António Correia (c. 1487 – 1566) was a Portuguese commander who in 1521 conquered

Bahrain Bahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is an island country in West Asia. Situated on the Persian Gulf, it comprises a small archipelago of 50 natural islands and an additional 33 artificial islands, centered on Bahrain Island, which mak ...

, beginning eighty years of Portuguese rule in the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf, sometimes called the Arabian Gulf, is a Mediterranean seas, mediterranean sea in West Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Arabian Sea and the larger Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.Un ...

. Correia was the son of merchant and explorer Airés Correia, who had gained notoriety during the Portuguese bombardment of

Calicut Kozhikode (), also known as Calicut, is a city along the Malabar Coast in the state of Kerala in India. Known as the City of Spices, Kozhikode is listed among the City of Literature, UNESCO's Cities of Literature. It is the nineteenth large ...

a generation earlier. Like his father, António Correia sought adventure and political intrigue in Portugal’s expanding empire in the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

. In the early 15th century, the territory of Bahrain covered both the present day state and Qatif in

Eastern Arabia Eastern Arabia () is a region stretched from Basra to Khasab along the Persian Gulf coast and included parts of modern-day Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia (Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia, Eastern Province), and the United Arab ...

, 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 (, sing. Huwali هولي) also collectively referred to as Bani Huwala, is a blanket term usually used to refer to tribal Arabs who migrated to the coast of Iran around the 13th and 14th centuries. Such migrations continued till around 19t ...

Kingdom of Hormuz, 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 Afonso de Albuquerque, 1st Duke of Goa ( – 16 December 1515), was a Portuguese general, admiral, statesman and ''conquistador''. He served as viceroy of Portuguese India from 1509 to 1515, during which he expanded Portuguese influence across ...

, 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. 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 severed 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, 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 in order to control their new possession. The fort still stands as a

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

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. 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 16th-century Portuguese military personnel