Portuguese–Mamluk naval war
Encyclopedia
The Portuguese–Mamluk naval war was a naval conflict between the Egyptian state of the Mamluks and the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean
, following the expansion of the Portuguese after sailing around the Cape of Good Hope
in 1497. The conflict took place during the early part of the 16th century, from 1505 to the fall of the Mamluk Sultanate
in 1517.
under Cabral
, the spice trade linking India to Egypt and then Venice was seriously diminished and prices shot up. Arab shipping was also being attacked directly: in 1503, a first Egyptian ship was robbed and sunk by the Portuguese as it was returning from India. In 1504, 17 Arab ships were destroyed by the Portuguese in the Indian harbour of Panane.
In 1504, the Mamluk Sultan Qansuh al-Ghuri first sent an envoy to the Pope, in the person of the Grand Prior of the Sinai Monastery, warning that if the Pope did not stop the exactions of the Portuguese against Muslims, he would bring ruin to the Christian Holy Place in the Levant and to the Christians living in his realm.
In 1504, the Venetians, who shared common interests with the Mamluks in the spice trade and desired to eliminate the Portuguese challenge if possible, sent envoy Francesco Teldi
to Cairo. Teldi tried to find a level of cooperation between the two realms, encouraging the Mamluks to block Portuguese navigations. The Venetians claimed they could not intervene directly, and encouraged the Mamluk Sultan Qansuh al-Ghuri to take action by getting into contact with Indian princes at Cochin and Cananor to entice them not to trade with the Portuguese, and the Sultans of Calicut and Cambay to fight against them. Some sort of alliance was thus concluded between the Venetians and the Mamluks against the Portuguese. There were claims, voiced during the War of the League of Cambrai
, that the Venetians had supplied the Mamluks with weapons and skilled shipwrights.
The Mamluks however had little inclination for naval operations: "The war against the Portuguese, being mainly a naval war, was entirely alien to the Mamluk and little to his taste. The navy and everything connected with it was despised by the land-minded Mamluk horsemen".
The Portuguese however kept blockading the Red Sea, and arresting Muslim merchant ships.
The fleet was built with timber and weapons from the Ottoman Empire, and crews and shipwrights were recruited throughout the eastern Mediterranean. The expedition, under Amir Husain Al-Kurdi
, left Suez in November and travelled by sea to Jidda, where they fortified the city. The fleet then prepared itself to go to Aden
. This coincided with the dispatch of the 7th Portuguese India Armada
into the Indian Ocean, under Francisco de Almeida
.
In 1506, another fleet under Afonso de Albuquerque
started to raid the coasts of Arabia and the Horn of Africa
, after defeating a Muslim fleet. In 1507, a fleet of about 20 Portuguese ships entered the Red Sea and raided Indian shipping there, bringing the Mamluk Indian trade to near collapse. The Portuguese attempted to establish a base at Socotra
in 1507 in order to stop the Mamluk trade trough the Red Sea, but the island proved too inhospitable and was ineffective in that role, so that the Portuguese left after a few months.
In August–September 1507, the Mamluk fleet of about 50 vessels was stationed at Aden, preparing to go to India.
, son of the Portuguese viceroy
of India, D. Francisco de Almeida
.
.
Mamluks resistance prevented the Portuguese from blocking Red Sea
trade completely. However, supply interruption was enough to force prices in Egypt to astronomical levels.
The Mamluks again attempted to secure the help of the Venetians
against the Portuguese, and they did intervene by pleading their case with the Pope
.
The Venetians, who had been at peace with the Ottomans since the signature of the 1503 Peace Treaty by Andrea Gritti
after the Ottoman–Venetian War, continued to secure peace with the Ottomans, and renewed their peace treaty in 1511, leading them to encourage the Ottomans to participate on the Mamluk side in the conflict against the Portuguese.
The rapprochement was such that Venice authorized Ottoman provisioning in its Mediterranean ports such as Cyprus
. Venice also requested Ottoman support in the War of the League of Cambrai
, but in vain.
