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| Ottoman–Portuguese conflicts (1538–1560) | |||||||
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| Part of theOttoman–Portuguese confrontations | |||||||
 The Portuguese fortress of Diu in India, strongly attacked by the Ottomans in 1538. | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
Supported by: Ethiopian EmpireKathiri Sultanate |  Ottoman EmpireSupported by: Adal Sultanate Gujarat Sultanate | ||||||
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TheOttoman–Portuguese conflicts (Portuguese:Guerra Turco-Portuguesa,Turkish:Osmanlı İmparatorluğu-Portekiz İmparatorluğu çekişmesi, 1538–60) also known as theOttoman–Portuguese War, were a period of conflict during theOttoman–Portuguese confrontations and series of armed military encounters between thePortuguese Empire and theOttoman Empire along with regional allies in and along theIndian Ocean,Persian Gulf, andRed Sea.
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After the voyages ofVasco da Gama, a powerfulPortuguese Navy took control of the Indian Ocean in the early 16th century. It threatened the coastal cities of theArabian Peninsula and theIndian subcontinent. The headquarters of the Portuguese wasGoa, a city on the west coast of India, captured in 1510.
Ottoman control of theRed Sea meanwhile began in 1517 whenSelim I annexedEgypt to the Ottoman Empire after theBattle of Ridaniya. Most of the habitable zone of the Arabian Peninsula (Hejaz andTihamah) soon fell voluntarily to the Ottomans.Piri Reis, who was famous for hisWorld Map, presented it to Selim just a few weeks after the sultan arrived in Egypt. Part of the 1513 map, which covers theAtlantic Ocean and theAmericas, is now in theTopkapı Museum.[3] The portion concerning the Indian Ocean is missing; it is argued that Selim may have taken it, so that he could make more use of it in planning future military expeditions in that direction. In fact, after the Ottoman domination in the Red Sea, theTurco-Portuguese rivalry began. Selim entered into negotiations withMuzaffar Shah II ofGujarat, (a sultanate in northwest India), about a possible joint strike against the Portuguese in Goa.[4] However Selim died in 1520.
In 1525, during the reign ofSuleiman I (Selim's son),Selman Reis, a former corsair, was appointed as the admiral of a small Ottoman fleet in the Red Sea which was tasked with defending Ottoman coastal towns against Portuguese attacks.[5] In 1534, Suleiman annexed most ofIraq and by 1538 the Ottomans had reachedBasra on thePersian Gulf. The Ottoman Empire still faced the problem ofPortuguese controlled coasts. Most coastal towns on the Arabian Peninsula were either Portuguese ports or Portuguese vassals. Another reason for Turco-Portugal rivalry was economic. In the 15th century, the main trade routes from the Far East to Europe, the so-calledspice route, was via the Red Sea and Egypt. But after Africa was circumnavigated the trade income was decreasing.[6] While the Ottoman Empire was a major sea power in theMediterranean, it was not possible to transfer theOttoman Navy to the Red Sea. So, a new fleet was built inSuez and named the "Indian fleet".[7]The apparent reason of the expeditions in the Indian Ocean, nonetheless, was an invitation from India.
This war took place upon the backdrop of theEthiopian–Adal War. Ethiopia had been invaded in 1529 by theAdal Sultanate with Ottoman backing. Portuguese help, which was first requested by EmperorDawit II in 1520, finally arrived inMassawa during the reign of EmperorGalawdewos. The force was led byCristóvão da Gama (second son ofVasco da Gama) and included 400 musketeers, several breech-loading field guns, and a few Portuguese cavalrymen as well as a number of artisans and other non-combatants.
Major hostilities between Portugal and the Ottoman Empire began in 1538,[8] when the Ottomans assisted theSultanate of Gujarat with about 80 vessels to laysiege to Diu, which had been built by the Portuguese in 1535. The Ottoman fleet was led bySuleiman I's governor ofEgyptSuleiman Pasha, but the attack was not successful, and the siege was lifted.
Bahadur Shah, the son of Muzaffer II, the ruler of Gujarat who had negotiated with Selim, appealed toConstantinople for joint action against the Portuguese navy. Suleiman I used this opportunity to check Portuguese domination in the Indian Ocean and appointedHadim Suleiman Pasha as the admiral of his Indian Ocean fleet. Hadim Suleiman Pasha's naval force consisted of some 90galleys.[9] In 1538, he sailed to India via the Red andArabian Seas, only to learn that Bahadur Shah had been killed during a clash with the Portuguese navy and his successor had allied himself with Portugal. After an unsuccessful siege atDiu, he decided to return. On his way back toSuez, however, he conquered most ofYemen, includingAden. After the expedition, Hadim Suleiman was promoted togrand vizier.
