_ 151 _ Christians who were converted, and the discovery of many acts of betrayal by the leading people of this land, about handing over this country to the Turks(A), which should delight the Shah, since, because they were sunnis(B), they supported the alcoran up till now and when they saw that they were discovered, from the death of Ali(C), they returned to the sect of the Shah, i.e. Shiites. If it is said in Portugal that wrongs were committed here against the zaides(D) as well as against the mosques(E), it is not our custom to do so, nor does our religion allow it, rather do we show all the love that we can, as Your Lorship is well aware. what is done here was ordained by God so that the faith of Christ might be more exalted. (A) In that year, the Turks from Basra (in lower Mesopotamia) seized Catifa (al-Katif), a place in the Persian Gulf, from the Portuguese and tried to occupy the island of Bahrain (in that same area) with the help of the traitorous inhabitants, as Alvaro de Noronha described to John III on 25th November 1550. (B) There were Turks and many Mohammedans dedicated to sunni orthodoxy. (C) The Persians adhere to the schismatic shfa sects or are followers of the lord Ali, who married Fatima, Mohammed’s daughter. (D) Cf. doc. 21, 1, where Barzeu written so much about the Persian’s wife. (E) Nothing is written about these kings in Barzeu’s letter to Macedo (doc. 21) but maybe he refers to what was heard by the messenger Mendes de Oliveira (cf. 21, 3).
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