A Mamluk-Venetian commercial treaty was signed by the ambassador to Cairo Domenico Trevisan in 1513. After that point however, and the reverses of the Mamluks and the Persians against the Ottomans, Venice increasingly favoured a rapprochement with the Ottoman Empire.
, and returned a letter as well as an ambassador in the person of Rui Gomes. In the letter to Shah Ismail, Albuquerque proposed a joint attack against the Mamluks and the Ottomans:
In 1513, Albuquerque led a campaign against the Red Sea in order to stop completely Mamluk trade with India, and defeat Mamluk plans to send a fleet to India. On February 7th, 1513, he left Goa with 1,700 Portuguese and 1,000 Indian men in 24 ships. Albuquerque landed at Aden
on 26 March 1513, at the entrance of the Red Sea and attempted to take the city, but he was repulsed. Sailing into the Red Sea, he destroyed the port of Kamaran
(June and July 1513). He failed to sail to Jeddah
due to contrary winds, and then withdrew to India after again bombarding Aden.
Albuquerque thus failed to stop the spice trade through the Red Sea and to establish a trade monopoly for the Europe-India spice trade. This campaign however had been a major threat to the Mamluk harbour of Suez
and to the holy cities of Mecca
and Medina
, which put the Mamluk Sultan under tremendous pressure. The Mamluk Sultan Qansuh was thus forced to seek Ottoman assistance, although the Ottomans had been a traditional rival, in his resistance against the Portuguese.
, as well as firearms. Selman Reis entered the service of the Mamluks, and led a group of 2,000 armed Levantines, possibly against the own wishes of the Ottoman Sultan Selim I
, and met with this force with the Sultan Qansuh at Suez in April 1514. Artillery defenses were also established in Jiddah and Alexandria
. This concentration on the Portuguese front had the ultimate effect however of weakening the Mamluk strengths that could be put against the Ottomans in the Levant. The investment was huge, as the fleet cost around 400,000 dinars to the Mamluk Sultan.
Following the disruption of the spice trade between India and Mamluk Egypt by the Portuguese, Selman Reis led a Mamluk
fleet of 19 ships into the Indian Ocean
in 1515. He left Suez
leading the fleet on 30 September 1515. The fleet also included 3,000 men, 1,300 of whom were Turkish soldiers. The fleet built a fortress in Kamaran
, but failed to take Yemen
and Aden
on 17 September 1516. The combined fleet was able to defend Jidda against the Portuguese in 1517, but by then the war between the Ottomans and the Mamluks was already raging on.
As a consequence, the Portuguese were able to set up trading posts in the Indian subcontinent, and take-over the spice trade to Europe, which had been a major source of revenues for the Mamluk state. The Mamluk Empire became financially crippled, and was finally vanquished by the Ottoman Empire
under Selim I
, on land, in the Ottoman-Mamluk War (1516–1517). Cairo
was captured by the Ottomans on January 26, 1517, leading to the disintegration of the Mamluk Empire.
, who in 1525 occupied the Aden and Yemen
with a fleet of 18 ships and 299 cannons, forcing the Portuguese to retreat. The Ottoman failed however in the 1538 Siege of Diu
.
Egypt, on the other hand, lost its status as a great power, and, deprived of the resources of the Indian Ocean trade, essentially faded into the background for the next three centuries.
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
, following the expansion of the Portuguese after sailing around the Cape of Good Hope
Cape of Good Hope
The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa.There is a misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, because it was once believed to be the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In fact, the...
in 1497. The conflict took place during the early part of the 16th century, from 1505 to the fall of the Mamluk Sultanate
Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo)
The Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt was the final independent Egyptian state prior to the establishment of the Muhammad Ali Dynasty in 1805. It lasted from the overthrow of the Ayyubid Dynasty until the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 1517. The sultanate's ruling caste was composed of Mamluks, Arabised...
in 1517.
Background
Following the Portuguese bombardment of Calicut in 1500–01 by the 2nd Portuguese India Armada2nd Portuguese India Armada (Cabral, 1500)
The Second Portuguese India Armada was assembled in 1500 on the order of King Manuel I of Portugal and placed under the command of Pedro Álvares Cabral. Cabral's armada famously discovered Brazil for the Portuguese crown along the way...
under Cabral
Pedro Álvares Cabral
Pedro Álvares Cabral was a Portuguese noble, military commander, navigator and explorer regarded as the discoverer of Brazil. Cabral conducted the first substantial exploration of the northeast coast of South America and claimed it for Portugal. While details of Cabral's early life are sketchy, it...
