portuguese face ottoman expansion

Portuguese Face Ottoman Expansion

During the years 1516-17, the Ottomans under Selîm I (b. 1467 r.1512-30), known as Yavuz “the Grim” expanded into Syria and Egypt and by 1517 the Mamluks of Egypt were incorporated within the Ottoman empire.[1] The Ottomans now had access to the Indian Ocean via the Red Sea and would soon be at the head of the Persian Gulf. It was inevitable that they would now come into contact with the Portuguese. Kâtip Çelebi[2] also known as Haji Khalifeh and regarded as a deliberate and impartial Turkish historian who died in Constantinople in 1657 (AH Zilhijeh 1068), wrote in his book, The History of the Maritime Wars of the Turks, that the Ottomans had not entered the Indian Ocean before 1525 (AH 932) but from then on under Salman Reis successful advances were made in the Red Sea:

Before this period the Ottoman Sultans had not sent their victorious arms to the Indian Ocean. In the year 932, (AD 1525,) the Sultan Sulieman appointed the Corsair Salman Reis a capudan and commander, and sent him with twenty galleys to that quarter. He proceeded along the coasts of Aden and Yemen, and plundered the habitation of the rebellious and such as were not well affected to the Porte; in consequence of which the sheikhs and Arabs of those districts came out to him with numerous presents, offered their services, and bound themselves to transmit their taxes.[3]

A report by Salman Reis indicated that in 1525 there were 18 ships (baÕtarde, kadirga, kalyote) and guns of various types (badaluÕka, yantopi, zarbzen, Õayka) stationed at Jidda and ready to go into action and capture all the fortresses and ports in India under Portuguese domination.[4] However it was not until the late 1530’s they had taken Aden, South Yemen and Basra at the head of the Persian Gulf.[5] In 1536 the Portuguese took Diu in Gujerat, India and in response Sulieman Pasha, the governor of Egypt, left Suez with a fleet of 80 vessels on the 13 June 1538 (AH 15 Moharram 945) and proceeded down the Red Sea At Aden the ruler Amir Bin Daud yielded to the Ottomans who then sailed across the Indian Ocean and tried unsuccessfully to take Diu from the Portuguese.[6] Subsequently an exchange of royal letters was made between the Ottomans and Portuguese in which demands for the free movement by Moslems in the Indian Ocean was not found practical by the Portuguese.[7]

Süleymân with his expansionist policy had during 1533-5 pushed the Safavids further east until he had taken Baghdad and most of what we know today as Iraq. The campaign in the east continued with Basra being taken in 1538 but Süleymân turned his attention westwards and in 1537 from Valona in Albania he was attacking Venetian ports in Albania and the island of Corfu signalling the end of the treaty between Turkey and Venice that had existed since 1503. The Venetians were traders and not in a position to take on the Ottomans but this might alter if they could persuade the Safavids in the east to come into the war. The Venetians decided to send and ambassador or messenger to the Safavids. This was apparently unsuccessful and the Governor of Cyprus was instructed to despatch another.

Michele Membré

In February 1539, Michele Membré set out on a dangerous journey through Ottoman occupied land to Persia. Aged 30, a Venetian by birth with a good command of languages, and in disguise Membré (1509-95) arrived at the Persian border in the summer of 1539 and spent a year at the court of Shah Tahmasp. In September 1540, Membré set out for Hormuz on his way home accompanied by two Arabs and reached there in November 1540. The following is his account of what ensued at Hormuz during his short stay there and is taken from his Relazione (his formal account of his affairs to the Collegio of Venice).

So we came to the sea, in that place by the sea which is called Bandar of Hormuz; which Bandar had houses of straw and of date wood, about 70 or 80 in number. So the merchants lodge in certain houses called nuzl, which are, as it were, hostels. And the women of the said Bandar are like blacks; and they put a silver ring in their noses, and so also in the ears. The shops of the said place all belong to half-black Gentiles, with a white cloth on their heads. So then we stayed one day and the next day, half an hour before sunrise, we boarded a boat, and at two hours of the day arrived at Hormuz. And that was the 12, 13 or 14 of November, if I am not mistaken, on Sunday, if I remember well; and then, as soon as I was in the land of Hormuz, in the city, I went to listen to what the Portuguese were saying, and I placed myself next to some Portuguese merchants to hear what they were saying; and, not being able to understand their tongue, I was left desperate: I decided to go towards the fortress, for it stood towards the sea, in the part towards Persia, so as to be able to find someone who could speak Italian. I found a Jew who was the interpreter of the Captain the fortress; and not realizing that he was a Jew, for he wore a headdress like the Moors, I decided to ask him if he knew any Italian merchant who traded in that land, for I wished to talk with them. He replied asking what I wanted to talk to merchants about and what business I had with them. I told him that I wanted to deal with them in certain jewels in which I was trading. So he took me to a Messer Francesco, a German, who could speak Italian well.

