Page 9 - Journal of Asian History_Neat

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40 SALIH OZllARAN •<

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reasons underlying Portuguese penetration into the lands of the Hast.
Pcro de Covilhao, an Arabic-speaking Portuguese, had visited Hormuz -v
in about W88-1489 and collected information on tho trade routes of
Asia. Then, in 1498, after circumventing the Capo of Good Hope,
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Vasco da Gama with the guidance of Ahmad ibn Madjid, an Arab
pilot, reached Calicut in India. Tho Portuguese obtained from Hormuz ■2
a nominal submission in the year 1507 during the time of Francisco de 2
Almeida, tho first Portuguese viceroy of India (1505—1509). It was

Afonso de Albuquerque who, well aw'are of tho strategic importance of
the island, went now in earnest against Hormuz. He did not find him­
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self strong enough to take it; but he plundered a number of towns on
the coast of Oman, e.g., Khorfakkan, Muscat and Karyat. Albuquer­ i
que, having become governor of India after Almeida, took Goa in
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1510 and made it the main centre of the Portuguese in India. In 1515
he sailed again to Hormuz with twenty-seven vessels and 1500 Por­
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tuguese and also some Indian auxiliary troops from the Malabar. The
fortress of Hormuz was surrendered to him and the Ra’is Hamid, the
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vizier, was killed. The Portuguese control thus established at Hormuz
was to last until 1622. The Shah of Persia, although claiming to be ,'4
suzerain over Hormuz, could do nothing but acquiesce in the presence
of the Portuguese.2
Only a few details are available about the agreement made by Albu­
4!
querque with Turan Shah, the ruler of Hormuz, and Nur al-Din, his
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vizier (guazxl in Portuguese sources) in whose hands the real pow’er lay.
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It is known that Turan Shah had to pay a tribute of 15,000 xerafins2
each year to meet the expenses of the Portuguese fortress and garrison
at Hormuz.4 The fortress was entrustet to a Portuguese Governor
(govemador). >5
In 1521 the influence of the Portuguese was felt in Bahrayn and
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in al-Hasa (Lahsa) in the north east of Arabia. A certain Mukrim, the 3
AS
1 The literature on tho Portuguese conquests is large. Two recent authorita­
tive surveys will be found in C. R. Boxer, The Portuguese Seaborne Empire,
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1415-1825, (London, 1969); and in V. Magalhiles-Godinho, L'£conomie de
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VEmpire Portugais aux XV* el XVI* Silcles, (Paris, 1969).
* The Commentaries of the Great Alfonso Dalbuquerque, trans. Walter do Gray * C
* Xerafin or xarafim-Portugueeo expression for a coin called in Arabic -1
Birch, I-IV (London, Hakluyt Society, 1884), IV, pp. 132 ff.

ashrafi. A xerafin of Hormuz was worth 300 rets (cf. S. R. Dalgado, I-II, Glos-
sdrio Luso-Asidtico, (Coimbra, 1921), II, pp. 424-425).
4 Sim So Botelho, “O Tom bo do Eartado da India*’ in Sabsidios para a Histdria :• i
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da India Portugueza, (Lisboa, 1868), p. 78.
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