, the spice trade linking India to Egypt and then Venice was seriously diminished and prices shot up. Arab shipping was also being attacked directly: in 1503, a first Egyptian ship was robbed and sunk by the Portuguese as it was returning from India. In 1504, 17 Arab ships were destroyed by the Portuguese in the Indian harbour of Panane.
In 1504, the Mamluk Sultan Qansuh al-Ghuri first sent an envoy to the Pope, in the person of the Grand Prior of the Sinai Monastery, warning that if the Pope did not stop the exactions of the Portuguese against Muslims, he would bring ruin to the Christian Holy Place in the Levant and to the Christians living in his realm.
In 1504, the Venetians, who shared common interests with the Mamluks in the spice trade and desired to eliminate the Portuguese challenge if possible, sent envoy Francesco Teldi
Francesco Teldi
Francesco Teldi was a Venetian trader and ambassador who negotiated with the Egyptian Mamluks in the early 16th century for joint action against the expansion of the Potuguese in the Indian Ocean, during the Portuguese-Mamluk War....
to Cairo. Teldi tried to find a level of cooperation between the two realms, encouraging the Mamluks to block Portuguese navigations. The Venetians claimed they could not intervene directly, and encouraged the Mamluk Sultan Qansuh al-Ghuri to take action by getting into contact with Indian princes at Cochin and Cananor to entice them not to trade with the Portuguese, and the Sultans of Calicut and Cambay to fight against them. Some sort of alliance was thus concluded between the Venetians and the Mamluks against the Portuguese. There were claims, voiced during the War of the League of Cambrai
War of the League of Cambrai
The War of the League of Cambrai, sometimes known as the War of the Holy League and by several other names, was a major conflict in the Italian Wars...
, that the Venetians had supplied the Mamluks with weapons and skilled shipwrights.
The Mamluks however had little inclination for naval operations: "The war against the Portuguese, being mainly a naval war, was entirely alien to the Mamluk and little to his taste. The navy and everything connected with it was despised by the land-minded Mamluk horsemen".
The Portuguese however kept blockading the Red Sea, and arresting Muslim merchant ships.
Mamluk expedition (1505)
In 1505 the Mamluk Sultan Qansuh al-Ghuri ordered the first expedition against the Portuguese.The fleet was built with timber and weapons from the Ottoman Empire, and crews and shipwrights were recruited throughout the eastern Mediterranean. The expedition, under Amir Husain Al-Kurdi
Amir Husain Al-Kurdi
Amir Husain Al-Kurdi, , named the Mirocem or Mir-Hocem by the Portuguese, was a governor of the city of Jeddah in the Red Sea, then part of the Egyptian Mamluk Sultanate, in early 16th century. He stood out as admiral of the Mamluk fleet fought by the forces of the Portuguese Empire in the Indian...
, left Suez in November and travelled by sea to Jidda, where they fortified the city. The fleet then prepared itself to go to Aden
Aden
Aden is a seaport city in Yemen, located by the eastern approach to the Red Sea , some 170 kilometres east of Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000. Aden's ancient, natural harbour lies in the crater of an extinct volcano which now forms a peninsula, joined to the mainland by a...
. This coincided with the dispatch of the 7th Portuguese India Armada
7th Portuguese India Armada (Almeida, 1505)
The Seventh India Armada was assembled in 1505 on the order of King Manuel I of Portugal and placed under the command of D. Francisco de Almeida, the first Portuguese Viceroy of the Indies...
into the Indian Ocean, under Francisco de Almeida
Francisco de Almeida
Dom Francisco de Almeida , also known as "the Great Dom Francisco" , was a Portuguese nobleman, soldier and explorer. He distinguished himself as a counsellor to King John II of Portugal and later in the wars against the Moors and in the conquest of Granada in 1492...
.
