A review article in the book “The Portuguese in the Arabian Gulf, the Conflict of Sea Lanes and Signs of European Hegemony (1507-1622)” by Dr. Khalid bin Muhammad Mubarak Al Qasimi

Abstract

The book “The Portuguese in the Arabian Gulf: The Struggle for Sea Routes and the Beginnings of European Hegemony (1507-1622)” published by Dar Al-Saqi in 2026, consisting of 262 pages, is one of the works of the researcher and historian of Gulf and Arabian Peninsula affairs, Dr. Khalid bin Mohammed Mubarak Al-Qasimi, who has many historical and political works in addition to his above work, including “The United Arab Emirates: Pages from History,” “The Political History of the United Arab Emirates (1805-1971),” “Oman: History and Civilization,” and “The Arabian Gulf and the Period of Portuguese Occupation and Arab Resistance (1507-1650).”The book is one of the modern historical studies that sheds light on an important pivotal stage in the history of the Arabian Gulf, represented by its treatment of the Portuguese colonization of the Arabian Gulf from an analytical historical perspective that links local events with the global transformations that the world witnessed at the beginning of the sixteenth century. The author seeks to explain the motives of Portuguese expansion and its impact on the Arabian Gulf, with a focus on the conflict over sea routes and the beginnings of European hegemony in the Arabian Gulf region, through which he showed that those sea routes that the Arabian Gulf enjoys are the main factor in the Portuguese colonization of the latter and thus formed the beginning of European intervention in the Arabian Gulf.