From about A. D. 1100 Old Hormuz had its own petty dynasty of Arab rulers , of which there is a full history by one of them , Turan Shah , and an abstract of this is given by Teixeira .sx According to this history , the founder of the dynasty was Shah Muhammad Dirhem-Kub , an Arab chief who crossed the Gulf and established himself there .sx The date is not given , but it must have been before A. D. 1000 , as Rukn ud Din Muhammad , who succeeded in 1246 ( the first date given ) , was the twelfth of the line .sx These rulers appear to have been , at times , in dependence on the Atabegs of Fars and the princes of Kirman .sx It appears that during the reign of one Mir Bahdin Ayaz Sayfin , fifteenth king of the line , A. D. 1301 , Old Hormuz was so severely and repeatedly harassed by raids of Tartar horsemen , that the king and his people abandoned their city on the mainland , and transferred themselves first to the island of Qishm and eventually to that of Jerun :sx the Tartars ` broke into the kingdom of Kirman , and from thence to that of Hormuz .sx The wealth they there found tempted them to come so often that the inhabitants , no longer able to bear that oppression , left the mainland and went to the island Broct , by the Portuguese called Quixome .sx So runs the story , according to Turan Shah ; but it cannot be ascertained precisely what brought about the transference of the town from the comparatively hospitable mainland to the torrid barren island of Hormuz .sx Abul Fida ( first half of the fourteenth century ) says :sx ` A person who has visited it in our days has related that ancient Hormuz has been ruined by the incursions of the Tartars , and that the inhabitants have emigrated to an island called Zarun ( Jerun ) , situated near the coast to the west of ancient Hormuz .sx A few individuals of the lower classes alone remained in ancient Hormuz .sx ' But , as far as history tells us , the Mongols hardly touched the coast of Kirman .sx Friar Odoric ( c. 1330 ) gives the first detailed mention of the newly founded island city .sx According to his description , it was ` a city strongly fortified and abounding in costly wares , situated on an island five miles distant from the mainland , having no trees and no fresh water , unhealthy and incredibly hot ' .sx The transfer of commercial activity from the mainland to the island appears to have been complete by the time of Ibn Batuta , who crossed thither from Oman ( 1355 ) , for he expressly distinguishes between the Hormuz of the mainland and the new Hormuz on the island .sx Of the former he says :sx Ayaz , the fifteenth king of Old Hormuz , became the first king of the new Hormuz .sx The original name of the island , Jerun , was changed by Ayaz to Hormuz , in remembrance of their native country , so it is said .sx After the establishment of the new town there followed a period of wars with the kings of Qais and Bah-rain , resulting eventually in the maritime supremacy of Hormuz , for , about A. D. 1320 , Qutb ud Din , the fourth king of the new line , took Qais and subdued Bahrain .sx The Abbe Raynal gives the following somewhat highly coloured description of the activities and social amenities of the newly established city :sx For two hundred years the new city of Hormuz enjoyed a high degree of prosperity , and its sway extended along both sides of the Persian Gulf nearly to Basra .sx According to Teixeira's history of the kings of Hormuz ` It thrived exceedingly for the next two hundred years , so that it dominated the most part of Arabia , and much of Persia , and all the Persian Sea as far as Bacora .sx And so it lasted until its conquest by the Portuguese , whereupon it began to decline , by reason of the oppression and violence of the Portuguese Captain and his Officers , lying too far away from such as might have amended the same .sx ' Varthema visited Hormuz in 1503 , just prior to the coming of the Portuguese , and from his description we gather that the city was at that period at the height of its development and commercial prosperity .sx He says :sx For the most detailed description of conditions at Hormuz just prior to , and during the earlier years of , the occupation of the island by the Portuguese , we turn to an account of the countries bordering on the Indian Ocean written by the Portuguese traveller , Duarte Barbosa , about the year 1518 .sx ` The city' , he says , ` is not so great as it is fair , with lofty stone and mortar houses with flat roofs and many windows .sx .. all built in such wise as to make the wind blow from the highest to the lowest storeys when they have need of it .sx .. All ships which come to this city take in ( salt ) as ballast , for it is worth money at many places .sx The merchants of this isle and city are Persians and Arabs .sx The Persians .sx .. are tall and well-looking , and a fine and upstanding-folk , both men and women ; they are stout and comfortable .sx They hold the creed of Mafamede in great honour .sx .. They are also musicians , and have instruments of divers kinds .sx The Arabs are blacker and swarthier than they .sx ` In this city are many merchants of substance , and many very great ships .sx It has a right good harbour where many sorts of goods are handled , which come hither from many lands , and from here they barter them in many parts of India .sx ' A most interesting sidelight is thrown by Barbosa upon the social amenities , dress , and customs obtaining at Hormuz in his day .sx Isle of Baharim , and are the best Pearles of all others , and many Horses of Persia which serve all India .sx Other writers , too numerous to mention , have made the story of Hormuz their theme , and making all allowance for the play which some of them give to their imagination , this truly was a remarkable place , with a story all its own and almost unique of its kind .sx But the time was at hand for a new power to appear on the scene the Portuguese , at that time ( the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries ) the pioneer of maritime nations in Europe .sx In March 1506 , sailed from Lisbon Affonso de Alboquerque , ambitious to establish an empire in the East , so , at this point in the history of the Persian Gulf , we close the chapter .sx Duarte Barbosa asserts that Hormuz had its own coinage , but in this he was probably mistaken , for its rulers seem not to have enjoyed such a privilege .sx Ralph Fitch , merchant of London , and traveller , of whom we shall subsequently hear more , who found himself at Hormuz about the year 1583 , some sixty years after Barbosa , still during the period of its prosperity under the Portuguese , gives a much more sober description .sx He says :sx `it is the dryest Iland in the world :sx for there is nothing growing in it but onely Salt ; for there is neither water , wood , or victuals , and all things necessary come out of Persia .sx ' Yet , he says :sx ' in this Towne are merchants of all Nations , and many Moores and Gentiles .sx Here is a very great trade of all sorts of Spices , Drugs , Silke , cloth of Silke , fine Tapestrie of Persia , great store of Pearles which come from the .sx VIII .sx THE COMING OF THE PORTUGUESE .sx " The Sword of the Lord and of Gideon " had served the Portuguese very well as a motto for acquisition ; but in the contemptuous neglect by them of the arts of peace , and in the absence of any genius for colonization , id did not facilitate retention .sx ' CURZON , Persia and the Persian Question .sx The First Phase .sx BEFORE entering upon the details of this phase of Persian Gulf history it will be well to take a slight retrospect .sx On the passing away of the Roman Empire the Venetians carried on the most important commercial intercourse with other nations .sx After the fall of Constantinople , Venice secured the overlordship of Greece , which acquisition greatly increased the wealth and influence of the republic and left it without a rival in the waters of the Levant .sx The Venetians carried on at Constantinople an immense trade , especially in Eastern products , but the Byzantine emperor , growing jealous of their increasing power and wealth , caused them to be driven out of Constantinople and in their place assigned to Genoa and Pisa a portion of that town for purposes of trade .sx After being ejected from Constantinople , the Venetians turned their attention to Egypt , through which country they established a regular commerce with the East from the ports of Alexandria and Rosetta , and they soon succeeded in monopolizing the Eastern trade by sea .sx The Genoese , on their side , contributed in no small degree to a revival of the commerce of the Byzantine Empire and secured for themselves the inland caravan trade with the Far East .sx But the abuse of their privileges by the Genoese at length induced the Byzantine Government to call in the aid of the Venetians and Turks , by whom they were finally expelled ; the power of Genoa in the East began to wane before that of Venice , who now became mistress of the Eastern trade .sx Towards the close of the fifteenth century the commercial ascendancy of Venice began to decline , before the advance of the Turks , to whom the Venetians were obliged to yield their Oriental trading stations ; and their various channels of inter-course with India were gradually and successively closed .sx After the capture of Constantinople by the Turks , the Venetians were left with only an intermittent trade with the Indies , through Alexandria and the Red Sea , which was subject to the caprice ofthe Mameluke rulers of Egypt , and was also under the ban of the Pope .sx The final blow to the Eastern trade of Venice was struck by the discovery , by Portugal , of the Cape route to India , whereby Portuguese ships were enabled to bring home the products of the East far more cheaply than by the former route through Egypt .sx In A. D. 1486 Bartholomeu de Diaz rounded the Cape of Good Hope , but without realizing the fact ; and in 1497 Vasco da Gama sailed from Lisbon , reaching India in 1498 .sx He returned to Lisbon in 1499 .sx This cruise was a momentous one in the history of the World , and , as far as Portugal in particular is concerned , paved the way to the formation of her empire in India and the East :sx an empire which extended over a period of four hundred eventful years .sx The discovery brought great prestige to Portugal , and thenceforth her kings styled themselves ` Lords of the Conquest , Navigation , and Commerce of India , Ethiopia , Arabia , and Persia ' , a title which was presently confirmed by the Pope .sx Between the years 1481 and 1487 , and previous to the discovery of Vasco da Gama , Dom Joao II had sent abroad various missions and expeditions in his desire to ` discover the lands whence spices were procured ' .sx With one of these expeditions he charged Joao Peres de Covilhao ( with whom was associated Affonso de Paiva ) ; these men set out in 1487 , proceeding by way of Barcelona , Naples , and Rhodes to Cairo , where they found a company of Moors going to Aden .sx Joining the caravan , they accompanied the Moors to Tor on the Red Sea , whence they sailed to Suakin and Aden .sx At Aden , Covilhao and Paiva parted company , and the former , embarking on a Moorish ship , reached Cannanore , whence he went on to Calicut .sx Here he saw a great quantity of ginger and pepper , which grew in the vicinity , and he learnt that cloves and cinnamon were brought thither from far countries .sx From Calicut he went to Goa , and then to the island of Hormuz , and having informed himself of the trade carried on at this busy port , took ship for Zeila on the Bab el Mandeb , whence he proceeded down the African coast as far as Sofala .sx Covilhao having thus gained first-hand knowledge of the character of the trade in Eastern waters , returned to Cairo , and dispatched to Dom Joao a full account of all the places he had visited and what he had seen .sx