The siege of Calicut occurred in 1526, when the

Zamorin The Samoothiri (Anglicised as Zamorin; Malayalam: , Arabic: ''Sāmuri'', Portuguese: ''Samorim'', Dutch: ''Samorijn'', Chinese: ''Shamitihsi''Ma Huan's Ying-yai Sheng-lan: 'The Overall Survey of the Ocean's Shores' 433 Translated and Edited b ...

, the local Indian ruler, captured the fort of

Calicut Kozhikode (), also known in English as Calicut, is a city along the Malabar Coast in the state of Kerala in India. It has a corporation limit population of 609,224 and a metropolitan population of more than 2 million, making it the second l ...

from the

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

. The Portuguese had plans for establishing a fort at Calicut since 1500, when

Pedro Álvares Cabral Pedro Álvares Cabral ( or ; born Pedro Álvares de Gouveia; c. 1467 or 1468 – c. 1520) was a Portuguese nobleman, military commander, navigator and explorer regarded as the European discoverer of Brazil. He was the first human in ...

received this mission. The fort was finally completed in 1513, on the spot of an earlier " Serame", after a peace treaty was signed between the king of Portugal and the Zamorin. Hostilities were triggered when

Duarte de Menezes 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. Duart ...

attacked and destroyed a fleet of the Zamorin at Ponnani on 26 March 1525. In reprisal, the Zamorin attacked the fort of Calicut on 3 June 1526. There were 300 Portuguese defenders in the fort, under João de Lima. Reinforcements came from

Goa Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...

on 20 September, with the intent of embarking the defenders and attacking the troops of the Zamorin. Faced with the continuous hostility of the Zamorin however, the Portuguese decided to abandon and partly destroy the fort, which was then captured by the Zamorin.

Notes

{{coord missing, Kerala 1526 in India

Portuguese colonisation in Asia History of Kozhikode

1526 in Portugal

See also

Notes