th century date, and those that have inscriptions mention the rulers of Hurmuz^« The minaret, for example, was built by Fakhr al-Din Turãn-Shãh in lV+5-6 (8^9 A.H.). Beyond jChunj , the bridge which had been built by Adud al-Daula, the Buyid, to carry the road to Síhlrãz across the Rud-i Mand was destroyed in lMfl-2^ • Its replacement, a splendid structure almost *+00 metres long, was clearly built shortly after, and I would suggest, like the caravanserai, represents Hurmuzi activitiy along the land routed.

Other eastern goods were transhipped up the Gulf in small ships protected from pirates in most cases by Hurmuzi maritime power. The trade route onwards from Basra to Aleppo is extremely well documented-^ . Other caravans went to Trebizond and Damascus.

Hurmuz then was a flourishing city and a cog of some importance in world trade. It will be attempted finally, to assess its standing beside the other great merchantile cities of Asia. In this examination l6th and early 17th century Portuguese sources will be used.

However, first there is an important point to be made about the Portuguese period. It was one of decline in the fortunes of Hurmuz and of the Gulf. At Hurmuz the richest houses and even the Masjid-i Jami were destroyed to open up a field of fire for the guns on the fort-7". The suburbs had con-



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tracted enormously. The distribution of surface pottery makes it clear that the area of the city at the end of the 17th century was about half that of a century earlier"^. The extortions of the governor and of the garrison were noted by several Portuguese sources. Teixeira, for example, writes that upon its conquest, Hurmuz "began to decline by reason of the oppression and violence of the Portuguese captain and his officers". Moreover, the Port- uguese lacked the local power to protect the Gulf sea lanes from pirates and the littoral from bandits. By the 1500s even Qishm Island, within view of Hurmuz was almost abandoned because of the insecurity, while the hinterland of Old Hurmuz was lost to the Persians. Relations with the Safavids were bad, and for a time trade was banned with Basra. Tra¿f *° Europe increas- ingly went direct from India via the Cape of Good Hope •

Even in this period of decline, the customs returns reveal the remarkable importance of Hurmuz. Our statistics are best preserved for the l^Os when the Hurmuzï receipts, amounting to 88,000 xerafims a year, exceeded the com- bined receipts of the two other major cities of the Portuguese Indies, Goa and Malacca. But even this figure is a distortion of the situation. In the first eight and a half months of 1550 senior officials from Goa monitored the Hurmuz returns and checked corruption. For that short period the customs receipts more than doubled"2. By the end of the century they had fallen back to one third of the figure for l^O^. Still in l6l7, despite its lack of an agricultural hinterland and its total dépendance on a declining trade, the population of the city, as estimated by an extraordinarily sharp-eyed official observer, Garcia de Silva y Figueroa, was over 40,000 souls, more than half the population of Tudor London6^.

Finally, the author of D 'Albuquerque's Commentaries allows us to compare the trade of Hurmuz with that of Aden, its rival on the Red Sea. He writes:

"There are three places in India which serve as markets of all the commerce of merchantable wares in that part of the world, and the principle keys to it. The first is Malacca • • ., the second is Aden . . ., the third is Hurmuz at the entry and exit of the straights of the Persian Sea. This city of Hurmuz is according to my idea the most important of them а11""5#

Perhaps the Portuguese exaggerated. After all, they never controlled Aden. But, in the two hundred years between the death of Jamal al-Dîn Ibrahim of Kish and the conquest of Hurmuz by the Portuguese, it does seem that trade in the Gulf by the east coast of Arabia was at least as important as that in the Red Sea, along the west coast.



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NOTES

1. G. Le Strange, The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate, London 1905 • For Iraq see Muhammad Rashid al-Fil, The Historical Geography of Iraq between the Mongolian and Ottoman Conquests 1258-153^ A.D., Ph. D, thesis, Reading 1959.

