António Correia (c. 1487 – 1566) was a

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

commander who in 1521 conquered

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...

, beginning eighty years of

rule in the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a mediterranean sea in Western Asia. The bod ...

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

Calicut Kozhikode (), also known in English as Calicut, is a city along the Malabar Coast in the state of Kerala in India. It has a corporation limit population of 609,224 and a metropolitan population of more than 2 million, making it the second l ...

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 ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by t ...

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

Qatif Qatif or Al-Qatif ( ar, ٱلْقَطِيف ''Al-Qaṭīf'') is a governorate and urban area located in Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia. It extends from Ras Tanura and Jubail in the north to Dammam in the south, and from the Persian Gulf in the ...

Eastern Arabia Eastern Arabia, historically known as al-Baḥrayn ( ar, البحرين) until the 18th century, is a region stretched from Basra to Khasab along the Persian Gulf coast and included parts of modern-day Bahrain, Kuwait, Eastern Saudi Arabia, Unite ...

, and was ruled by King Muqrin ibn Zamil, one of three

Jabrid The Jabrids ( ar, الجبريون, al-Jabrīyūn) or Banu Jabr were an Arab dynasty that ruled all of Arabia except for Hejaz and Yemen, and expanded into Iran's southern coast, controlling the Strait of Hormuz Prominence Their most prominent r ...

brothers who controlled the eastern seaboard of the Gulf. King Muqrin was the nominal vassal of the Portuguese vassals, the Huwala

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 depe ...

, 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, and statesman. He served as viceroy of Portuguese India from 1509 to 1515, during which he expanded Portuguese influence across the Indian Ocean ...

, 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 The Jabrids ( ar, الجبريون, al-Jabrīyūn) or Banu Jabr were an Arab dynasty that ruled all of Arabia except for Hejaz and Yemen, and expanded into Iran's southern coast, controlling the Strait of Hormuz Prominence Their most prominent ru ...

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 Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

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 concelho, municipality in the district of Coimbra (district), 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 ...

, 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 is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

. 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