Nādir Shāh's Campaigns in 'Omān, 1737–1744

Laurence Lockhaet

doi:10.1017/S0041977X00081155

Nādir Shāh's Campaigns in 'Omān, 1737–1744

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009

Laurence Lockhaet

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Mīrzā Mahdī the biographer of Nādir Shāh, gives but little information on the subject of the Iranian campaigns in 'Omān during the period 1737 to 1744, probably because 'Omān was, relatively speaking, merely a secondary theatre of war and because Nādir did not go there in person. Fasa'I, in his Fārsnāma-yi-Nāsirī, also devotes but little space to the subject, notwithstanding the fact that Muhammad Taqī Khān Shīrāzī, the Beglarbegi of Fārs, played a prominent part in the campaigns.

Type: Articles
Information: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , February 1935 , pp. 157 - 171

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X00081155 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1935

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^{page 157 note 1} Published in Paris in 1748.

^{page 157 note 2} The references to this work which are given below are to the Copenhagen edition of 1772.

^{page 157 note 3} Guillain, a French naval officer, visited Zanzibar in 1846.

^{page 158 note 1} See his Said Bin Sultan, 1791–1856, London 1929Google Scholar, and The Al-bu-Said Dynasty in Arabia and East Africa in the Journal of the Central Asian Society, vol. xvi, part ivGoogle Scholar

^{page 160 note 1} Captain Alexander Hamilton, in his work, A New Account of the East Indies, Edinburgh, 1727, vol. i, p. 74, gives interesting particulars of the formidable fleet which the Imām of 'Omān possessed in 1715.Google Scholar

^{page 160 note 2} The exact date is uncertain.

^{page 160 note 3} Strictly speaking, it is not correct to refer to him as “Nādir” until his accession in 1736. He was originally known as Nadr or Nadhr Qulī Beg; in 1726 Tahmāsp Shah gave him the title of Tahmāsp Qulī Khān, which he held until he became Regent in 1732, when he was known officially as Wakīlu'd-Daula and Nā'ibu's-Saltana.

^{page 160 note 4} A detailed description of this attack on Basra is given by Martin French, the representative of the East India Company in that town, in an interesting letter which he wrote to the London office of his Company on the 5th/16th June, 1735; this letter is contained in volume xv of the Factory Records of Persia and the Persian Gulf, in the India Office.

^{page 160 note 5} See Mahdiī's, MīrzāTā'rīkh-i-Nādirī, Bombay, 1849, p. 172Google Scholar, and p. 113 of At-Tuhfatu'n. Nabhaāniyya fī Tā'rīkhi'l-Jazīrati'l-'Arabiyya (Cairo, 1929–1930), by Muhammad ibnu'sh-Shaikh Khalīfa.Google Scholar

^{page 161 note 1} See p. 132 of the Rev. G. P. Badger's translation of Salīl ibn Razīq's history.

^{page 161 note 2} See the letter from the Agent of the East India Company at Gombroon to London, dated the 28th Jannary/8th February, 1737; this letter is in vol. xv of the Factory Records, Persia and the Persian Gulf.

^{page 161 note 3} Letter from Gombroon to London, dated 6tb/17th May, 1737, in vol. xv of the Factory Records.

^{page 161 note 4} An English corruption of the Arabic word ghurāb, which means ordinarily a “crow”, but which was also used to denote a type of vessel much in use by the Arabs. Olaf Torén, in his book, A Voyage to Suratte, China, etc. (London, 1771), p. 205, describes a “grab” as a two- or three-masted vessel, rigged in the European manner, with a low and sharp prow, like that of a galley.Google Scholar

^{page 162 note 1} This vessel did not, apparently, belong to the East India Company.

^{page 162 note 2} See the Gombroon letter to London of the 6th/17th May, to which reference has already been made. See also Saldanha's, J. A.Selections from Slate Papers, Bombay, regarding the East India Company's connection with the Persian Gulf with a summary of events, 1600–1800, Calcutta, 1908, p. 53.Google Scholar

^{page 162 note 3} Guillain, , in vol. i, p. 529, of his Documents, gives (on the authority of Shaikh Abu Sulaimān) the date of the arrival of this force at Khor Fakkān as the 14th Dhu'l- Hijja, 1149 (16th 04, 1737); Sabīl ibn Razīq gives the date as the 17th Dhu'l- Hijja (see Badger, p. 138); as Shaikh Abu Sulaimān's chronology is far more accurate than that of Salīl, I have adopted the former's date, which, moreover, fits in better with the date of departure of the fleet as given by the Gombroon Diary.Google Scholar

^{page 162 note 4} See the entry, dated 15th/26th May, in the diary of the Agent-in-Council of the East India Company at Gombroon, in vol. iv of the Factory Records.