2. J. Sauvage t, "Sur d'anciennes instructions nautiques arabes pour les mers de l'Inde", J^k. 236, 19^8, pp. 11-20, especially pp. 18-21.

3. W.J. Fischel, "Uber die Gruppe der Karimi-Kaufleute", Studia Arabica I, 1937, pp. 67-82.

4. Recent studies include: Gaston Wiet, "Les marchands d'épices sous les Sultans Mamlouks", Cahiers d'Histoire Egyptienne VII, pt. 2, May 1955, pp. 81-1^7; E. Ashtor, "The Karimi Merchants", J.R.A.S., 1956, pp. 45-56; W.J. Fischel, "The Spice Trade of Mamluke Egypt", J.E.S.H.O. I, I958, pp. 157-173; S.D. Coiten, "New Light on the Beginnings of the Karim Merchants", J.E.S.H.O. I, 1958, pp. 17^-184.

5. William of Tyre XIX, 27 in W. Heyd, Histoire du commerce du Levant au moyen-âge, Leipzig 1923, I, p. 378.

6. The situation in the Red Sea is summarized by R.B. Serjeant in The Portuguese of the South Arabian Coast, Oxford I963, pp. 4-8 and W. Heyd, op. cit., I, pp. 378-З8О. See also de Barros, Dec. I, 8, 1, pp. 17*4-182, Lisbon edition of 1777 and references in note 4. For brief periods in the 15th century ocean-going ships reached as far as Jiddaho

7. E. Ashtor, op. cit., pp. 45, 54. He died in Damascas.

8. Ibid., p. 56, from al-Khazraji, Al-'Uqud al-lullu'iya I, p. 350; R.B. Serjeant, loc. cit.

9. E. Ashtor, op. cit., p. 53; W.J. Fischel, "The Spice Trade . . .", pp. I69-I7I. The extortions of the Mamlukes were one of the causes of the decline in Red Sea trade. For duties levied at Aden see R.S. Whiteway, The Rise of Portuguese Power in India 1497-1550, Westminster 1899, pp. 7-8, after F.L. de Castanheda, Historia do Descobrimento e Conquista da India, Lisbon l833, II, 75»

10. e.g. В. Schrieke, Indonesian Sociological Studies, The Hague 1955, I, p. 9; J.V.G. Mills in Ma-Huan, trans, and ed. J.V.G. Mills, Hak. Soc. Extra Series no. 42, Cambridge 1970, pp. I65-I66, note 5; M. Medley, "Chinese export ware and Islamic design", lecture presented to the Percival David Foundation Colloquies on Art and Archaeology in Asia, no. 3, June 1972.



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11. For a l^th-century account see Ibn Battuta, ed. С. Defremery and B.R. Sanguinetti, Paris I853-I858, II, 8, pp. 100-101; rev. and trans. H.A.R. Gibb, Hak. Soc, Cambridge 1962, pp. 275, 326. For a 16th- century account see Pedro Teixeira, Relaciones, Antwerp I6IO; ed. and trans. W.F. Sinclair and D. Ferguson, Hak. Soc, London 1902, pp. 60-72. See also references in note 15«

12. Oderic of Pordenone, ed. and trans. H. Yule in Cathay and the Way Thither, Hak. Soc, London I866, II, Appendix I and II gives Latin and Italian (Palatine mss.) texts. The passage quoted is from the Latin text pp. II-III.

13. Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo, Bnbassy to the Land of Timur, ed. and trans. C.R. Markham, Hak. Soc, London 1859 1 p. 9.

1^. Josafa Barbaro, Viaggi (Ramusio), trans. W. Thomas, ed. Lord Stanley of Alderly, Hak. Soc, London l873, PP« 72-73-

15« Ibid., p. 7^; Anon., Travels in Persia (Ramusio), trans, and ed. С. Grey in A Narrative of Italian Travels in Persia in the 15th and l6th Centuries, Hak. Soc, London 1873, P« 199-

l6. J. Aubin, "Y a-t-il eu interruption du commerce par mer entre le Golfe Persique et l'Inde du Xle au XlVe siècle", Studia XI, 1963, p. 170. For the overland trade see H. Yule, op. cit.

