- 21 - With this defeat, Banu Ka‘b took over the ships of the Arabian Bandars after their transportation of the defeated Persian survivors. The ships were not guarded and Banu Ka‘b were need of food supplies. Their forces prevented the ships from leaving Basra, and seized any ship entering Shatt al-Arab. The Arabs had tightly besieged Basra preventing anyone from going in or getting out, except for those who were smuggled through the palm farms then to the desert. It was however, impossible for the horseriding Arabs, who only had their swords to fight with, to go into Basra without the aid of the Ottomans who had military machinery capable of destroying the Persian defences. Sadiq Khan, the campaign commander, had departed to Shiraz in mid-October 1778, in order to bring large troops to break the siege imposed by the Arabs on Basra where nothing could be heard except gun shots here and there. In the meantime, al-Qurain city of Kuwait was booming with the trade activities brought in by the East India Company which kept its cargo ships coming. The caravans transporting the
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