In 1506, another fleet under Afonso de Albuquerque
Afonso de Albuquerque
Afonso de Albuquerque[p][n] was a Portuguese fidalgo, or nobleman, an admiral whose military and administrative activities as second governor of Portuguese India conquered and established the Portuguese colonial empire in the Indian Ocean...
started to raid the coasts of Arabia and the Horn of Africa
Horn of Africa
The Horn of Africa is a peninsula in East Africa that juts hundreds of kilometers into the Arabian Sea and lies along the southern side of the Gulf of Aden. It is the easternmost projection of the African continent...
, after defeating a Muslim fleet. In 1507, a fleet of about 20 Portuguese ships entered the Red Sea and raided Indian shipping there, bringing the Mamluk Indian trade to near collapse. The Portuguese attempted to establish a base at Socotra
Socotra
Socotra , also spelt Soqotra, is a small archipelago of four islands in the Indian Ocean. The largest island, also called Socotra, is about 95% of the landmass of the archipelago. It lies some east of the Horn of Africa and south of the Arabian Peninsula. The island is very isolated and through...
in 1507 in order to stop the Mamluk trade trough the Red Sea, but the island proved too inhospitable and was ineffective in that role, so that the Portuguese left after a few months.
In August–September 1507, the Mamluk fleet of about 50 vessels was stationed at Aden, preparing to go to India.
Battle of Chaul (1508)
The fleet, again under Amir Husain Al-Kurdi, was sent to India in 1507. The Mamluks allied themselves with the Muslim Sultanate of Gujarat, the first naval power of India at that time. The fleet was warmly welcome in Diu, and Husain Al-Kurdi joined Meliqueaz, a Mamluk admiral of Russian origin serving Gujarat, as leader of the Mamluk fleet at the battle of Chaul, where they faced and defeated the fleet of Lourenço de AlmeidaLourenço de Almeida
Lourenço de Almeida , son of Francisco de Almeida, acting under him, distinguished himself in the Indian Ocean, and made Ceylon tributary to Portugal...
, son of the Portuguese viceroy
Viceroy
A viceroy is a royal official who runs a country, colony, or province in the name of and as representative of the monarch. The term derives from the Latin prefix vice-, meaning "in the place of" and the French word roi, meaning king. A viceroy's province or larger territory is called a viceroyalty...
of India, D. Francisco de Almeida
Francisco de Almeida
Dom Francisco de Almeida , also known as "the Great Dom Francisco" , was a Portuguese nobleman, soldier and explorer. He distinguished himself as a counsellor to King John II of Portugal and later in the wars against the Moors and in the conquest of Granada in 1492...
.
Battle of Diu (1509)
Following this battle, the Portuguese fiercely fought back led by the viceroy himself, who was seeking to avenge the death of his son and free the Portuguese prisoners made at Chaul in 1508. The Portuguese eventually succeeded in eliminating the Mamluk southern fleet in 1509 at the Battle of DiuBattle of Diu
The Battle of Diu sometimes referred as the Second Battle of Chaul was a naval battle fought on 3 February 1509 in the Arabian Sea, near the port of Diu, India, between the Portuguese Empire and a joint fleet of the Sultan of Gujarat, the Mamlûk Burji Sultanate of Egypt, the Zamorin of Kozhikode...
.
Mamluks resistance prevented the Portuguese from blocking Red Sea
Red Sea
The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...
trade completely. However, supply interruption was enough to force prices in Egypt to astronomical levels.
Venetian diplomacy
Republic of Venice
The Republic of Venice or Venetian Republic was a state originating from the city of Venice in Northeastern Italy. It existed for over a millennium, from the late 7th century until 1797. It was formally known as the Most Serene Republic of Venice and is often referred to as La Serenissima, in...
against the Portuguese, and they did intervene by pleading their case with the Pope
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
.
The Venetians, who had been at peace with the Ottomans since the signature of the 1503 Peace Treaty by Andrea Gritti
Andrea Gritti
Andrea Gritti was the Doge of Venice from 1523 to 1538, following a distinguished diplomatic and military career.Gritti was born in Bardolino, near Verona. He spent much of his early life in Constantinople as a grain merchant, looking after Venetian interests...
after the Ottoman–Venetian War, continued to secure peace with the Ottomans, and renewed their peace treaty in 1511, leading them to encourage the Ottomans to participate on the Mamluk side in the conflict against the Portuguese.