The Portuguese underEstêvão da Gama (first son of Vasco da Gama) organized an expedition to destroy the Ottoman fleet atSuez, leavingGoa on 31 December 1540 and reachingAden by 27 January 1541. The fleet reachedMassawa on 12 February, where Gama left a number of ships and continued north. The Portuguese then destroyed the Ottoman ports ofSuakin and Qoseir, they attacked Jeddah but were repulsed. Reaching Suez, he discovered that the Ottomans had long known of his raid, and foiled his attempt to burn the beached ships. Gama was forced to retrace his steps to Massawa, although pausing to attack the port ofEl-Tor (Sinai Peninsula).
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At Massawa, governor Estevão da Gama responded to an appeal to assist the Christian Ethiopian Empire against invading Adalite forces.[citation needed] An expeditionary corps of 400 men were left behind, commanded by the governor's brother, Cristóvão da Gama. In February 1542, the Portuguese were able to capture an important Adalite stronghold at theBattle of Baçente. The Portuguese were again victorious at theBattle of Jarte, killing almost all of the Turkish contingent. However, imam then requested aid from the Ottoman governor of Yemen inAden, who sent 2000 Arabian musketeers, 900 Turkishpikemen, 1000 Turkish footmusketeers, someShqiptar foot soldiers (with muskets) and Turkish horsemen. In theBattle of Wofla, Somali and Turkish forces defeated the Portuguese.
Gelawdewos was eventually able to reorganize his forces and absorb the remaining Portuguese soldiers, defeating and slaying Ahmed at theBattle of Wayna Daga, marking the end of the Ethiopian-Adal war (although warfare would resume not long after, at a much-diminished scale).
In 1546, the Gujarati governor of Surat,Khoja Zufar wanted to recapture Diu from the Portuguese. A fleet dispatched bySuleiman consisting of 30 ships and Ottoman soldiers arrived in Diu to help the Gujarati forces besiege the city. After around 7 months of fighting, Portuguese reinforcements from Goa arrived under the command ofJoão de Castro and the Muslim forces were routed. Khoja Zufar would die in battle.[10][11][12]
The aim of the second expedition was to restore Ottoman authority in the Red Sea and Yemen. The new admiral wasPiri Reis, who had earlier presented hisworld map to Selim. Herecaptured Aden which in 1548 had revolted against Ottoman authority, thus securing the Red Sea.
In 1551, the Ottoman governor of Basra captured the fort of Qatif on the Arabian Peninsula, owned by a vassal of the Portuguese, the King of Hormuz. The Portuguese, together with their Hormuzi vassals successfully sieged and captured the fort from the Ottomans, whose garrison fled under the cover of the night. The fort was then razed afterward.
Three years later Piri Reis sailed out from Suez again with 30 ships and the goal of wrestingHormuz Island, the key to thePersian Gulf, from Portugal. Piri Reis sackedMuscat on his way. Turning further east, Piri Reisfailed to capture Hormuz, at the entrance of thePersian Gulf.[13] He sacked the town, but the Portuguese fortress remained intact. Faced with reports of an approaching Portuguese fleet, Piri Reis decided to withdraw the fleet toBasra. He returned to Suez with two galleys which were his personal property.[14] The sultan sentenced Piri Reis to death for these acts and had him executed in 1553.[15]
Following these events, the Portuguese dispatched considerable reinforcements to Hormuz, and the following year defeated an Ottoman fleet at theBattle of the Strait of Hormuz.
