António Correia (c. 1487 – 1566) was a
Portuguese commander who in 1521 conquered
Bahrain, beginning eighty years of
Portuguese rule in the
Persian Gulf.
Correia was the son of merchant and explorer
Airés Correia, who had gained notoriety during the Portuguese bombardment of
Calicut a generation earlier. Like his father, António Correia sought adventure and political intrigue in
Portugal’s expanding empire in the
Indian Ocean.
In the early 15th century, the territory of Bahrain covered both the present day state and
Qatif in
Eastern Arabia, and was ruled by King
Muqrin ibn Zamil, one of three
Jabrid brothers who controlled the eastern seaboard of the Gulf. King Muqrin was the nominal vassal of the Portuguese vassals, the
Huwala
Huwala ( ar, الهولة, sing. Huwali هولي) also collectively referred to as Bani Huwala, is a blanket term usually used to refer to Iranian Arabs who originate from the Arabian Peninsula, initially migrating in the 13th and 14th century fro ...
Kingdom of Hormuz
The Kingdom of Ormus (also known as Hormoz; fa, هرمز; pt, Ormuz) was located in the eastern side of the Persian Gulf and extended as far as Bahrain in the west at its zenith. The Kingdom was established in 11th century initially as a de ...
, to whom Muqrin paid tribute from the lucrative pearl fisheries that had made Bahrain prosperous. Having subdued the Hormuzis in 1515 and installed friendly leaders in the Kingdom, the Portuguese admiral,
Afonso de Albuquerque, identified the Jabrids as the main obstacle to Portuguese control of the Gulf.
In 1521, Muqrin stopped the payments to the Hormuzis prompting the Portuguese to appoint António Correia to head a naval force to subdue Bahrain. With their Hormuzi allies, the Portuguese force landed on 27 June 1521 and fought the
Jabrids at a battle near present-day
Karbabad Karbabad ( ar, كرباباد) is a village situated in the northern part of the Kingdom of Bahrain, along the northern coastline bordering the Persian Gulf. The village is famously known for being close to the location of the UNESCO World Heritage ...
. The Bahraini force was beaten and
Muqrin captured and, after his death from a wound to the thigh sustained in the battle, beheaded by the
Persian admiral of the Hormuzis, who sent the head back to
Hormuz. Correia later depicted King Muqrin's decapitated head on his family's coat of arms. The severed head is still a feature on the coat of arms of the Count of
Lousã
Lousã () is a town and municipality in the district of Coimbra, in the central part of Portugal. The population in 2011 was 17,604, in an area of 138.40 km2.
History
The oldest evidence provides an indication of a human presence in this ...
, Correia's descendants.
[Charles Belgrave (1966), ''The Pirate Coast'', G. Bell & Sons, p.8.]
The Portuguese immediately started building a huge fort complex at
Qalat Al Bahrain
The Qal'at al-Bahrain ( ar, قلعة البحرين; pt, Forte de Barém), also known as the Bahrain Fort or Portuguese Fort, is an archaeological site located in Bahrain. Archaeological excavations carried out since 1954 have unearthed antiqui ...
in order to control their new possession. The fort still stands as a
UNESCO World Heritage Site. But perhaps a more important legacy is that King Muqrin’s rule was the last time that “Bahrain” would refer to the
historic region of Bahrain rather than to the archipelago of islands that constitutes the present state. António Correia’s invasion in effect set the boundaries of the country.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Correia, Antonio
1480s births
1566 deaths
Portuguese admirals
Portuguese generals
Maritime history of Portugal
16th-century Portuguese people
History of Bahrain
16th-century Portuguese military personnel