The rapprochement was such that Venice authorized Ottoman provisioning in its Mediterranean ports such as Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
. Venice also requested Ottoman support in the War of the League of Cambrai
War of the League of Cambrai
The War of the League of Cambrai, sometimes known as the War of the Holy League and by several other names, was a major conflict in the Italian Wars...
, but in vain.
A Mamluk-Venetian commercial treaty was signed by the ambassador to Cairo Domenico Trevisan in 1513. After that point however, and the reverses of the Mamluks and the Persians against the Ottomans, Venice increasingly favoured a rapprochement with the Ottoman Empire.
Portuguese-Persian alliance
On the other hand, the Portuguese, who feared a new expedition from the Mamluks, organized a rapprochement with Persia, and endeavoured to establish an alliance, that could give bases for the Portuguese on the northern shores of the Indian Ocean and create an eastern threat for the Ottomans and the Mamluks. Albuquerque received an ambassador of Shah Ismail at GoaGoa
Goa , a former Portuguese colony, is India's smallest state by area and the fourth smallest by population. Located in South West India in the region known as the Konkan, it is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and by Karnataka to the east and south, while the Arabian Sea forms its...
, and returned a letter as well as an ambassador in the person of Rui Gomes. In the letter to Shah Ismail, Albuquerque proposed a joint attack against the Mamluks and the Ottomans:
Portuguese Red Sea campaign (1513)
Following their victory at the Battle of Diu and the elimination of rival Muslim fleets in the Indian Ocean, the Portuguese endeavoured to the systematic destruction of Muslim commercial shipping.In 1513, Albuquerque led a campaign against the Red Sea in order to stop completely Mamluk trade with India, and defeat Mamluk plans to send a fleet to India. On February 7th, 1513, he left Goa with 1,700 Portuguese and 1,000 Indian men in 24 ships. Albuquerque landed at Aden
Aden
Aden is a seaport city in Yemen, located by the eastern approach to the Red Sea , some 170 kilometres east of Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000. Aden's ancient, natural harbour lies in the crater of an extinct volcano which now forms a peninsula, joined to the mainland by a...
on 26 March 1513, at the entrance of the Red Sea and attempted to take the city, but he was repulsed. Sailing into the Red Sea, he destroyed the port of Kamaran
Kamaran
Kamaran Island is the largest Yemen-controlled island in the Red Sea. The island is long and wide and is strategically located at the southern end of the Red Sea....
(June and July 1513). He failed to sail to Jeddah
Jeddah
Jeddah, Jiddah, Jidda, or Jedda is a city located on the coast of the Red Sea and is the major urban center of western Saudi Arabia. It is the largest city in Makkah Province, the largest sea port on the Red Sea, and the second largest city in Saudi Arabia after the capital city, Riyadh. The...
due to contrary winds, and then withdrew to India after again bombarding Aden.
Albuquerque thus failed to stop the spice trade through the Red Sea and to establish a trade monopoly for the Europe-India spice trade. This campaign however had been a major threat to the Mamluk harbour of Suez
Suez
Suez is a seaport city in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez , near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal, having the same boundaries as Suez governorate. It has three harbors, Adabya, Ain Sokhna and Port Tawfiq, and extensive port facilities...
and to the holy cities of Mecca
Mecca
Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...
and Medina
Medina
Medina , or ; also transliterated as Madinah, or madinat al-nabi "the city of the prophet") is a city in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia, and serves as the capital of the Al Madinah Province. It is the second holiest city in Islam, and the burial place of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, and...
, which put the Mamluk Sultan under tremendous pressure. The Mamluk Sultan Qansuh was thus forced to seek Ottoman assistance, although the Ottomans had been a traditional rival, in his resistance against the Portuguese.
