Indian Antiquary Vol 59

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 244

220
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[NOVEMBER, 1930
on astronomy and philosophy and on matters relating to navigation, and was popularly known as Katib-i Rûmi (i.e., 'the Turkish writer ').
In the course of the war between the Mughal emperor Humayûn and Bahadur Shah. Sultan of Gujarat, the latter retreated in 1535 to the strong hill fortress of Manda, which was closely invested by Humayûn. When one of the outer gates of the fort was thrown open to the Mughals by treachery, acoording to the Mirât-i-Sikandari, Bahadur fled first to the fort at Champaner and thence on to Diu, with the object of enlisting the aid of the Portuguese. At the same time he sent an envoy to Egypt, to solicit the assistance of the Turks. Later on he sent an envoy to the Sultan of Turkey himself. Meanwhile the Portuguese having, in the course of their negociations with Bahadur, obtained the grant of a site on which to build a fort at Diu, pushed on its construction with the utmost rapidity. The Ottoman Sultân, whose ships had previously encountered the Portuguese in eastern waters, appears to have been taken with the idea of seizing the occasion to avenge himself upon them and at the same time to obtain a footing in India. A large fleet was accordingly collected at Suez, troops were despatched and the command of the expedition entrusted to Sulaiman Pasha, the governor of Cairo. The fleet started in June 1638; Aden was sacked in August, and Diu reached in September. Faulty tactics, quarrels with the Gujaratis and the gallantry of the Portuguese defence ultimately led to Sulaiman Pasha's discomfiture and finally to his retreat in November. A few years later the Sultan of the Turks once more conceived #plan for revenging himself upon the Portuguese by completing the annexation of Arabia and capturing Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, which was the key to their ascendancy in that cegion. The command of the expedition fitted out for this purpose was given to the Egyptian admiral Piri Beg. who left Suez in 1553 for Hormux with some 30 vessels. After many vicissitudes, and after taking Maskat and pillaging Hormuz, he was encountered by the Portuguese fleet and defeated. He himself escaped to Egypt with two ships, while all that remained of his fleet sought refuge at Basrah. Murad Beg, who was appointed to take command of these vessels, attempted to take them back to Egypt, but was intercepted by the Portuguese near Hormuz and, after a sanguinary contest, was driven back to Basrah. Our author was then appointed by the Sultân to the post of Admiral of Egypt, and he was directed to proceed to Basrah and take the fleet back.
Sidi Ali describes briefly his route from Aleppo, where the Sultan was then holding court, via Nisibin and Mosul to Baghdad, making a trip from there to Karbala, to visit that sacred site. Returning to Baghdad, he proceeded down the Tigris past Ctesiphon to Kut al.Amara, whence he seems to have gone down the Shatt al Hai channel, as he passed Wasit. From Wasit he went on to Zakya, paying a visit to Ezra's tomb, and then by Mezera (near Qürna) down to Basrah. He sailed from Basrah on the 1st Sha'bán 961 A.H. (beginning of July 1564)5 to Rishahr (near Bushire) with the ships bound for Egypt. If the route followed from Wasit past Basrah to the open sea were accurately identified, it might furnish some interesting evidence as to the conditions of the Euphrates Tigris delta some four centuries ago. From Rishahr the fleet crossed the Gulf to Qatif on the Arabian coast of al Hasa, passing on to Bahrain, recrossing the Gulf to Qais Island, and so on to Hormuz. No news being obtainable at any of these stages of the Portuguese fleet, Sidi 'Ali moved on to the Julfar (modern Ras al-Khaima) coast round cape Ras Masandam and past Limah until. in the vicinity of Khûr Fakkån, he met the Portuguese fleet comprising 25 vessels, of which 12 were small galleys. After a fierce fight, he tells us, the Portuguese lost one galleon and hove off in the direction of Hormuz. Sidi Ali proceeded to Sohår, where he seems to have stopped, as it was not till the 16th day after the fight near Khûr Fakkân that he arrived opposite Maskat and Qalhat, when another and stronger Portuguese fleet, commanded by "the admiral of Goa, the son of the Governor," put out from Maskat and attacked him. The Turkish fleet was no match for their opponents' big and heavily armed ships of war.
6 Vambéry writon on the 1st Shauwdl, which is clearly incorrect.