And then the said Jew went along to the house of the Captain, who was called Messer Martin Alfonso de Melo, a Portuguese, and told him of what had happened. Then he said to him that it seemed to him that I was a spy of the Turk. At that time I was speaking with the said Messer Francesco Alemano, and I told him that he must go to the Magnificent Captain and say that I was Ambassador of the Most Illustrious Signory of Venice and of His Magnificence the Emperor, wherefore I was coming from the Shah ?ahmasp Sophy; that I begged him with great insistence to allow me to be sent on the ship, which at that time they were about to send for the Kingdom of Portugal, and that I beseeched him to send me at once, which was for the benefit of Christendom. Therefore the said Messer Francesco Alemano at once went into the fortress where the Captain himself lived and told him what had happened, So, as I have said already, the Jew had told him that I was a spy of the Turk. The said Messer Captain replied to him that I must go to him for him to see me. So the said Messer Francesco came back to me and told me what the said Captain had ordered. So I at once, that

very day towards evening, went to the house of the said Captain in company with the said Messer Francesco Alemano. So the said Captain saw me willingly and asked me whence I came. I told him how I was coming from the court of the Sophy, and I begged him to give me help to go by the ship of the King of Portugal. The said Captain wondered to see me in such bad state, being ambassador on such a great enterprise, although he had the news before from the caravans which came to Hormuz from Tabriz, which said that there was at the court of the Sophy a young Venetian as ambassador. So it seemed strange to the said Captain and he asked me. I told him how in the desert of Shiraz the robbers had stripped me and taken everything there was, and killed one of my companions whom the Sophy had given me to accompany me; and that I, wishing to go quickly to my own country, had not wanted to go back, for it was already a great distance. So the said Captain believed me. Then he asked me about the two Moors I was bringing in my company. I said to him, ‘One is my servant, who was an Arab of Tunis; the other the Sophy has given me to take with me to the Most Illustrious Signory, and, as I have said, he gave me another companion who was killed by the robbers.’

So the said Captain was left thus: he half believed and half disbelieved. And that night I went away. In the morning he ordered my food for me well and also sent a tailor to measure me for clothes to be cut for me. And that day passed well. That night he had me summoned by 20 or 21 soldiers, during which he told me that I must show justification and testimony that I was ambassador. Otherwise he would take judicial proceedings against me. For they had become doubtful that I might not be a spy of the Lord Turk. So I replied to him with many arguments and showed him letters which I had with me for the said Lords, and said how there were two ambassadors of the Sophy in the said place Hormuz, great men with many presents, as the said Captain knew well, who were about to go to India on an embassy to an Emperor called Humayun Padishah. Thus one of them they called Khwandamir Aqa, and the other ?usain Aqa; and by the letters, and the account of the said ambassadors the truth could be known. So the said Captain, Messer Martin Alfonso de Melo, kept the letters in his hands and ordered me into arrest with the guards all night; and the Moors he placed one separate from the other. So the said Captain took counsel with his counsellors that night, and in the morning he had the said ambassadors of the Sophy summoned and asked them if they knew the ambassador who was at the court of the Shah. They answered yes and he showed them the letters and they attested to him that they were from their Sophy.

So that morning he ordered me new garments in the Portuguese fashion, and had me dress in them; then he had me summoned, in company with three or four young men of (if I am not mistaken) my age, to the chamber in which he was sitting with his counsellors and the said ambassadors of the Sophy. So, at my entering by the door of the chamber, the said ambassadors recognized me, rose to their feet and embraced and kissed me and said, ‘This is he whom our Lord, and all his court held most dear, because he has done deeds of valour.’ Thus they vouched for me; and, notwithstanding that, they gave oaths on their Koran, swearing that it was the truth that I had carried letters with the golden

seal to the Sophy, and all accepted me as ambassador and held me dear. So, instantly the said Captain embraced me and kissed me and begged my pardon, saying it was his custom to do thus, because he was on the frontier of Persia. So that hour passed and then he provided me with a meal and in the evening, at the setting of the sun, he ordered me to be given 90 ducats of gold, clothes of crimson satin and brown damask, shirts and victuals to eat on the ship, a pallet and sugar conserves. And he accompanied me to the ship with two great wax tapers and about 30 or 20 soldiers; and they put me in the boat. To each one of the Moors he gave clothes and 20 ducats and he sent them with me; and the Captain of the said ship was called Farnando Lintu. We set off on the 14th or 15th of the month of November, if I am not mistaken, in 1540. So we sailed along, always with bad weather, and in the ship they kept me good company.[8]

Membré’s account continues describing the journey from Hormuz to India and then gives a description of Hormuz itself:

And to go back to tell of the isle of Hormuz, it is very small and dry, without trees. The island has no more than one city, which city stands by the sea towards Persia. Thus, in the said city there is no water to drink, so all the water comes in boats from the mainland, and they put it in the houses in pitchers and jars. So, in the said city, no fruits grow, nor anything to eat, but everything comes from outside, that is Persia, Basra and India. Hormuz catches many fish; wine is dear, that which comes from India and that which comes from Portugal. The city is small; it seemed to me to have 2,000 hearths in number, and the fort is very small. It is adjacent to the city, with one part next to the city and one part in the sea, and it has much artillery and the houses are around it. Inside it has a large water citadel. In the said city lives the King of Hormuz who every year pays 300 tumans to the Sophy and 4,000 ducats to the King of Portugal. For, the said King is a Moor, wears the Sophy’s cap and speaks Persian. All the people of the city are Moors and a few Portuguese. In the said city they make a very great traffic of merchandise, for merchants of all the world are found there, and sometimes there is scarcity of provisions, and sometimes great abundance. Ships come to the said city of Hormuz from everywhere, that is, from Basra, from India and from the Straits of Mecca. For great business is done in divers merchandise. The money of the said city is a little doubled elongated piece of silver, with the legend of the King on it, which they call lari and tanka; and 7 of them are worth one ducat of gold; similarly there is copper money. The said King has a vizier, who also wears the cap of the Sophy.[9]

