Piracy in the Persian Gulf

An 1892 map of Arabia denoting the Pirate Coast. The term was first used by the English around the 17th century and acquired its name from the raiding activities that Al Qawasim pursued against British merchantmen. The charge of piracy has been disputed by historians and archivists in the UAE in particular. A counter-argument has been proposed which is that reports of the Al Qasimi pirate raids were exaggerated by the East India Company in order to provide a casus belli for them to stop the untaxed trade between the Arabs states and India.[1]

Piracy in the Persian Gulf describes the naval warfare that was prevalent until the 19th century and occurred between seafaring Arabs in Eastern Arabia and the British Empire in the Persian Gulf. It was perceived as one of the primary threats to global maritime trade routes, particularly those with significance to British India and Iraq.[2][3] Many of the most notable historical instances of these raids were conducted by the Al Qasimi tribe. This led to the British mounting the Persian Gulf campaign of 1809, a major maritime action launched by the Royal Navy to bombard Ras Al Khaimah, Lingeh and other Al Qasimi ports.[2][4] The current ruler of Sharjah, Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi argues in his book The Myth of Piracy in the Gulf[5] that the allegations of piracy were exaggerated by the East India Company to cut off untaxed trade routes between the Middle East and India.[6]

Piratical activities were common in the Persian Gulf from the late 18th century to the mid-19th century, particularly in the area known as the Pirate Coast which spanned from modern-day Qatar to Oman. Piracy was alleviated from 1820 with the signing of the General Maritime Treaty, cemented in 1853 by the Perpetual Maritime Truce, after which the Pirate Coast began to be known by the British as the Trucial Coast (present-day United Arab Emirates).[7][8]

  1. ^ Al Qasimi, Muhammad (1986). The Myth of Piracy in the Arabian Gulf. UK: Croom Helm. ISBN 0709921063.
  2. ^ a b Al Qasimi, Sultan (1986). The Myth of Piracy in the Gulf. UK: Croom Helm. ISBN 0709921063.
  3. ^ "The Corsair - Historic Naval Fiction". historicnavalfiction.com. Archived from the original on 10 January 2020. Retrieved 13 January 2015.
  4. ^ "Sheikh Saqr bin Mohammed al-Qasimi obituary". theguardian.com. 1 November 2010. Retrieved 13 January 2015.
  5. ^ Al-Qasimi, Sultan Muhammed; Shāriqah), Sulṭān ibn Muḥammad al-Qāsimī (Ruler of (1 January 1988). The Myth of Arab Piracy in the Gulf. Routledge. ISBN 9780415029735 – via Google Books.
  6. ^ Pennel, C.R. (2001). Bandits at Sea: A Pirates Reader. NYU Press. p. 11. ISBN 0814766781.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference donaldson was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Nippa, Annegret; Herbstreuth, Peter (2006). Along the Gulf : from Basra to Muscat. Schiler Hans Verlag. p. 25. ISBN 978-3899300703.