"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎٦‎٣‎١] (١٧٨٢/٧٧٤)

631
and about the same time the Portuguese authorities seem to have had in
view the establishment of a station at Khasab. Eventually Kung
became the chief if not the only Portuguese settlement in the Persian
Gulf proper, though, from a mandate of the King of Portugal dated 1649,
for the strengthening of the " fortress of Cassapo/' it might perhaps be
inferred that a post was also maintained at Khasab. About 1631, in
pursuance of measures for recovering Hormuz from the Persians by
force, the Portuguese built a fort " in J ulfar/' i.e., near Ras -al-Khaimah ;
and this may have been the post, just mentioned, which is conjectured to
have existed at Khasab.
It does not appear that the Arabs of the 'Oman coast were much in
evidence in the neighbourhood of Bandar 'Abbas, or anywhere upon the
Persian side of the Gulf, before the Afghan invasion of Persia which
began in 1720. In the confusion following the overthrow of the Safavi
dynasty Shaikh Rashid, probably the ruler of Ras-al-Khaimah, seized
Basidu on the island of Qishm and there established a settlement of
which the trade seriously affected the customs receipts at Bandar ; Abbas,
then shared by the Persians and the English. This led to an English
naval expedition in April 1727 against Shaikh Rashid, conducted by
Mr. W. H. Draper, the East India Company's Agent at Bandar •'Abbas •
the ships employed were the " Britannia " frigate, the <l Bengal " galley,
and two Trankis; and the outcome was the recovery from tiie Shaikh
of "the share of customs due to the East India Company." In 1787,
when a Persian force landed at Khor Fakkan and began to overrun the
territories of the Imam of 'Oman, the Arabs of Ras -al-Khaimah appear
to have made submission to the Persian commander ; but m 174.1, the
Persian occupation of the Imamate still continuing, the Arabs came under
suspicion of intending plunder of Bandar 'Abbas, in concert with the
Imam, after seizing an island in the vicinity.
Very little is known of the internal condition even towarde the end
o£ the 18th century of the region now styled Tmcial 'Oman; but it
seems clear that neither the Portuguese nor the Persians then retained
any hold upon the country, and that the influence of the Qasimi Shaikh,
whose capital at this time was Ras -al-Khaimah town, greatly predomi
nated over that of his neighbours. The subjects of the Qasimi, to whav
ever tribes they might belong, were generally spoken 0 ' n '
and it seems possible that, abroad, the name was applied to almost all
Arabs hailing from the western eoast of the 'Oman
It was the decline of Persian influence in the Gulf after the death o Nadu
Shah that in the end brought the dawasim upon the general scene.
Proceedings
of the Eas-
al-Khainaah
Arabs on tht
Persian
coast, 1600*
1750.
The QawSsim
at home and
abroad, 1750*
1800.