Membré arrived in Lisbon on a Portuguse ship on the 19 August 1541, met Charles V at Valladolid on the 2 February 1541 reaching Venice in May 1541. Interestingly Membré assisted Gianbattista Ramusio by collecting material for his Voyages from Persian merchants and was involved in projects to produce maps. One of these was to produce with Marc Antonio Giustinian in 1568 a world map in Turkish the wooden blocks of which are now in the Library of St. Mark in Venice. The map is attributed to one, ajji AÊmad, who might hav� e been one of the Arabs that accompanied Membré from Persia but who in any case evidently contributed no more than his name.[10]

Although Basra had acknowledged Ottoman suzerainty in 1539, it was not till 1547 that the Arab rulers accepted direct Ottoman control.[11] Then with direct control established in Basra, a new Persian Gulf fleet was built by the Ottomans to try and gain control of the Persian Gulf. The Arabs reacted by co-operating with the Portuguese who had established themselves at Muscat and Hormuz and landed at Katif with the intention of blocking the Ottoman expansion at Basra.[12] The Ottoman Red Sea fleet under the command of Pîrî reîs, also known as Piri Pasha or Piri Bey, appointed grand admiral of the Indian Ocean fleet as well as admiral of the fleet of Egypt in 1547 as soon as these positions had been separated from the governorship of southern Yemen, was built into a major force.[13] In the same year the Arab inhabitants of Aden expelled the Ottoman garrison and set up an independent government under their leader, Sheikh Ali bin Sulaiman. However fearing that the Turkish would return in force they appealed for help to the Portuguese Captain of Hormuz. A relative of Castro, the Governor at Goa in India, D. Payo de Noronha was despatched to Aden in command of a small fleet. Whilst on shore the Turkish routed the Arabs and Noronha fled. However Castro having heard the appeal for aid sent a flying squadron under the command of D. Alvaro to Aden. Realising that there was little chance of success with his 300 men, he moved along the coast to Shakhra which he then proceeded to destroy and capture before returning to Goa.[14] The Ottomans under Pîrî reîs retook Aden on 26 February 1548, and then went on annual expeditions into the Indian Ocean.[15]

In 1552 Pîrî reîs with the Ottoman Red Sea fleet drove the Portuguese out of Muscat sailed into the Persian Gulf but failed to capture Hormuz at the siege of AH960.[16] The Turkish historian, Kâtip Çelebi wrote of this second expedition of Pîrî reîs to the eastern ocean:

Piri Pasha, the capudan of Egypt, left Suez AH 959 with a fleet of thirty sail, consisting of galleys, bashderdés, golettas, and galleons; and proceeding to Aden by Jedda and Babelmandel, sailed thence towards Ras-al-had, passing Zaffar and Shedjar. On his route he was overtaken near Shedjar by a storm, in which several of his barges were destroyed. With the remains of his fleet he attacked Muscat, a fortress in the Persian Gulf, in the country of Oman, which he took, and made the inhabitants prisoners. He then laid waste the islands of Ormuz and Barkhet. On his arrival at Bassora he heard that the fleet of the vile infidels was advancing towards him; a report which was confirmed by the infidel capudan whom he took at Muscat, and who now advised him to remain no longer in his present situation, on account of the impossibility of escaping by the strait of Ormuz. The pasha, being unable to clear the whole of his fleet, departed before the arrival of the infidels, with three galleys, his private property. One of these he lost near Bahrein, and with the remaining two returned to Egypt. Of the vessels left at Bassora, Kobad Pasha, the governor of that city, offered the command to Ali Beg, a beg of Egypt, and a commander in the army; who, however, refused it, and returned by land to Egypt: and the vessels, thus abandoned, were soon destroyed. The Pasha of Egypt, apprised of these events seized and imprisoned Piri Reis on his arrival at Cairo, and sent information of the circumstance to the Sublime Porte, whence he immediately received an

order to put to death, the admiral, who was beheaded accordingly in the divan of Cairo. He left immense riches, which were confiscated to the treasury. The inhabitants of Ormuz, from whom he had extorted large sums of money, came to complain of his exactions and crave an indemnity; but no attention was paid to their demands, and the gold was put into gilt vases and sent to Constantinople. Piri Reis composed a work in navigation, in which he has given a description of the Mediterranean. This is the only work of the kind of any authority amongst the Moslems.[17]

The work in navigation that Pîrî reîs (1465-1554) wrote, entitled Kitâb-i Bahriye or the Book of Sea Lore, was undertaken in two parts, the main book and maps in 1521 and the additional material in 1526.[18] The work is a portolano giving sailing instructions and maps of the Mediterranean coastline. A map of America, part of his world map, is said to be copied from Christopher Columbus’s map of 1498.[19]

With the death of Pîrî reîs, an attempt to sail the Ottoman fleet to Suez was made as described in the following text by Kâtip Çelebi entitled expedition of Murad Pasha to India:

