Ormus

Coordinates: 27°06′N 56°27′E / 27.100°N 56.450°E / 27.100; 56.450
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"Ormuz" redirects here. For Ormuzd, a deity, see Ahura Mazda.

The Kingdom of Ormus (also known as Ohrmuzd, Hormuz, and Ohrmazd; Portuguese Ormuz) was a 10th to 17th century kingdom located within the Persian Gulf and extending as far as the Strait of Hormuz. The Kingdom was established by Arab princes in the 10th century who in 1262 came under the suzerainty of Persia,[1] before becoming a client state of the Portuguese Empire.

The kingdom received its name from the fortified port city which served as its capital. It was one of the most important ports in the Middle East at the time as it controlled seaway trading routes through the Persian Gulf to India and East Africa. This port was probably located on Hormuz Island[citation needed], which is located near the modern city of Bandar-e Abbas.

The name of the port, the island, and the kingdom is Iranian and ultimately derives from that of the Zoroastrian deity, Ahura Mazda, which becomes Ohrmazd in Pahlavi, Hirmiz in Manichaean Middle Persian, and Hormoz in New-Persian.

The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow, strategically important waterway between the Gulf of Oman in the southeast and the Persian Gulf in the southwest. On the north coast is Iran and on the south coast is the United Arab Emirates and Musandam, an exclave of Oman.

History

The city-state of Ormus dates back to the 13th century when it controlled the slave market from Africa and Arabia [citation needed] to Khorasan in Persia. At its zenith in 13th to 14th century, Ormus (or Ormuz) was a powerful naval state with a large and active trading fleet and a powerful navy. Petrashevsky reports the size of the fleet to be up to 500 fighting ships[citation needed]. These ships were not armed with cannons.

Around 1376 the 30-year-old Chinese merchant Lin Nu visited Ormuz, converted to Islam, and married a Semu girl 色目女 (either a Persian or an Arab girl) and brought her back to Quanzhou in Fujian.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] The Confucian philosopher Li Zhi was their descendant.[18] This was recorded in the Lin and Li geneaology《林李宗谱》.

The fleet of Chinese admiral Zheng He reached Ormus for the first time around 1414.

In September 1507, the Portuguese Afonso de Albuquerque landed on the island. Portugal occupied Ormuz from 1515 to 1622. It was during the Portuguese occupation of the island that the Mandaeans first came to western attention. The Mandaeans were fleeing persecution in the vilayet of Baghdad (which, at the time, included Basra) and Khuzestan in Iran. When the Portuguese first encountered them, they mistakenly identified them as "St. John Christians," analogous to the St. Thomas Christians of India. The Mandaeans, for their part, were all too willing to take advantage of the confusion, offering to accept papal authority and Portuguese suzerainty if the Portuguese would invade the Ottoman Empire and liberate their coreligionists. The Portuguese were attracted by the prospect of what appeared to be a large Christian community under Muslim rule. It was not until after the Portuguese had committed themselves to the conquest of Basra that they came to realize that the Mandaeans were not what they claimed to be.

As vassals of the Portuguese state, the Kingdom of Ormus jointly participated in the 1521 invasion of Bahrain that ended Jabrid rule of the Persian Gulf archipelago. The Jabrid ruler was nominally a vassal of Ormus, but the Jabrid King, Muqrin ibn Zamil had refused to pay the tribute Ormus demanded, prompting the invasion under the command of the Portuguese conqueror, António Correia.[19] In the fighting for Bahrain, most of the combat was carried out by Portuguese troops, while the Ormusi admiral, Reis Xarafo, looked on.[20] The Portuguese ruled Bahrain through a series of Ormusi governors. However, the Sunni Ormusi were not popular with Bahrain's Shia population which suffered religious disadvantages,[21] prompting rebellion. In one case, the Ormusi governor was crucified by rebels,[22] and Portuguese rule came to an end in 1602 after the Ormusi governor, who was a relative of the Ormusi king,[23] started executing members of Bahrain's leading families.[24]

After the Portuguese made several abortive attempts to seize control of Basra, the Safavid ruler Abbas I of Persia conquered the kingdom with the help of the English, and expelled the Portuguese from the rest of the Persian Gulf, with the exception of Muscat. The Portuguese returned to the Persian Gulf in the following year as allies of Afrasiyab, the Pasha of Basra, against the Persians. Afrasiyab was formerly an Ottoman vassal but had been effectively independent since 1612. They never returned to Ormus.