17* CAbd al-Razzãq al-Samarqandi , ed. and trans. E. Quatremere in Notices et Extraits des Mss. de la Bibl. du Roi, XIV, Ш3, pp. 3O8-*+73- The English translation of R.H. Major, ed. India in the 15th Century, Hak. Soc, London I857, is a translation from Qatremere's French.

l8. The best discussion of Kish and Hurmuz appears in Jean Aubin, "Les princes d'Ormuz du XlIIe au XVe siècle", J.A. 1953, pp. 77-132.

19. Ibid., pp. 789-797.

20. Ibid., p. 90; Vassãf, Ta'rikh, ed. Muhammad Mandi Isfahani, Bombay I853, pp. ЗО2-ЗО3.

21. J. Aubin, "Les princes . . .", p. 105; Original archaeological survey I969.

22. Duarte Barbosa, ed. and trans. M.L. Dames, Hak. Soc, London I918, I, pp. 63-95; D 'Albuquerque, Commentaries, trans, and éd. W. de Gray Birch, Hak. Soc, London l88¿f, If pp. 63-IOO.

23. For Ra's al-Khaima and Julfãr see note hZ below.

2k. Pedro Teixeira, The Kings of Hormuz, ed. and trans. W.F. Sinclair and D. Ferguson, Hak. Soc, London 1902, pp. 173 et. al.



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25. Natanzi, réf. in J. Aubin, "Les princes • • .", p. 105; cf. Ibn Battuta II, 22, rev. and trans. H.A.R. Gibb, p. 283.

26. Pedro Teixeira, The Kings . . ., p. 190.

27« Archaeological survey 1969-1971« Information on current date cultiv- ation from the Chief Officer, Ministry of Agriculture, Minãb.

28. Andrew Williamson, "Excavations at Tepe Dasht-i-Deh", Iran IX, 1971, pp. I82-I83; "Excavations at Tepe Dasht-i-Deh", Iran X, 1972, pp. 177-178; "Sirjan-i-Khuna and Tepe Dasht-i-Deh", Excavations in Iran, The British Contribution, Organizing Committee of the Vlth International Congress of Iranian Art and Archaeology, Oxford, 1972, pp. 26-28; a monograph is in preparation for The Papers of the Peabody Museum, Harvard University.

29. A. D.H. Bivar and G. Fehérvári, "Excavations at Gtmbayra", Iran X, 1972, pp. l68-l69« A. D.H. Bivar, "Acropolis or Necropolis? Reflections on the Excavations at Ghftbayra, near Kinriãn", paper presented to the Vlth International Congress of Iranian Art and Archaeology, Oxford, 12 Sept- ember 1972. Y. Crowe, "Pottery from Ghübayra, near Kirmãn", paper presented to the Vlth International Congress of Iranian Art and Archae- ology, Oxford, Ik September 1972.

ЗО. 1^+th and 15th-century material came principally from the following sites: Site E. D.B. Whitehouse, "Excavations at Sirãf :_ Second Interim Report", Iran VII, 1969, pp. 5^-58; "Excavations at sTraf : Fifth Interim Report", Iran X, 1972, pp. 85-87. Site H. D.B. Whitehouse, "Excavations at Slrif: Fifth Interim Report", Iran X, 1972, p. 82. Site B. D.B. Whitehouse, "Excavations at Sirãf : Second Interim Report", Iran VII, 1969i pp. ^+6-^8. The history of Sirãf at this period is described by Jean Aubin, "La Survie de Shilau et la Route du Khunj-o-Fal", Iran VII, 1969, pp. 21-38.