The Sublime Porte now entrusted the command of the fleet to Musad Beg formerly governor of the Sanjak of Katif, and ordered him to remain at Bassora, with the vessels already in his command, consisting of five galleys and one goletta. Shortly after, he quitted Bassora, at the head of a fleet of fifteen galleys and two barges, (one of his galleys having sunk,) and directed his course towards Egypt. Near Ormuz he met the infidels’ fleet, which he immediately attacked, and a desparate engagement ensued, in which Soleiman Reis, (the Capudan Reis,) Rajab Reis, with a great number of men, obtained the palm of martyrdom, and many others were wounded. The infidels did considerable damage to the Moslem ships, which unable to sustain the continual fire of the enemy, escaped by night. One of their vessels, which was left behind, was driven ashore near Lar, and captured by the infidels, part of the crew escaping and the rest being made prisoners. The remainer of the fleet returned to Bassora, whence tidings of the sad event were immediately communicated to the Sublime Porte.[20]

Seidi Ali Ibn Hosain, also known as Seydi Ali Reis, whose father and grandfather had held the post of governor of the arsenal in Constantinople ever since its capture was rewarded by Sultan Soleiman Khan about the year end AH 960 (1553) with the post of capudan of Egypt and ordered to bring the vessels lying at Bassora [Basrah] to Cairo.[21] Seidi Ali Reis on AH1 Moharrem 961 (7 December 1553) left Aleppo and travelling via Baghdad arrived at Basrah (Bassora) at the end of AHSafar 961 (beginning of February 1554). After an interview with Mustafa Pasha he arranged for supplies but having to wait five months for the monsoon took time to visit a mosque and graves in the area. (He mentions in his book that guns were not to be had in sufficient quantity either from the stores at Basrah or Ormuz. With the Portuguese on the island of Hormuz, this would indicate that the Ottomans had access to the old town of

Hormuz on the mainland of Persia.)[22] Kâtip Çelebi continues with the expedition of Seidi Ali Reis to the eastern ocean:

Mustapha Pasha, the governor of Bassora, and a distinguished seaman, was absent from the city when Seidi Ali arrived; having been at this moment on his way thither. Being informed that the infidels had only four ships, he immediately commuincated the intelligence to Seidi Ali, who there upon embarked his troops and quitted Bassora early in the month of Shaban (July), and joined Mustapha Pasha near Ormuz. Passing Abadan, Desboul, and Shutar, and coasting Harek and Katif in the neighbourhood of Lahsa, they arrived at Bahrein, where they had an interview with the governor, Murad Reis. Here the sailors, by sinking leathern bottles about eight fathoms into the sea obtained fresh water. They sailed hence to old Ormuz, Barkhet and Ormuz: after which the sherif Mustapha returned to the Porte. Seidi Ali then passed the coast of Zaffar, and early on the morning of the fortieth day, which was the tenth of Ramazan, met the infidels near the city of Khourfekan. Their fleet, consisted of four immense barges, three large galleons, six Portuguese guard-ships, and three golettas.[23]

Seydi Ali Reis in his own narrative indicates that having passed Kumzar (Keimzar) at the north of the Musandam they were sailing southwards past Limah (Leïme) when they came across the Portuguese fleet:

Next we came to Kis, i.e. old Ormuz, and Barhata and several other small islands in the Green Sea, i.e. the waters of Ormuz, but nowhere could we get any news of the fleet. So we dismissed the vessel, which Mustaffa Pasha had sent as an escort, with the message that Ormuz was safely passed. We proceeded by the coasts of Djilgar and Djadi, past the towns of Keimzar or Leïme, and forty days after our departure, i.e. on the 10th of Ramazan, in the forenoon, we suddenly saw coming towards us the Christian fleet, consisting of four large ships, three galleons, six Portuguese guard ships and twelve galleys (Kalita), 25 vessels in all. I immediately ordered the canopy to be taken down, the ancorhor weighed, the guns in readiness, and then trusting to the help of the Almighty, we fastened the filandra to the mainmast, the flags were unfurled and full of courage and calling upon Allah, we commenced to fight.[24]

An encounter then followed on Thursday AH10 Ramadan 961 (9 August 1554) between the Ottomans and the Portuguese as described in the engagement between Seidi Ali and the Portuguese:

The Moslems immediately hoisted their colours, weighed anchor, and got in readiness all their warlike machines. With flags hoisted and sails spread, and looking in confidence to the Supreme Being, they set up Mohammedan shouts, and commence an attack, the fierceness of which baffles description. By the favour of God, their fire struck one of the Portuguese galleons, which was wrecked on the island of Fak-al-asad. They fought bravely till night-fall, when the

capudan hoisted the lights. The infidels however fired a gun as the signal of retreat, and fled to Ormuz. Thus, by the favour of God, the victory was left to the Moslems, who, favoured by the winds, departed next day for the city of Khourfekan, where the troops took in a supply of fresh water, and after seventeen days’ sailing, arrived in the neighbourhood of Muscat and Kalat.[25]

illustrations from the anonymous Livro de Lizuarte de Abreu c.1564 show the Portuguese fleet before the Cape Musandam battle of 1554. Set on two pages it depicts 12 galleons of varying sizes with 3 terranquins in a cove at the top on the left hand page and 12 terranquins with the islands of Calemas, Queaxome, Larequa and Ormus on the right hand page.[26] On Saturday AH26 Ramadan 961 (25 August 1554), the Portguese fleet sailed from Muscat and engaged battle with Seidi Ali who had been waiting offshore with the Ottoman fleet in the second expedition of Seidi Ali, against the Capudan of Goa:

On the morning of the 26th Ramazan the captain of Goa, the son of the governor, left the harbour of Muscat, and with his barges, guard-ships, and galleons, with their mainsails spread, and colours flying, sailed against the Moslems, who, still trusting in God, remained near the shore prepared for battle.