In 1553, the Portuguese soundly defeated an Ottoman fleet led byMurat Reis the Elder in theBattle of the Strait of Hormuz. The purpose of this expedition was to bring the fleet back to Suez. The new Ottoman admiral was the formersanjak-bey (governor) ofQatif. While trying to sail out of the Persian Gulf, he encountered a large Portuguese fleet commanded by DomDiogo de Noronha.[16][circular reference] In the largest open-sea engagement between the two countries, Murat was defeated by the Portuguese fleet and had returned to Basra.[17][18]
Seydi Ali Reis was appointed as the admiral after the failure of the third expedition, in 1553. But what he found in Basra was a group of neglected galleys. Nevertheless, after some maintenance, he decided to sail. He passed through theStrait of Hormuz and began sailing along Omani shores where he fought the Portuguese fleet twice. After the second battle, Seydi Ali Reis fled the battle, eventually reaching Gujarat and was forced into the harbor of Surat by the caravels of Dom Jerónimo, where the Gujarati governor welcomed him. When the Portuguese Viceroy knew in Goa of their presence in India, he dispatched two galleons and 30 warships on October 10 to the city, to pressure the governor to hand over the Turks. The governor did not surrender them but proposed to destroy their ships, to which the Portuguese agreed. The remainder of the fleet was unserviceable, resulting in his return home overland with 50 men. Seydi Ali Reis then arrived at the royal court of theMughal EmperorHumayun inDelhi where he met the future Mughal emperorAkbar who was then 12 years old.
The route fromIndia toTurkey was a very dangerous one because of the war between the Ottoman Empire andPersia. Seydi Ali Reis returned home after thetreaty of Amasya was signed between the two countries in 1555. He wrote a book namedMirror of Countries(Mir’at ül Memalik) about this adventurous journey and presented it to Suleiman I in 1557.[19] This book is now considered one of the earliest travel books inOttoman literature.
In early 1556, two Portuguese galleys under the command of João Peixoto sailed into the Red Sea to collect information regarding Ottoman preparations at Suez.[20] Having found everything to be quiet there, he set sail to the city of Suakin, where he arrived one night. Finding the city asleep, Peixoto landed with his men and killed many, including the ruler, and captured considerable spoil.[20] He departed the following day, and keeping close to shore sacked a number of towns en route to Goa.[20]
In 1559 the Ottomanslaid siege to Bahrain, which had been conquered by the Portuguese in 1521 and ruled indirectly since then,[21] but the forces led by the Governor of Al-Hasa were decisively beaten back.[22] After this, the Portuguese effectively controlled the entirety of the naval traffic in thePersian Gulf. They raided the Ottoman coastal city ofAl-Katif during this time, in 1559.[23]
In 1560 the Turkish privateerSefer Reis captured two Portuguese warships byKamaran Island in theRed Sea.
The original Ottoman goals of checking Portuguese domination in the ocean and assisting Muslim Indian lords were not achieved. This was in spite of what an author has called "overwhelming advantages over Portugal", as the Ottoman Empire was wealthier and much more populous than Portugal, professed the same religion as most coastal populations of the Indian Ocean basin and its naval bases were closer to the theater of operations.[15]
On the other hand, Yemen, as well as the west bank of the Red Sea, roughly corresponding to a narrow coastal strip ofSudan andEritrea, were annexed byÖzdemir Pasha, the deputy of Hadım Suleiman Pasha. Three more provinces in East Africa were established:Massawa,Habesh (Abyssia) andSawakin (Suakin). The ports around the Arabian Peninsula were also secured.[24]
With its strong control of theRed Sea, the Ottomans successfully managed to dispute control of the trade routes to the Portuguese and maintained a significant level of trade with theMughal Empire throughout the 16th century.[25]
Sometimes, Ottoman assistance toAceh (inSumatra,Indonesia), in 1569 is also considered to be a part of these expeditions (seeKurtoğlu Hızır Reis). However,that expedition was not a military expedition.[26]
It is known thatSokollu Mehmed Pasha, thegrand vizier of the empire between 1565 and 1579, had proposed a canal between the Mediterranean and Red Seas. If that project could have been realized, it would be possible for the navy to pass through the canal and eventually into the Indian Ocean. However, this project was beyond the technological capabilities of the 16th century. TheSuez Canal was not opened until some three centuries later, in 1869, by the largely autonomousKhedivate of Egypt.
Unable to decisively defeat the Portuguese or threaten their shipping, the Ottomans abstained from further substantial action, choosing instead to supply Portuguese enemies such as theAceh Sultanate, and things returned to thestatus quo ante bellum.[1] The Portuguese for their part enforced their commercial and diplomatic ties withSafavid Persia, an enemy of the Ottoman Empire. A tense truce was gradually formed, wherein the Ottomans were allowed to control the overland routes intoEurope, thereby keepingBasra, which the Portuguese had been eager to acquire, and the Portuguese were allowed to dominate sea trade toIndia andEast Africa.[27] The Ottomans then shifted their focus to theRed Sea, which they had been expanding into previously, with the acquisition ofEgypt in 1517 andAden in 1538.[28]