31. G. Bibby, "Bahrains Oldtidshovedstad Gennem *+000 Xr", Kuml 1957, pp. I28-I52; Looking for Dilmun, London 1970, pp. IO8-IO9. Information from Siraf suggests that Bibby 's Islamic Palace is 15th-century not 12th to 13th-century.

32. The size of archaeological sites indicated is the area of mounding, representing the area of substantial settlement. The archaeological techniques are discussed at length in Maritime Cities of the Persian Gulf and their Commercial Role from the 5th Century to I507 A.D., to be presented at Oxford in 1973 as my doctoral dissertation. Towns indicated with hollow circles on Map 3 are either estimates based on historical information where recent building has obscured a site, or archaeological sites I have not personally visited.



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33* The mounded area of Hurmuz in the 15th century exceeded the area of as important a city as Damascus in the l6th century (see the latest map in "Damas à la lumière des theories de Jean Sauvaget", N. Elisseéff, in The Islamic City, éd. A. H. Houráni and S.M. Stern, Oxford 1970, p. I63) and probably represented a population in the order of 70,000 or 80,000.

3^. Milton, Paradise Lost, II, 2; cf. Camoens, Os Lusiadas X, ЮЗ. Detailed descriptions appear in: Stiff e, "The Island of Hurmuz", Geographical Magazine, April 187^; William Foster, "A view of Ormus in 1627", G.J. 4, l8?A, pp. I6O-I62; bibliographies (inadequate) in E.I«, and E.I. .

35. Pedro Teixeira, The Kings . • ., pp. I6I-I62; J. de Barros, Dec. II, 11, 2, pp. 111-112, Lisbon edition 1777; J. Aubin, "Les princes • • .", pp. 9^-95.

36. Oderic of Pordenone, op. cit., IV; John of Marignolli, in H. Yule, Cathay . . ., 2, p. ¿ttO- Ibn Battuta, ^op. cit., Il, pp. 230-238,. rev. and trans. H.AoR. Gibb, pp. ¿i-OO-iÔ^; Abd al-Razzaq, op. cit., pp. A-29- kj>0; Josafa Barbaro, op. cit., p. 79; Nicolo Conti, Travels, trans. J. Winter Jones in R.H. Major, op. cit.; Hieronomo di Santo Stefano, Itinerario, trans. R.H. Major, in R.H. Major ed., op. cit., p. 9; Athanasius Nikitin, Travels, trans. Count Wielhorsky, in R.H. Major ed., op. cit., pp. 8-31; Ludovico di Varthema, Itinerario (Ramusio), ed. and trans. J. Winter Jones and G.P. Badger, Hak. Soc, London I863, pp. 9^-95.

37. Kuei-Sheng Chang, "The Ming Maritime Enterprise and China's Knowledge of Africa Prior to the Age of Great Discoveries", Terrae Incognitae III, I97I, pp. 33-^; Ma-Huan, op. cit.; J.J.L. Duyvendak, "The True Dates of the Chinese Maritime Expeditions of the Early Fifteenth Century", T'oung Pao XXXIV, 1938, p. 395; Ja Cfarl, in J. Aubin, "Les princes . . .", p. 117.

38. Oderic of Pordenone, op. cit., (Palatine mss.); my translation.

39. Ma-Huan, op. cit., p. 165.

¿fO. Duarte Barbosa, op. cit., pp. 92-93-

¿fl. Ibid., pp. 65, 9^; cf. T. Pires, Suma Oriental, trans, and ed. A. Cortesão, Hak. Soc. 19^+, II, p. 21. For the uses of horses in India see S. Digby, War Horse and Elephant in the Delhi Sultanate, Oxford 1971- The export of horses from the Gulf is discussed at length in Chapter 12 of my thesis. For the relative value of currencies see S. Botelho, 0 Tombo do Estado da India [155*+], in Subsidios para a Historia da India Portugueze, Lisbon I867, pp. 5-65 and articles in H. Yule and A.C. Burnell, Hobson Jobson, London 1903-