The enemy’s barges first came up, and attacked the galleys, when a sharp fire was opened on both sides, and a furious engagement ensued. The infidels then began to shower down their hand-grenades from the maintops upon the galleys, one of which and a barge which was near it they burnt by throwing a bomb into the galley. Five barges and as many galleys were driven ashore and lost. Another barge was driven ashore by the violence with which the wind beat against it, and was lost. At length the sailors and the troops on both sides were exhausted, the former being unable to pull at the oars, and the latter to work the guns any longer; they were therefore obliged to cash anchor: but even in this position they fought for some time with springs to their cables. They were finally obliged to abandon their boats. Elmshah Reis, Kara Mustaffa, and Kalfat Mumi, the commaners of the lost galleys, and Durzi Mustaffa Beg, the commander of the volunteers, with about two hundred Egyptian soldiers, reached the shore in safety, and afterwards returned to the fleet, bringing with them many Arabs to the assistance of the Moslems. The infidels also recovered the men who were in their barges which had been driven ashore. This battle was even greater than that between Khair-ad-din and Andrea Doria. Few soldiers are known to have been engaged in such a fight. At last, when night approached, a strong gale began to blow, and each of the barges threw out two stream anchors; but the men on board were so overcome with fatigue, that they were obliged to stand out from the shore, and sail before the wind. In this way they came to the coast of Barjash, where, finding plenty of sea, they succeeded in reaching Bender Shehbar in Mekran. Here they took in water, and by the direction of a pilot, reached Bender Goader; the governor of which, Malek Dinar Oghli Jelal-ad-din, came to examine the state of the fleet, and represented to the sultan the

necessity of sending supplies: in consequence of which, fifty or sixty vessels with provisions were sent out, and joined them before they reached Ormuz.[27]

In the battle with the Portuguese, under the command of D. Fernando de Noronha[28], off Hormuz, Seydi Ali Reis was routed and fled with nine vessels into the Indian Ocean to Diu from where he made his way back by land.[29] Seydi Ali Reis wrote that even in the battles between Khaiveddin Pasha and the Genoese admiral Andrea Doria that took place about 1532, no such battle ever took place as the one he had just fought with the Portuguese. It was while Seydi Ali Reis was in India that he wrote a book, Mirat ul Memalik (the Mirror of Countries), relating his encounters with the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean. His description of the events after the battle states that as night fell they were approaching the bay of Ormuz with anchors out when the wind began to rise. Not being allowed to touch the shore they set sail again and drifted away from the Arabian coast into the open sea before reaching the coast near Jask. They sailed along it for two days before coming to Kichi Mekran and the following day Sheba where the encountered a pirate ship who assisted them and escorted them to Guador.[30]

In 1556 the Portuguese, under D. Alvaro da Silveira, continued to raid the northen end of the Persian Gulf in support of Arabs opposing the extension of Ottoman authority which was by now consolidated in the province of Lahsa situated on the coast between Basra and Bahrain. In the summer of 1559 the governor of Lahsa invaded Bahrain with 1200 men and beseiged the town of Manama. The Portuguese surrounded the island and eventually the Ottomans had to purchase their freedom from the Portuguese in 1560.[31]

In AH 972/1564 envoys sent by the Sultan of Acheh, ‘Ata’ al-Din arrived in Istanbul with a request for help against the Portuguese. The Ottomans decided to despatch their Suez fleet, but as a result of a revolt in the Yemen only two ships could be sent with material and gunsmiths.[32] However the governor of Basra proposed in 1562 a truce with the Portuguese that would open up sea traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. The Portuguese viceroy in India, the Conde do Redondo, responded favourably and on the 6 September 1564, Suleyman the Magnificent ended his campaign against regions east of Suez.[33]

Luis de Camáes

Luis de Camões, the Portuguese poet and author of the Lusiads, left Portugal on the 25 March 1553 aboard the Sao Bento, the flagship of a squadron of four ships commanded by Fernao Alvares Cabral, bound for India. Earlier having been imprisoned for wounding a member of the royal household, he had obtained release and a pardon upon volunteering once again to go to India. This time Camões went and did not return till April 1570. During his travels he enlisted with the Armada of the North and made one voyage to the Persian Gulf in 1554 [34] and another to the Red Sea in 1555 wintering in between in India. Later on he was to visit the far east including Malacca and Macao. It was his experiences

in these travels that are recalled in the Lusiads, an epic poem in ten Cantos that recounts the feats and the spirit of adventure in Portuguese history centred around the first voyage to India by Vasco de Gama in the fifth Canto. In the poem, written about 1572, Camões refers both to Hormuz and the Musandam:

