Bawarij (; ) were pirates from

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

and

Sindh Sindh ( ; ; , ; abbr. SD, historically romanized as Sind (caliphal province), Sind or Scinde) is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. Located in the Geography of Pakistan, southeastern region of the country, Sindh is t ...

, who were named for their distinctive ''barja'' warships (which means "large vessels of war" in

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

) who were active between 251 and 865 AD. They looted

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

shipping Freight transport, also referred to as freight forwarding, is the physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo. The term shipping originally referred to transport by sea but in American English, it has been ...

bound for the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...

and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, but entirely converted to

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

during the rule of the

Samma dynasty The Sammā dynasty () was a medieval Sindhi dynasty which ruled the Sindh Sultanate from 1351 before being replaced by the Arghun dynasty in 1524. The Samma dynasty has left its mark in Sindh with structures including the necropolis of and ...

(1335–1520).Laurier, pg. 132 They are mentioned by Ma'sudi as frequenting the pirate den at

Socotra Socotra, locally known as Saqatri, is a Yemeni island in the Indian Ocean. Situated between the Guardafui Channel and the Arabian Sea, it lies near major shipping routes. Socotra is the largest of the six islands in the Socotra archipelago as ...

and other scholars describes them as pirates and sailors of Sindh. Their frequent piracy and the incident in which they looted two treasure ships coming from Ceylon became the

casus belli A (; ) is an act or an event that either provokes or is used to justify a war. A ''casus belli'' involves direct offenses or threats against the nation declaring the war, whereas a ' involves offenses or threats against its ally—usually one bou ...

for the

Umayyad conquest of Sindh The Umayyad conquest of Sindh took place in 711 AD and resulted in Sindh being incorporated as a province into the Umayyad Caliphate. The conquest resulted in the overthrow of the last Hindu dynasty of Sindh, the Brahmin dynasty, after the death ...

Ibn Batuta Ibn Battuta (; 24 February 13041368/1369), was a Maghrebis, Maghrebi traveller, explorer and scholar. Over a period of 30 years from 1325 to 1354, he visited much of Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Iberian Peninsula. Near the end of his ...

describes their ships as having fifty rowers, and fifty

men-at-arms A man-at-arms was a soldier of the High Medieval to Renaissance periods who was typically well-versed in the use of arms and served as a fully-armoured heavy cavalryman. A man-at-arms could be a knight, or other nobleman, a member of a kni ...

and wooden roofs to protect against

arrow An arrow is a fin-stabilized projectile launched by a bow. A typical arrow usually consists of a long, stiff, straight shaft with a weighty (and usually sharp and pointed) arrowhead attached to the front end, multiple fin-like stabilizers c ...

s and

stone In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...

Tabari Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Jarīr ibn Yazīd al-Ṭabarī (; 839–923 CE / 224–310 AH), commonly known as al-Ṭabarī (), was a Sunni Muslim scholar, polymath, historian, exegete, jurist, and theologian from Amol, Tabaristan, present-day ...

describes them in an attack upon

Basra Basra () is a port city in Iraq, southern Iraq. It is the capital of the eponymous Basra Governorate, as well as the List of largest cities of Iraq, third largest city in Iraq overall, behind Baghdad and Mosul. Located near the Iran–Iraq bor ...

in 866 CE as having one

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

''(istiyam)'', three fire-throwers ''(naffatun)'', a

baker A baker is a tradesperson who baking, bakes and sometimes Sales, sells breads and other products made of flour by using an oven or other concentrated heat source. The place where a baker works is called a bakery. History Ancient histo ...

, a

carpenter Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. Carpenter ...

and thirty-nine rowers and fighters making up a complement of forty-five.Hourani pg. 114 These

ship A ship is a large watercraft, vessel that travels the world's oceans and other Waterway, navigable waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research and fishing. Ships are generally disti ...

s were unsuited for warlike maneuvers and lacked the sleek

prow The bow () is the forward part of the hull (watercraft), hull of a ship or boat, the point that is usually most forward when the vessel is underway. The aft end of the boat is the stern. Prow may be used as a synonym for bow or it may mean the f ...

s or

ramming In warfare, ramming is a technique used in air, sea, and land combat. The term originated from battering ram, a siege engine used to bring down fortifications by hitting it with the force of the ram's momentum, and ultimately from male sheep. Thus ...

capabilities of other contemporary naval units, but were intended to provide for

hand A hand is a prehensile, multi-fingered appendage located at the end of the forearm or forelimb of primates such as humans, chimpanzees, monkeys, and lemurs. A few other vertebrates such as the Koala#Characteristics, koala (which has two thumb#O ...

-to-hand battles for crew upon boarding.

History

In the ninth century, Maritime raids into the

Arabian sea The Arabian Sea () is a region of sea in the northern Indian Ocean, bounded on the west by the Arabian Peninsula, Gulf of Aden and Guardafui Channel, on the northwest by Gulf of Oman and Iran, on the north by Pakistan, on the east by India, and ...

and the Arabian gulf was a problem. On March 27, 865 CE, ten bawarij deepwater ships sailed from al-Basrah. Each of these ten vessels was crewed by a ship's captain, three sailors who hurled fire onto enemy ships, a carpenter, a baker, and thirty-nine rowers and warriors. As a result, each vessel had a total crew of forty-five individuals. That night, the bawarij pirates arrived at the island facing the palace of Ibn Tahir, and later they reached the Shammasiyyah area. The bawarij pirates on the ships opened fire on the Turks, forcing them to move their camp from the low-lying area of al-Shammasiyyah to Abū Ja'far's garden near the bridge. It then became clear to the Turks that they had to retreat even higher, to a location above their previous camp, in order to escape the fire being thrown at them. Imam Ghassan had received a letter from Munir, an

Ibadhi Ibadism (, ) is a school of Islam concentrated in Oman established from within the Kharijites. The followers of the Ibadi sect are known as the Ibadis or, as they call themselves, The People of Truth and Integrity (). Ibadism emerged around 60 ...

missionary from Basra. In the letter, Munir laments the attacks in the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Gulf carried out by the Bawarij pirates from

. In particular, Munir also strongly laments the killing of fifty people by the Bawarijs during their attack. Imam Ghassan moved to Sohar for 5 years in response to the problem caused by Bawarij pirates. In his stay in Sohar, he formed the first naval force of Oman in order to protect the coastal communities and ships of Oman against attacks from Indian pirate raiders called al-bawārijs or Bawarijs.

Footnotes

References

* George F. Hourani, John Carswell, ''Arab Seafaring in the Indian Ocean in Ancient and Early Medieval Times'',

Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial ...

, 1995, * Laurier Books Limited, Horatio John Suckling, ''Ceylon: A General Description of the Island, Historical, Physical, Statistical'',

Asian Educational Services Asian Educational Services (AES) is a New Delhi, India-based publishing house that specialises in antiquarian reprints of books that were originally published between the 17th and early 20th centuries. Founded by Jagdish Lal Jetley in 1973, the ...

, 1994, Ship types Human-powered vehicles Medieval ships History of Sindh Sindhi people Ancient pirates Piracy in the Indian Ocean Pakistani pirates History of Pakistan {{Pakistan-hist-stub

History

See also

Footnotes

References