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42. References to Julfar are summarized by B. de Cardi, "Archaeological Survey in the Northern Trucial States", East and West, n.s. 21, 1971, pp. 229-232, who identifies it with mounding on the bay of Ra's al Khaima. However, Duarte Barbosa clearly differentiates between the settlements of Julfar and Ra"'s al Khaima (D. Barbosa, op« cit«, pp. 73-74, the Portuguese version). The Spanish mss. of Barbosa (trans. Ы.Е. Stanley, London, Hak. Soc, l866, p. 3*0 specifies that the two settlements were 24 leagues apart which would suggest that the name of Julfar besides applying to the Rafs al Khaima region might have extended as far south as the Sharja or Dubai creeks.

43. Pedro Teixeira, The Kings . . ., p. 176. The pearling industry is referred to by practically every source. It is examined at length in my thesis.

44. D. Barbosa, op. cit., pp. 93-95« On salt see Ma-Huan, op. cit., p. l69.

45. See especially D. Barbosa, op. cit., I, p. 119; II, pp. 76, 137-142.

46. J. Aubin, "Les princes . . .", p. 84.

•'♦7. R.B. Serjeant, op. cit., p. 11.

48. Ludovico di Varthema, op. cit., pp. 102ff.

49. Kuei-Sheng Chang, op. cit., p. 36.

50. D, Barbosa, op. cit., p. 55*

51. J. Aubin, "La survie de Shllãu • . .", pp. 21-37-

52. Archaeological survey 1969-1970. The earliest description of the caravanserai appears in Garcia de Silva y Figueroa, Comentarios • • ., Madrid edition, 1903, pp. 275ff.

53. See footnote 35 above.

54. Couto, V, 10, 1; Ibn Battuta II, pp. 241-244, trans. Gibb, pp. 4O6-4O7.

55- J. Aubin, "La survie de Shllãu . . .", pp. 25, 27, notes the minaret. For the other monuments, archaeological survey 1969-1970. A separate report is forthcoming.

56. Discovered in archaeological survey 1970. J. Aubin, "La survie de Shllãu . . .", p. 35 provides the date of its destruction from Ja fari and Ninshidi.

57. The Pul-i Arus was described by E. Stack, Six Months in Persia, London I882, I, p. Ill; II, p. 23З. Although Vanden Berghe visited the bridge and considered the base pre-Islamic (J. Aubin, "I¿a survie de



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Shi lau • • .", p. 27, note 58) it is clearly bonded with the superstruc- ture which closely parallels the bridge over the Qizil Uzün near Mianeh dated to ik^-ikbk U.U. Pope, ed., A Survey of Persian Art, Oxford 1939, II, p. 123^; V, pl. ¿f92).

58. A detailed account of the route from Aleppo to Goa via Basra and the charges are given by W. Barret [158Ч in R. Hakluyt, Principal Navig- ations . . ., London (Dent) 1927, III, pp. 339- 3^1.

59. Teixeira, Kings . . ., p. l67-

60. Archaeological survey.

6l. Teixeira, Kings . . ., pp. I62-I69 (pp. I68-I69 quoted).

62. S. Botelho, op. cit., pp. 87ff.; J. Ribeiro, "Fatalidade histórica da ilha de ceilao", Colleccäo de Noticias para a Historia e Geografia das Nações Ultramarinas^ 5, p. 239; cf. "Teixeira", ed. W.F. Sinclair and D. Ferguson (from Turãn-Shãh ' s Sliãhnama, probably by Gaspar da Cruz) op. cit., p. 266.

63. Teixeira, ( Turan-Shan ) , op. cit., p. 266, note k.

64. Garcia de Silva y Figueroa, op. cit., pp. 250-269 is the most detailed and valuable extant description of Hurmuz under the Portuguese.

65. Vol. IV, p. I85.



PROCEEDINGS OF THE SIXTH Seminar for Arabian Studies held at the Institute of Archaeology, London...

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