Mas vê a illa Gerum, como discobreque fazem do tempo os intervallosQue da cidade Armuza, que alli esteveElla o nome despois, e gloria teve. But see yon Gerum’s isle the tale unfoldof mighty things which Time can make or mar;for of Armuza-town yon shore uponthe name and glory this her rival won.[35] Olha o cabo Asabóro que chamadoAgora he Moçandão dos navegantes:Por aqui entra o lago, que he fechadoDe Arabia, e Persias terras abundantes. Behold of Asabón the Head, now hightMosandam, by the men who plough the Main:Here lies the Gulf whose long and lake-like Bight,parts Araby from fertile Persia’s plain.[36]

It was this poem that inspired the Portuguese people for hundreds of years to the extent that in 1891 when Lisbon was threatened with bombardment from the English that his statue was draped in black.[37]

There are two illustrations in Rumuzi’s Tarik-I Feth-I Yemen of the Ottomans taking Yemen in 1569 and Hizir Bey repulsing a Portuguese fleet at Aden in the same year, the latter with two Ottoman galleys in the forefront of the illustration.[38]

Teixeira whose narrative of the history of the kings of Hormuz appears in this book digresses at one point to describe Hormuz itself. This is his narrative:

This little isle contains some things worthy of note, whereof I shall briefly relate a few, for the reader’s pleasure.

This Isle of Gerun was of old volcanic, for which reason it remains so rugged as to amaze the explorer of its interior. It has a lofty range of hills running east and west from the sea to sea. From the foot of this to the northern promontory, whereon stands the fortified city, there is a less rugged plain. But beyond the main range, there is nothing but lesser ranges, separate hills, and a rugged wilderness. There is plenty of good rock-salt, and very pure sulphur; whereof, during my stay, there were found mines, and much got out of them. During the

rains, which are very heavy, the storm-water from the hills flows over the plain around the city, and thereof is made much salt, by the mere operation of nature and the heat of the sun, which is very great there. And it is a thing worth wonder, that though this isle stands in a 271/2 deg. N. lat., its summer heat is almost past bearing, and such as only on trial could well be believed. There are in the isle three perennial springs, in different places at the foot of the hills, whence flow three streams of clean and clear water, but as salt as the sea. And this salt gathers and hardens so under the sun, that I have often ridden over it, the water yet flowing below.

All this salt, as well as the rock-salt, which is clearly seen to increase like the rest, is very medicinal. But only that won from the water by the sun’s help is used in victuals and condiments. For the rock-salt is so strong that, instead of preserving meat, it wastes the same, or any other provisions on which it may be strewn. Nevertheless some ships, and specially those from Cochin, take it in as ballast, and carry it to Bengal, where scarcity gives it a value. For in all the lands thereabouts is no salt made, but in the Isle of Sundiva alone. There must be a like dearth of salt in many provinces of China, where it furnishes the chief of the royal customs. And this would seem to be the reason why most of the hams which the Portuguese bring thence are cured with alum. Now we will drop the salt, as not necessary to our narrative. The Isle of Gerun, or Harmuz, has two bandels, or bays, the eastern and western, so hollowed out of the coast that their heads lie close together, in a sandy point, where now stands the Portuguese fortress, one of the finest in all the East in importance, and in plan and construction. On this spot dwelt the old man Gerun, from whom the isle has its name.

There is no fresh water, but rainwater caught and stored in many cisterns, which are of great relief to the poor in summer. Only in Torunpaque, which is a patch of salt white soil on the point of the isle, there is one well which the king and the wazir use to water their gardens there. In these all plants of those parts grow in perfection. But, contrariwise, in all the rest of the isle is no tree or plant to be seen, except that on the plain there are some thorny evergreens called conar, which bear a berry like the jujube, and on the ground a few little mallows may be seen in spring time. And there is purgative senna, which they call senna of Mecca.

Of this salt mud they make water-vessels on the spot, which, when once sweetened, keep the water cool and pure. And I remember now that in 1596, when I happened to be at Harmux, the then king, Ferragut Xá, a pretty old man, fell in love with the cash of one Bi Fatima, an old lady, the widow of one of his subjects called Rex Bradadin, who had been wazir of Mogostam on the Persian mainland. She was said to be very rich, and the king proposed marriage to her. But she, to put that idea out of his head, told him that he might do so when he had made a new garden in Turùnpaque, and found a new freshwater spring. This she thought impossible, but the old man, doubtless spurred by his greed, was no laggard. He planted a new garden better than his old one, and found a good sweet spring; but not for all that did he get hold of the money.

Near this Torunpaque, among some rocks not far from the sea, is a spring which the native Harmuzis call Abdarmon, that is to say, “the medicinal water.” It is very purgative, and at a certain season many come here and drink it, guant. suff. And when they feel relieved, they eat a little of an orange or lemon. If they pass the pips presently, they think the cure complete, and go to dinner. There is plenty of game taken on the isle, namely gazelles, adibes (which are a sort of foxes), partridges, turtle-doves, and other birds. And it is matter of marvel what these creatures can drink, seeing that there is no fresh water in the isle but what I have mentioned. Some pretend that they drink salt water, and others tell other equally ill-founded stories.

