Page 91 - Arabiab Studies (IV)

A Turkish Report on the Red Sea
and the Portuguese in the
Indian Ocean (1525)

Salih Ozbaran

(After this article was accepted for publication in Arabian Studies, the
document translated here was published in Turkish, accompanied by a
French translation and notes, by Michel Lesure, under the title ‘Un
document ottoman de 1525 sur l’lnde portugaise et les pays de la Mer
Rouge,’ Mare Luso-lndicum, Paris, 1976, III, 137-60. The Editors have
nevertheless decided to adhere to their intention to publish this English
translation since the French version may be less accessible to those
concerned with Arabia. Eds.)

There is a report in Turkish, attributed to Selman Reis (d. 1528),
Turkish admiral in the Red Sea, which is already known to
historians.1 Turkish scholars in particular have made use of its
contents.2 My aim is simply to make it available to a larger
audience by giving an English translation of the text.
The report is as much a response to Portuguese activities in the
Indian Ocean as a warning to the Turkish authorities. The author
sees the potential Portuguese danger to the Ottoman possessions in
the Red Sea and repeatedly points out the extent to which the
Portuguese were capturing the trade in spices and other goods in
the trading centres of the Indian Ocean. It was Portuguese policy
to establish contact with the lands of the legendary Prester John
and to try to cut off the flow of trade between the Red Sea ports
and the Indian Coast.3
The report is dated 10 Sha‘ban, 931/2 June, 1525, and bears no
signature, but it was most probably written by Selman Reis, the
commander of the Ottoman fleet in the Red Sea at the time.
According to its author it was presented to the ‘Gate of Felicity’
(Asit&ne-i Saadet), presumably to Ibrahim Pasha, the governor of
Egypt.4 Selman Reis was well qualified to prepare such a report for
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