Ottoman-Mamluk campaign (1514–17)
In 1514–16 the Ottomans cooperated with the Mamluks against the Portuguese. They provided an Ottoman commander in the person of Selman ReisSelman Reis
Selman Reis was an Ottoman admiral and corsair who was active in the Mamluk Navy of Egypt and later in the Ottoman Navy against the Portuguese in the first half of the 16th century...
, as well as firearms. Selman Reis entered the service of the Mamluks, and led a group of 2,000 armed Levantines, possibly against the own wishes of the Ottoman Sultan Selim I
Selim I
Selim I, Yavuz Sultân Selim Khan, Hâdim-ül Haramain-ish Sharifain , nicknamed Yavuz "the Stern" or "the Steadfast", but often rendered in English as "the Grim" , was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1512 to...
, and met with this force with the Sultan Qansuh at Suez in April 1514. Artillery defenses were also established in Jiddah and Alexandria
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
. This concentration on the Portuguese front had the ultimate effect however of weakening the Mamluk strengths that could be put against the Ottomans in the Levant. The investment was huge, as the fleet cost around 400,000 dinars to the Mamluk Sultan.
Following the disruption of the spice trade between India and Mamluk Egypt by the Portuguese, Selman Reis led a Mamluk
Mamluk
A Mamluk was a soldier of slave origin, who were predominantly Cumans/Kipchaks The "mamluk phenomenon", as David Ayalon dubbed the creation of the specific warrior...
fleet of 19 ships into the Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
in 1515. He left Suez
Suez
Suez is a seaport city in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez , near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal, having the same boundaries as Suez governorate. It has three harbors, Adabya, Ain Sokhna and Port Tawfiq, and extensive port facilities...
leading the fleet on 30 September 1515. The fleet also included 3,000 men, 1,300 of whom were Turkish soldiers. The fleet built a fortress in Kamaran
Kamaran
Kamaran Island is the largest Yemen-controlled island in the Red Sea. The island is long and wide and is strategically located at the southern end of the Red Sea....
, but failed to take Yemen
Yemen
The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
and Aden
Aden
Aden is a seaport city in Yemen, located by the eastern approach to the Red Sea , some 170 kilometres east of Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000. Aden's ancient, natural harbour lies in the crater of an extinct volcano which now forms a peninsula, joined to the mainland by a...
on 17 September 1516. The combined fleet was able to defend Jidda against the Portuguese in 1517, but by then the war between the Ottomans and the Mamluks was already raging on.
As a consequence, the Portuguese were able to set up trading posts in the Indian subcontinent, and take-over the spice trade to Europe, which had been a major source of revenues for the Mamluk state. The Mamluk Empire became financially crippled, and was finally vanquished by the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
under Selim I
Selim I
Selim I, Yavuz Sultân Selim Khan, Hâdim-ül Haramain-ish Sharifain , nicknamed Yavuz "the Stern" or "the Steadfast", but often rendered in English as "the Grim" , was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1512 to...
, on land, in the Ottoman-Mamluk War (1516–1517). Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
was captured by the Ottomans on January 26, 1517, leading to the disintegration of the Mamluk Empire.
Ottoman takeover
The Ottomans, on the other hand, had thus managed to establish a strong presence in the Indian Ocean, which they would further develop during the rest of the century. The Ottomans took up the task of fighting the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean, especially through their admiral Selman ReisSelman Reis
Selman Reis was an Ottoman admiral and corsair who was active in the Mamluk Navy of Egypt and later in the Ottoman Navy against the Portuguese in the first half of the 16th century...
, who in 1525 occupied the Aden and Yemen
Yemen
The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
with a fleet of 18 ships and 299 cannons, forcing the Portuguese to retreat. The Ottoman failed however in the 1538 Siege of Diu
Siege of Diu
The Siege of Diu occurred when an Ottoman imperial fleet attempted to capture the Indian city of Diu in 1538, then held by the Portuguese.It ended with a Portuguese victory.-Background:...
.
Egypt, on the other hand, lost its status as a great power, and, deprived of the resources of the Indian Ocean trade, essentially faded into the background for the next three centuries.
See also
- Turkish–Portuguese Conflicts
- Ottoman-Mamluk War (1485–1491)
- Ottoman-Mamluk War (1516–1517)