The city is not now very great, though it has been. But the most and best part of it was removed to clear a great esplanade in front of the fortress. The houses are well built, of an indifferently good stone, quarried on the island, and of that fished out of the sea, as has been related already, which is light, and best endures the earthquakes from which the isle suffers. The cement is made of white gypsum, abundant on the mainland, which they call gueche, and of a local sort, red, and not so good. They use another cement for buildings set in the water, which I will describe briefly, as here unknown. They call it charú, and it is made of the oldest and best cured dung collected on the middens. They take the upper stuff off this, and make cakes of it, and dry them in the sun. When they are quite dry, they make a mound of them, and burn them for a while, and keep the remaining ash. Of this they take a certain quantity, and lay it on a hard clean place; and around it stand seven or eight Arabs, men of that trade, every one with a staff in hand, who set to work to thresh it, striking all together. And one of them sings out, from one up to a settled number, the rest answering at each stroke in the same tone. And so it is brought to perfection, and used up at once; for if it be left to cool, and kept over a day, it goes bad, and is useless. This stuff is especially proof against water, and resists it for many years.

The people of Harmuz are mostly white and well-conditioned, the men courteous, and the women good-looking. They all speak Persian, though not of the best, and all the natives are Moors, some Xyays who follow Aly, and others Sunys, who follow Mahamed, of which last is the king. Besides these there are many Christians, Portuguese, Armenians, Georgians, Jacobites, and Nestorians, and many heathen, Baneanes, Bangasalys, and Cambayatys, and about a hundred and fifty houses of Jews.

Although the isle produces nothing of its own, all supplies are imported in abundance, and everything fetches a fair price, and is sold by weight. The climate and air are healthy, and disease is rare in summer, because the terrible heat and profuse sweat dispose of all ill-humours. Rut in autumn one pays for any irregularities of the summer. To conclude, Gerun is a place of general resort end open mart for all the world; and there are exchanged all sorts of goods, and as much of them as any could wish, brought from many lands by merchants of various nations; of which matters I will treat no more in particular, but return to my narrative of its foundation, which happened, as has been said, in the year

700 of the Moors’ calendar, being A.D. 1302, when it received the name of the ancient city, which it keeps to this day.

It throve exceedingly for the next two hundred years, so that it dominated the most part of Arabia, and much of Persia, and all the Persian seas as far as Baçorá. And so it lasted until its conquest by the Portuguese, whereupon it began to decline, by reason of the oppression and violence of the Portuguese captain and his officers, lying too far away from such as might have amended the same.[39]

The description given by Teixeira would have been based on his observations of the island around 1587 in line with the mid-16th Century sketch in which Portuguese merchants and their wives are depicted relaxing over a meal of fish, eggs, fruit and wine as one of the many servants in attendance empties a jug of water onto the flooded floor to cool his master’s submerged feet.[40]

1. [1] #96 Hess, Andrew C., Piri Reis and the Ottoman response to the voyages of discovery, 6(1974):19-38, Terrae Incognitae, Amsterdam, 1974 ~ p. 20

2. [2] #364 Inalcik, Halil, The Ottoman Empire, The Classical Age 1300-1600, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1973 ~ p. 180 Kâtip Çelebi instigated the the translation of Mercator and Hondius’s Atlas Minor or 1621 from the Latin and Carion’s Chronicle

3. [3] #358 Khalifeh, Haji, trans. Mitchell, James, The History of the Maritime Wars of the Turks, Oriental Translation Fund / Valpy, London, 1831 ~ pp. 26-27.

4. [4] #377 Ozbaran, Salih, The Ottoman response to European expansion, Studies on Ottoman-Portuguese Relations in the Indian Ocean and Ottoman Administration in the Arab Lands during the Sixteenth Century, Isis Press, The, Istanbul, 1994 ~ p. 83

5. [5] #345 Shaw, Stanford, History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, vol. 1, Empire of the Gazis: The Rise and Decline of the Ottoman Empire, 1280-1808, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1976 ~ p. 106.

6. [6] #330 Ali ibn Husain, trans. from the Turkish with notes by Vámbéry, Ármin, Katib I Rumi, The Travels and Adventures of the Turkish Admiral Sidi Ali Reis in India, Afghanistan, Central Asia and Persia during the years 1553-1556, Luzac & Company Ltd, Leyden preface XII, cf. #377 Ozbaran, Salih, The Ottoman response to European expansion, Studies on Ottoman-Portuguese Relations in the Indian Ocean and Ottoman Administration in the Arab Lands during the Sixteenth Century, Isis Press, The, Istanbul, 1994 ~ p. 84, Haji Khalifeh states 74 ships

7. [7] #377 Ozbaran, Salih, The Ottoman response to European expansion, Studies on Ottoman-Portuguese Relations in the Indian Ocean and

Ottoman Administration in the Arab Lands during the Sixteenth Century, Isis Press, The, Istanbul, 1994 ~ p. 85 and pp. 112-118

8. [8] #603 Morton, A. H., Mission to the Lord Sophy of Persia (1539-1542), Michele Membre, School of Oriental and African Studies, London, 1993 ~ pp. 48-50

9. [9] #603 Morton, A. H., Mission to the Lord Sophy of Persia (1539-1542), Michele Membre, School of Oriental and African Studies, London, 1993 ~ pp. 53-4

10.[10] #603 Morton, A. H., Mission to the Lord Sophy of Persia (1539-1542), Michele Membre, School of Oriental and African Studies, London, 1993 ~ pp. vii-xxviii

11.[11] #345 Shaw, Stanford, History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, vol. 1, Empire of the Gazis: The Rise and Decline of the Ottoman Empire, 1280-1808, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1976 ~ p. 107.



