Page 45 - Journal of Asian History_Neat

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G4 SAUU 07. BA RAM

beginning his voyage. The Portuguese fleet, consisting of twenty-fivo
ships including six caravels and twelve grubs,11 encountered the Otto­
man vessels near JKhawr bakkan, on the coast of Oman. Jhere, on
•t
9 August 1554, the Ottomans and the Portuguese fought one of their ■<
'C
most violent sea battles. The Portuguese were forced to retreat to the
'3
Gulf of Lima. Seydi Ali, in his Miratu’l Memalik, counts this first I
meeting as a success. But the Portuguese armada retreated and was
/
refitted. This having been done, D. Fernando de Noronha emerged S
with thirty-four ships and engaged the Ottomans once more. This time
tho Ottomans suffered heavy losses. Seydi Aii Reis, in his account of
this event, describes the battle as much more terrible than those of
Barbarossa, the famous Ottoman admiral with whom he had served
in tho Mediterranean Sea.73 With nine ships left, Seydi Ali sailed for
Yemen. He was, however, driven by the westerly winds to the coast of
India. Eventually he went to Gujarat and remained there for some
time. In Gujarat he wrote his famous work, the Muhit-o. guide to the
navigation of the Eastern Seas. In May 1557 he arrived once more at
Istanbul. According to Diogo do Couto,73 at the time when Seydi Ali
Reis was operating in the Persian Gulf, Sultan Suleyman sent out
another admiral, Sefer Reis (“Cafar Capitao”) to look for the Ottoman 'i
fleet.74 With his two galleys and one brigantine he was only able to
capture some Portuguese ships which were sailing from Hormuz to
Diu. v i
1
On 6 July 1555, at the command of the Sultan, Ozdemir Pasha . *
organised a new beylerbeklik of Habe§, embracing the ports of Massawa
and Sevakin.75 Thus the Ottomans were now better established in the ■i
Red Sea and strong enough to control it against their Portuguese
rivals. However, the Persian Gulf was open, to the Portuguese, for at .1
‘
a
tarrad (see H. Kindermann, “Schiff** im Arabidchtn, (Zwickau, i. Sa, 1935), pp.
56-57). ;;
71 Seydi Aii Reis, MircU, p. 19. A grab was a kind of oared ship. Largo grabs
resemble large galleys, and small ones are shaped like oared galliots (cf. t.H.
;
Uzuncargili, Oamardi Dtvletinin yierkez t* Bahriyt T&fhUdti, (Ankara, 194-8),
p. 461; Serjeant, op.cit., p. 143). v
71 Seydi Ali Reis, Miral, p. 21. ■i
>
71 Dtc. VII, Liv. I, p. 46.
:■
74 Later, in 1559, Sefer Roia was appointed high admiral of tho Red Sea x
(Siiveyf Kapudanx), leaving his former post as captain of tho vessels stationed.
‘ at Mocha, to a certain Mustafa (MD, IV, p. 51).
i
74 C. Orhonlu, “Oamanldarin Habe§istan Siyaaeti, 1654—1560 ** in Tarih 4
Dergiri, XV/20, (Istanbul, 1965), p. 45.

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