Maritime coercion in the Gulf rested on economics, kinship, and technology.

Evidence

This conclusion demonstrates a failure to understand the different systems of law that existed, Arab expansion, the regional specialisation in maritime technology, control of pearl fisheries, shared linage, and armed superiority enabled them to act in coercive manner, and use sectarian distinctions in Islam for political purposes.[xiii] The lack of understanding about the temporal dimensions of the Gulf Region was key in the definition of maritime violence (carried out by predominantly Salafi Muslims) as ‘fanatical Wahhabism’ and ‘piracy’. — Robin Alexander Plant, Discuss the Relationship Between…, 8

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes arguments that ‘piracy’ is often a legal category imposed on rival commercial networks.