The Battle of Ash-Shihr was an attack launched by the Portuguese navy in 1523 on the city of Ash-Shihr which was a part of the

Kathiri Sultanate Kathiri ( ar, ٱلْكَثِيْرِي, al-Kathīrī), officially the Kathiri State of Seiyun ( ar, ٱلسَّلْطَنَة ٱلْكَثِيْرِيَّة - سَيْؤُوْن, al-Salṭanah al-Kathīrīyah - Sayʾūn), was a sultanate in the H ...

. In Thursday, February 28, 1523 (10 of the month of Rabi’ al-Awwal in the year 929 AH), the Portuguese governor of India, Dom

Duarte de Meneses Dom Duarte de Menezes (before 1488 – after 1539), was a 16th-century Portuguese nobleman and colonial officer, governor of Tangier from 1508 to 1521 and 1536 to 1539, and governor of Portuguese India from 1522 to 1524. Background D. Duarte ...

, dispatched his brother, Dom Luís de Meneses, to the Red Sea with a force of 6 galleons. Dom Luís was tasked with delivering an ambassador to the Christian Emperor of Ethiopia and hunting hostile Muslim trade ships sailing between the Indian Ocean and

Jeddah Jeddah ( ), also spelled Jedda, Jiddah or Jidda ( ; ar, , Jidda, ), is a city in the Hejaz region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the country's commercial center. Established in the 6th century BC as a fishing village, Jeddah's pro ...

. Along the way, he called at the city of Ash-Shihr. After claiming that the property of a Portuguese merchant who had died in al-Shiḥr had been unlawfully seized by the Kathīrī sultan, Dom Luís ordered the assault of the city. It was then successfully attacked and sacked while the inhabitants fled. Shihr was further plundered by the settlement's garrison, and by vagrants.João de Barros: ''Da Ásia'', III, II, Regia Officina Typpographica, 1779 edition, pp. 206-209. The city's defenders attempted to face them on the beaches, but they were routed and the emir Mutran b. Mansur was killed in battle with a bullet. The battle continued for three days between the people of the city of Al-Shihr and the Portuguese forces. Seven of Ash-Shihr's legal scholars and learned men were killed by the Portuguese. These men would collectively come to be a known as “The Seven Martyrs of al-Shiḥr” and whose tomb would become the site of an annual pilgrimage.

References

{{Reflist Sieges involving Portugal 16th century in Portuguese India Conflicts in 1523 Battles involving Yemen Arabian Peninsula Wars involving Yemen Maritime history of Portugal

See also

References