In the mid-17th century it was captured by the Imam of Muscat, but was subsequently recaptured by Persians. Today, it is part of the Iranian province of Hormozgan.

Accounts of Ormus society

Situated between the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean, Ormus was a "by-word for wealth and luxury",[25] perhaps best captured in the Arab saying: "If all the world were a golden ring, Ormus would be the jewel in it".[25] The city was also known for its licentiousness according to accounts by Portuguese visitors; Duarte Barbosa, one of the first Portuguese to travel to Ormuz in the early 16th century found:

The merchants of this isle and city are Persians and Arabs. The Persians [speak Arabic and another language which they call Psa[26]], are tall and well-looking, and a fine and up-standing folk, both men and women; they are stout and comfortable. They hold the creed of Mafamede in great honour. They indulge themselves greatly, so much so that they keep among them youths for the purpose of abominable wickedness. They are musicians, and have instruments of diverse kinds. The Arabs are blacker and swarthier than they.[27]

This theme is also strong in Henry James Coleridge’s account of Ormus in his life of the Navarrese missionary, St Francis Xavier, who visited Ormus on his way to Japan:

Its moral state was enormously and infamously bad. It was the home of the foulest sensuality, and of all the most corrupted forms of every religion in the East. The Christians were as bad as the rest in the extreme license of their lives. There were few priests, but they were a disgrace to their name. The Arabs and the Persians had introduced and made common the most detestable forms of vice. Ormuz was said to be a Babel for its confusion of tongues, and for its moral abominations to match the cities of the Plain. A lawful marriage was a rare exception. Foreigners, soldiers and merchants, threw off all restraint in the indulgence of their passions...Avarice was made a science: it was studied and practiced, not for gain, but for its own sake, and for the pleasure of cheating. Evil had become good, and it was thought good trade to break promises and think nothing of engagements...[28]

Depiction in literature

Ormus is mentioned in a passage from John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost (Book II, lines 1-5) where Satan's throne "Outshone the wealth of Ormus and of Ind", which Douglas Brooks states is Milton linking Ormus to the "sublime but perverse orient".[29]