^{page 162 note 5} See Guillain (again on the authority of Shaikh Abu Sulaimān), vol. i, p. 529, and Badger, p. 141.

^{page 162 note 6} Salīl says (see Badger, pp. 141 and 142) that the Iranians behaved in a most barbarous manner to the inhabitants of 'Ibra.

^{page 162 note 7} Guillain, vol. i, p. 529.

^{page 162 note 8} Gombroon Diary, 21st July/lst August, 1737.

^{page 163 note 1} Letter from Gombroon to London, dated 15th/26th December, 1737 (in vol. xv of Factory Records).

^{page 163 note 2} Gombroon Diary, 14th/25th December, 1737.

^{page 163 note 3} I have had no opportunity of consulting the records of the Dutch East India Company.

^{page 163 note 4} Gombroon Diary, 2nd/13th February, 1738.

^{page 163 note 5} According to Salīl ibn Razīq (Badger, p. 142), the Iranians captured Bahla on the 14th March and Nizwa eight days later; the news reached Gombroon on the 8th/19th April, when celebrations were held in honour of the occasion. See also Guillain, vol. i, p. 529. When Wellsted was at Nizwa in November, 1835, he went over the fort there which, he said (see his Travels in Arabia, London, 1838, p. 121), “in the estimation of all the surrounding country, is impregnable”. He found in the fort “a few old guns … one bearing the name of Imam Saaf, and another that of Kouli Khan, the Persian General who took Maskat” (sic). The Iranian gun may have borne Nadir's former title of Tahmāsp Qulī Khān.Google Scholar

^{page 164 note 1} These forts which were built by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century, were also known as the Qal‘atu’sh-Sharqīyya and the Qal‘atu’l-Gharbīyya respectively; A. W. Stiffe gives a description of them in an article in the Geographical Journal, vol. x, 1897, pp. 609–612. See also Curzon's Persia, vol. ii, p. 440.Google Scholar

^{page 164 note 2} Badger, p. 143.

^{page 164 note 3} Ibid.

^{page 164 note 4} Gombroon Diary, 26th June/7th July, 1738.

^{page 164 note 5} Gombroon Diary, 13th/24th July, 1738.

^{page 164 note 6} Badger, p. 144.

^{page 165 note 1} Gombroon Diary, 26th July/6th August.

^{page 165 note 2} Ibid.

^{page 165 note 3} Letter from Gombroon to London, dated 31st March/11th April, 1739 (in vol. xv of the Factory Records).

^{page 165 note 4} Ibid.

^{page 165 note 5} Letter from Gombroon to London, dated 15th/26th May, it was stated: “We shall be glad if this or some other Accident prevents his (the Beglarbegi's) return to carry on the Expedition against Muscatt which must quite ruin this miserable place.”

^{page 165 note 6} Tā'r'kh-i-Nādirī, p. 211; see also Otter, vol. ii, p. 87.

^{page 165 note 7} According to the Gombroon Diary, 5th/16th April, 1739, “the greatest want of Conduct imaginable appeared in this expedition.” See also the Tā'rīkh-i-Nādirī, p. 214, in which, however, but little information is given of this expedition.

^{page 165 note 8} There are numerous entries in the Gombroon Diary respecting this mutiny and its consequences.

^{page 166 note 1} Shaikh Abu Sulaimān (see Guillain, vol. i, p. 535) gives this date as the 10th Khu'l-Hijja, 1154, the equivalent of the 16th February, 1742. Salīl ibn Razīq is obviously wrong in saying (see Badger, p. 145)that this event took place in A.H. 1151 A.n. 1738–9). It ia clear from the Gombroon Diary that the revolution took place in 1742, because the Agent received a letter at the beginning of April in that year from the Beglarbegi asking for ships to take troops across to Arabia to assist Saif ibn Sultān, “who has been driven out by rebels.”

^{page 166 note 2} Gombroon Diary, 19th/30th April, Otter, vol. ii, p. 169. Taqī Khān, on hearing this victory, sent an order to Gombroon for 1, 000 tomans to be raised from the local Banians, which sum was to be given to the Julfār troops as a bonus. The Banians were so dissatisfied at this high-handed measure that they threatened to leave Gombroon (Gombroon Diary, 23rd July/3rd August).