14.[14] #196 Jayne, K. G., Vasco Da Gama and His Successors 1460-1580, Methuen and Co Ltd, London, 1910 ~ pp. 151-3

15.[15] #345 Shaw, Stanford, History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, vol. 1, Empire of the Gazis: The Rise and Decline of the Ottoman Empire, 1280-1808, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1976 ~ p.107.

16.[16] #226 ed. Holt, P. M., Lambton, A. K. S. & Lewis, B., The Cambridge History of Islam in 2 volumes, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1970 ~ p. 332

17.[17] #358 Khalifeh, Haji, The History of the Maritime Wars of the Turks, Oriental Translation Fund / Valpy, London, 1831 ~ pp. 71-72

18.[18] #96 Hess, Andrew C., Piri Reis and the Ottoman response to the voyages of discovery, 6(1974):19-38, Terrae Incognitae, Amsterdam, 1974 ~ pp.

19.[19] #364 Inalcik, Halil, The Ottoman Empire, The Classical Age 1300-1600, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1973 ~ p. 180 Halil Inalcik refers to the work as The Book of the Sea and dates the additional or enlarged material 1525.

20.[20] #358 Khalifeh, Haji, The History of the Maritime Wars of the Turks, Oriental Translation Fund / Valpy, London, 1831 ~ p. 72


22.[22] #330 Ali ibn Husain, trans. from the Turkish with notes by Vámbéry, Ármin, Katib I Rumi, The Travels and Adventures of the Turkish Admiral

Sidi Ali Reis in India, Afghanistan, Central Asia and Persia during the years 1553-1556, Luzac & Company Ltd, Leyden p. 7-8


24.[24] #330 Ali ibn Husain, trans. from the Turkish with notes by Vámbéry, Ármin, Katib I Rumi, The Travels and Adventures of the Turkish Admiral Sidi Ali Reis in India, Afghanistan, Central Asia and Persia during the years 1553-1556, Luzac & Company Ltd, Leyden pp. 10-11


26.[26] from the anonymous Livro de Lizuarte de Abreu c.1564. #216 Costa, Paolo M., Musandam, Immel Publishing, London, 1991 ~ p. 49

27.[27] #358 Khalifeh, Haji, The History of the Maritime Wars of the Turks, Oriental Translation Fund / Valpy, London, 1831 ~ pp. 74-75

28.[28] #96 Hess, Andrew C., Piri Reis and the Ottoman response to the voyages of discovery, 6(1974):19-38, Terrae Incognitae, Amsterdam, 1974 ~ p. 29


30.[30] #330 Ali ibn Husain, Katib I Rumi, The Travels and Adventures of the Turkish Admiral Sidi Ali Reis in India, Afghanistan, Central Asia and Persia during the years 1553-1556, Luzac & Company Ltd, Leyden, 1899 ~ pp. 14-16

31.[31] #96 Hess, Andrew C., Piri Reis and the Ottoman response to the voyages of discovery, 6(1974):19-38, Terrae Incognitae, Amsterdam, 1974 ~ p. 30 (the Ottomans caputerd Qatif in AH 957/1550 and Bahrayn in AH 961/1554?)

32.[32] #226 ed. Holt, P. M., Lambton, A. K. S. & Lewis, B., The Cambridge History of Islam in 2 volumes, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1970 ~ p. 332

33.[33] #96 Hess, Andrew C., Piri Reis and the Ottoman response to the voyages of discovery, 6(1974):19-38, Terrae Incognitae, Amsterdam, 1974 ~ p. 30

34.[34] [was he involved in any of the sea battles with the Ottomans?]35.[35] #187 Wilson, Arnold T., The Persian Gulf, George Allen & Unwin,

Oxford, 1928 ~ p. 101 and Os Lusiades, Camoes, x. 103 as rendered by Burton

36.[36] #379 Yule, Henry & Burnell A. C., Hobson-Jobson, The Anglo-Indian Dictionary, Wordsworth Editions Ltd, Ware, Hertfordshire, 1996 ~ p.602a

37.[37] #196 Jayne, K. G., Vasco Da Gama and His Successors 1460-1580, Methuen and Co Ltd, London, 1910 ~ pp. 263-278

38.[38] #377 Ozbaran, Salih, The Ottoman response to European expansion, Studies on Ottoman-Portuguese Relations in the Indian Ocean and Ottoman Administration in the Arab Lands during the Sixteenth Century,

Isis Press, The, Istanbul, 1994 ~ pp. 106-7 the original source being Rumuzi’s Tarik-I Feth-I Yemen, Istanbul University Library, MS. 6045

39.[39] #258 Teixeira, Pedro and Sinclair, William F. (trans.), The Travels of Pedro Teixeira; with his Kings of Harmuz, and extracts from his Kings of Persia, Hakluyt Society, London, 1902 ~ pp. 164-69

40.[40] #227 Humble, Richard, The Explorers, Series the Seafarers, Time-Life Books Inc., 1978 ~ p. 51.

portuguese face ottoman expansion

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