The town of Bushire, on
the Persian Gulf is seated in a low
peninsula of sand, extending out of the
general line of the coast, so as to form a
bay on both sides. One of these bays was in
1816, occupied by the fleet of a certain
Arab, named Rahmah-ben-Jabir, who has been
for more than twenty years the terror of the
gulf, and who was the most successful and
the most generally tolerated pirate,
perhaps, that ever infested any sea. This
man by birth was a native of Grain, on the
opposite coast, and nephew of the governor
of that place. His fellow citizens had all
the honesty, however, to declare him an
outlaw, from abhorrence of his profession;
but he found that aid and protection at
Bushire, which his own townsmen denied him.
With five or six vessels, most of which were
very large, and manned with crews of from
two to three hundred each, he sallied forth,
and captured whatever he thought himself
strong enough to carry off as a prize. His
followers, to the number of two thousand,
were maintained by the plunder of his
prizes; and as the most of these were his
own bought African slaves, and the remainder
equally subject to his authority, he was
sometimes as prodigal of their lives in a
fit of anger as he was of his enemies, whom
he was not content to slay in battle only,
but basely murdered in cold blood, after
they had submitted. An instance is related
of his having put a great number of his own
crew, who used mutinous expressions, into a
tank on board, in which they usually kept
their water, and this being shut close at
the top, the poor wretches were all
suffocated, and afterwards thrown overboard.
This butcher chief, like the celebrated
Djezzar of Acre, affecting great simplicity
of dress, manners, and living; and whenever
he went out, could not be distinguished by a
stranger from the crowd of his attendants.
He carried this simplicity to a degree of
filthiness, which was disgusting, as his
usual dress was a shirt, which was never
taken off to be washed, from the time it was
first put on till worn out; no drawers or
coverings for the legs of any kind, and a
large black goat's hair cloak, wrapped over
all with a greasy and dirty handkerchief,
called the keffeea, thrown loosely over his
head. Infamous as was this man's life and
character, he was not only cherished and
courted by the people of Bushire, who
dreaded him, but was courteously received
and respectfully entertained whenever he
visited the British Factory. On one occasion
(says Mr. Buckingham), at which I was
present, he was sent for to give some
medical gentlemen of the navy and company's
cruisers an opportunity of inspecting his
arm, which had been severely wounded. The
wound was at first made by grape-shot and
splinters, and the arm was one mass of blood
about the part for several days, while the
man himself was with difficulty known to be
alive. He gradually recovered, however,
without surgical aid, and the bone of the
arm between the shoulder and elbow being
completely shivered to pieces, the fragments
progressively worked out, and the singular
appearance was left of the fore arm and
elbow connected to the shoulder by flesh and
skin, and tendons, without the least vestige
of bone. This man when invited to the
factory for the purpose of making an
exhibition of his arm, was himself admitted
to sit at the table and take some tea, as it
was breakfast time, and some of his
followers took chairs around him. They were
all as disgustingly filthy in appearance as
could well be imagined; and some of them did
not scruple to hunt for vermin on their
skins, of which there was an abundance, and
throw them on the floor. Rahmah-ben-Jabir's
figure presented a meagre trunk, with four
lank members, all of them cut and hacked,
and pierced with wounds of sabres, spears
and bullets, in every part, to the number,
perhaps of more than twenty different
wounds. He had, besides, a face naturally
ferocious and ugly, and now rendered still
more so by several scars there, and by the
loss of one eye. When asked by one of the
English gentlemen present, with a tone of
encouragement and familiarity, whether he
could not still dispatch an enemy with his
boneless arm, he drew a crooked dagger, or
yambeah, from the girdle round his shirt,
and placing his left hand, which was sound,
to support the elbow of the right, which was
the one that was wounded, he grasped the
dagger firmly with his clenched fist, and
drew it back ward and forward, twirling it
at the same time, and saying that he desired
nothing better than to have the cutting of
as many throats as he could effectually open
with his lame hand. Instead of being shocked
at the uttering of such a brutal wish, and
such a savage triumph at still possessing
the power to murder unoffending victims, I
knew not how to describe my feelings of
shame and sorrow when a loud roar of
laughter burst from the whole assembly, when
I ventured to express my dissent from the
general feeling of admiration for such a
man.
Rahmah-ben-Jabir, a Joassamee Chief.
This barbarous pirate in the year 1827, at
last experienced a fate characteristic of
the whole course of his life. His violent
aggressions having united the Arabs of
Bahrene and Ratiffe against him they
blockaded his port of Daman from which
Rahmah-ben-Jabir, having left a garrison in
the fort under his son, had sailed in a well
appointed bungalow, for the purpose of
endeavoring to raise a confederacy of his
friends in his support. Having failed in
this object he returned to Daman, and in
spite of the boats blockading the port,
succeeded in visiting his garrison, and
immediately re-embarked, taking with him his
youngest son. On arriving on board his
bungalow, he was received by his followers
with a salute, which decisive indication of
his presence immediately attracted the
attention of his opponents, one of whose
boats, commanded by the nephew of the Sheikh
of Bahrene, proceeded to attack him. A
desperate struggle ensued, and the Sheikh
finding after some time that he had lost
nearly the whole of his crew by the firing
of Rahmah's boat, retired for
reinforcements. These being obtained, he
immediately returned singly to the contest.
The fight was renewed with redoubled fury;
when at last, Rahmah, being informed (for he
had been long blind) that his men were
falling fast around him, mustered the
remainder of the crew, and issued orders to
close and grapple with his opponent. When
this was effected, and after embracing his
son, he was led with a lighted torch to the
magazine, which instantly exploded, blowing
his own boat to atoms and setting fire to
the Sheikh's, which immediately afterwards
shared the same fate. Sheikh Ahmed and few
of his followers escaped to the other boats;
but only one of Rahmah's brave crew was
saved; and it is supposed that upwards of
three hundred men were killed in this heroic
contest.
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