^{page 166 note 3} Kalb ‘Alī Khān’s father was Baba ‘Alī Beg, of Abīvard, one of whose daughters was Nādir's first wife and was the mother of Ridā Qulī Mīrzā; after the death of this wife, Nādir married another daughter of Bāba ‘Alī Beg’s, Gauhar Shād by name, who was the mother of Nasru'llah Mīrzā and Imām Qullī Mīrzā.

^{page 166 note 4} Gombroon Diary, 20th November/lst December.

^{page 166 note 5} For particulars of the sale of this French vessel, see Otter, vol. ii, pp. 166–8.

^{page 167 note 1} Guillain, vol. i, p. 536; Otter, vol. ii, p. 163.

^{page 167 note 2} Niebuhr's, Beschreibung von Arabien, p. 300.Google Scholar

^{page 167 note 3} Niebuhr's, Beschreibung von Arabien, pp. 300 and 301. Guillain (vol. i, p. 537) gives a slightly different version. The Agent of the East India Company at Gombroon received word from the Iranian Government on the 18th Febniary/lst March, 1743, that the Beglarbegi had captured Muscat. Doubts whether Taqī Khān had taken Muscat by orthodox methods were held, for the Agent added that it was supposed that the place had been taken “by dealing nnderhandedly with the Imaum's slaves to deliver him the Forts”.Google Scholar

^{page 168 note 1} Guillain, vol. i, p. 538. Some uncertainty exists as to whether Sultān ibn Murshīd was killed in this manner or whether he perished when trying to force his way into Sohār through the Iranian lines. Salīl ibn Razīq's story of this fighting seems to be most inaccurate.

^{page 168 note 2} Guillain, vol. i, p. 538; Salīl ibn Razīq (Badger), p. 150.

^{page 168 note 3} Gombroon Diary, 2nd/13th April, 1743.

^{page 168 note 4} Ibid., 8th/19th May. It was probably this rumour which misled Otter and caused him to state that the Iranians had had to raise the siege (vol. ii, p. 181). It is to be noted that Otter left Basra on his return journey to France on the 9th/20th May, 1743.

^{page 168 note 5} Gombroon Diary, 21st July/lst August.

^{page 168 note 6} Niebuhr's, Beschreibung, p. 301; Guillain, vol. i, p. 538. Salīl ibn Razīq (Badger), pp. 149 and 150.Google Scholar

^{page 169 note 1} Gombroon Diary, 21st July/lst August.

^{page 169 note 2} Gombroon Diary, 24th August/4th September, 1743. Nādir's object was to strengthen his fleet at Bushire which was then being organized for an attack upon Basra in conjunction with land forces. The vessels from Sohār must have arrived too late to participate in the united operations, in which the Iranian navy seems to have played but little part.

^{page 169 note 3} Autobiography of Mīrzā Muhammad Shīrāzī, p. 16. (Professor Sa'īd Naficy, Tehran, possesses a MS. of this autobiography, of which he has very kindly sent me typewritten copy.) See also the Tā'rīkh-i-Nādirī, p. 249.

^{page 169 note 4} See the Tā'rīkh-i-Nādirī, p. 249. There are numerous entries in the Gombroon Diary between September, 1743, and January, 1744, regarding the suspicious conduct of Taqī Khān; his recall was reported in Gombroon early in September.

^{page 169 note 5} Gombroon Diary, 30th December, 1743/10th January, 1744. See also Fārsnāma, P. 194.

^{page 169 note 6} Niebuhr's, Beschreibung, p. 301.Google Scholar

^{page 170 note 1} Niebuhr's, Beschreibung, p. 302.Google Scholar

^{page 170 note 2} Niebuhr's, Beschreibung, p. 303. See also Gullain, vol. i, p. 540, and Salīl ibn Razīq (Badger, pp. 153 and 154). Salīl's account of Ahmad's treachery to the Iranians and his subsequent massacre of them seems much exaggerated.Google Scholar

^{page 170 note 3} Entries in the Gombroon Diary show that, as late as 1748, ships carrying men and provisions were being sent over to Julfār from time to time.

^{page 170 note 4} Guillain, vol. i, p. 542; Otto Kersten's “Tabellarisch Uebersicht der Geschichte Ostafrikas” (in Baron von der Decken's Reisen in Ost-Afrika, Leipzig, 1879), p. 18.Google Scholar

^{page 171 note 1} Said-Ruete, R., in his article “The Al-bu-Said Dynasty in Arabia and East Africa” (Journal of the Central Asian Society, vol. xvi, part iv, p. 419), points out that as the Ya'riba Dynasty attained power by expelling the Portuguese, so the Al-bu-Sa'īd attained it by driving out the Iranians.Google Scholar

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