Napoleon of Arabia? Piracy in the Persian Gulf, the French Threat to India, and British Imperial Responses

Abstract

For any retrospective exploration of British involvement in the region which would later be dubbed the “Middle East”, the major attack launched under the auspices of the East India Company administration in Bombay on the city of Ras al-Khaimah in 1809 represents a key episode. An Arabian port on the straits of Hormuz, Ras al-Khaimah commanded access to the Persian Gulf from the western Indian Ocean. The military action launched from Bombay in 1809 was ostensibly undertaken in response to years-long series of “pirate” attacks on trade in the region, above all insofar as these affected British and East India Company ships. In British accounts, Ras al-Khaimah was identified as a veritable pirates’ nest, home to marauders of the sea whose dhows had for too long attacked peaceful shipping and massacred crews. Described in terms of a pacification exercise, the British punitive expedition involved a sizeable naval flotilla and a large landing force of troops, manned by a mixture of British and Indian sailors and soldiers.