Page 102 - Arabiab Studies (IV)

92 Arabian Studies IV
imposition of a passport system which favoured Egyptian
merchants.14 Cairo, maintaining its position as the centre of the
East-West trade into the fifteenth century, was described as
notable and marvellous by a merchant of Crete.15
Just prior to Portuguese attempts to seize control of the spice
trade, ships were leaving Jeddah (which had become the Arabian
entrepot for the Indian trade), carrying with them up to 100,000
ducats in cash for the purchase of spices.16
A native Yemeni dynasty, the Tahirids, seized power from the
disintegrating Rasulids in 1454. It was this dynasty which was
controlling Kamaran when the struggle for supremacy in the Red
Sea erupted early in the sixteenth century. Kamaran became not
only a Portuguese base from which it was hoped to win the control
of the Red Sea, but also a centre from which both Egyptians and
Ottomans fought the European intruders. The island became a
springboard, too, for Egyptian and Turkish occupations of Yemen.

The Portuguese in the Indian Ocean in the 16th century
Once the Portuguese had rounded the Cape of Good Hope they
planned to seize the Eastern spice trade—to the detriment of the
Muslims and the Venetians. In 1503 a Portuguese fleet was sent to
blockade the entrance to the Red Sea to all Muslim shipping.17 It
was that year that the Italian traveller Ludovico di Varthema put
in at Kamaran and recorded that the island provided shipping with
sweet fresh water and flesh and the best salt he had ever seen.8
Following the despatch of a Portuguese fleet up the Red Sea
two years later, the Mamluks started to build ships as a deterrent.
However, in February 1513, Afonso Albuquerque attacked Aden
with 20 ships;19 he was repulsed but not before 40 local craft had
been burned in the harbour.20 Albuquerque took pilots on board at
Perim and entered the Red Sea: he took on supplies at Kamaran
before proceeding northwards,21 where his plan was to occupy the
Muslim Holy Cities long enough to enable him to seize the body of
the Prophet Muhammad which he planned to return in exchange
for Jerusalem.22 Due to unfavourable winds Albuquerque failed to
reach Jeddah and returned to Kamaran where he stayed for two
months till mid-July 1513. There are discrepancies in accounts of
the attitude of the islanders: according to some they provided
Albuquerque and his crew with cows, goats, hens, peaches,
quinces, pomegranates, dates and Indian figs;23 others say that the
population fled to al-Lubayyah;24 while yet a third version says
that Albuquerque killed a number of the inhabitants.25 What is not
in doubt is that Albuquerque lost some 500 of his men from