See also

References

  1. ^ Charles Belgrave, The Pirate Coast, G. Bell & Sons, 1966 p122
  2. ^ Association for Asian studies (Ann Arbor;Michigan) (1976). A-L, Volumes 1-2. Columbia University Press. p. 817. ISBN 0-231-03801-1. Retrieved 2010-06-29.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ Chen, Da-Sheng. "CHINESE-IRANIAN RELATIONS vii. Persian Settlements in Southeastern China during the T'ang, Sung, and Yuan Dynasties". Encyclopedia Iranica. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
  4. ^ Li Guang-qi, “Li-shi shi-xi tu” (Genealogical list of the Li lineage), in Rong-shah Li-shi zu-pu (Genealogy of the Li lineage of Rong-shan), ms., Quan-zhou, 1426.
  5. ^ Joseph Needham (1971). Science and civilisation in China, Volume 4. Cambridge University Press. p. 495. ISBN 0-521-07060-0. Retrieved 2010-06-29.
  6. ^ Association for Asian Studies. Ming Biographical History Project Committee, Luther Carrington Goodrich, Chao-ying Fang (1976). Dictionary of Ming biography, 1368-1644. Columbia University Press. p. 817. ISBN 0-231-03801-1. Retrieved February 9, 2011.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. ^ Hung, Ming-Shui (1974). Yüan Hung-tao and the late Ming literary and intellectual movement (reprint ed.). University of Wisconsin-Madison. p. 222. Retrieved 25 August 2014.
  8. ^ Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft: ZDMG, Volume 151. Contributor Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft. Kommissionsverlag F. Steiner. 2001. p. 420. Retrieved 25 August 2014. {{cite book}}: horizontal tab character in |others= at position 12 (help)CS1 maint: others (link)
  9. ^ Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft: ZDMG, Volume 151. Contributor Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft. Kommissionsverlag F. Steiner. 2001. p. 422. Retrieved 25 August 2014. {{cite book}}: horizontal tab character in |others= at position 12 (help)CS1 maint: others (link)
  10. ^ Asian culture, Issue 31. Contributor Singapore Society of Asian Studies. 新加坡亚洲研究学会. 2007. p. 59. Retrieved 25 August 2014. {{cite book}}: horizontal tab character in |others= at position 12 (help)CS1 maint: others (link) The translator mistranslated xiyang (western ocean) as xiyu (western region) and mistranslated semu as "purple eyed". Original Chinese text says 洪武丙展九年,奉命发舶西洋,娶色目人.遂习其俗,终身不革. And 奉命發舶西洋;娶色目女,遂習其俗六世祖林駑, ...
  11. ^ Wang Tai Peng. "Zheng He and his Envoys' Visits to Cairo in 1414 and 1433" (PDF). p. 17. Retrieved 25 August 2014.The translator mistranslated xiyang (western ocean) as xiyu (western region) and mistranslated semu as "purple eyed". Original Chinese text says 洪武丙展九年,奉命发舶西洋,娶色目人.遂习其俗,终身不革. And 奉命發舶西洋;娶色目女,遂習其俗六世祖林駑, ...
  12. ^ 侯外庐. "李贽生平的战斗历程及其著述". 国学网. Retrieved 25 August 2014.
  13. ^ 蔡庆佳, ed. (2009-08-30). "多元的泉州社会——以伊斯兰文化融合为例". 学术研究-学习在线. 来源： 学习在线. Retrieved 25 August 2014.
  14. ^ 林其賢 (1988). 李卓吾事蹟繫年. 文津出版社. Retrieved 25 August 2014.
  15. ^ 陳清輝 (1993). 李卓吾生平及其思想研究. 文津出版社. ISBN 9576681480. Retrieved 25 August 2014.
  16. ^ 陈鹏 (1990). 中国婚姻史稿. 中华书局. Retrieved 25 August 2014.
  17. ^ 海交史研究, Volumes 23-24. Contributors 中国海外交通史研究会, 福建省泉州海外交通史博物馆. 中国海外交通史研究会. 1993. p. 134. Retrieved 25 August 2014. {{cite book}}: horizontal tab character in |others= at position 13 (help)CS1 maint: others (link)
  18. ^ Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft: ZDMG, Volume 151. Contributor Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft. Kommissionsverlag F. Steiner. 2001. pp. 420, 422. Retrieved 25 August 2014. {{cite book}}: horizontal tab character in |others= at position 12 (help)CS1 maint: others (link)
  19. ^ Sanjay Subrahmanyam, The Career and Legend of Vasco da Gama, Cambridge University Press, 1997, 288
  20. ^ James Silk Buckingham Travels in Assyria, Media, and Persia, Oxford University Press, 1829, p459
  21. ^ Juan Cole, Sacred Space and Holy War, IB Tauris, 2007 pp39
  22. ^ Charles Belgrave, Personal Column, Hutchinson, 1960 p98
  23. ^ Charles Belgrave, The Pirate Coast, G. Bell & Sons, 1966 p6
  24. ^ Curtis E. Larsen. Life and Land Use on the Bahrain Islands: The Geoarchaeology of an Ancient Society University Of Chicago Press, 1984 p69
  25. ^ a b Peter Padfield, Tide of Empires: Decisive Naval Campaigns in the Rise of the West, Routledge 1979 p65
  26. ^ pesh, a Semitic root for 'mouth', often connotes speech.
  27. ^ The Book of Duarte Barbosa: An Account of the Countries Bordering on the Indian Ocean and their inhabitants, written by Duarte Barbosa and completed about the year 1518 AD, 1812 translation by the Royal Academy of Sciences Lisbon, Asian Educational Services 2005
  28. ^ Francis Xavier, Henry James Coleridge, The Life and Letters of St. Francis Xavier 1506-1556, Asian Educational Services 1997 Edition p104-5
  29. ^ Brooks, Douglas. Milton and the Jews. Cambridge University Press. pp. 188–. ISBN 9781139471183. Retrieved 3 April 2014.

27°06′N 56°27′E / 27.100°N 56.450°E / 27.100; 56.450

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