Siege of Diu (1546)

Third siege of Diu
	Part of Ottoman–Portuguese conflicts (1538–1560) and Gujarati–Portuguese conflicts
	; A battle between the Portuguese Armada and Turkish soldiers on horseback in Goa, western India
Date	20 April – 10 November 1546; (6 months and 3 weeks)
Location	Diu, Portuguese India20°43′N 70°59′E / 20.71°N 70.98°E
Result	Portuguese victory
Belligerents
Portuguese Empire	Gujarat Sultanate; Ottoman Empire
Commanders and leaders
João de Mascarenhas; João de Castro	Khoja Zufar †
Strength
18 May: 440 men 19 July: reinforcements consisting of 20 fustas and 6 caturs with men arrived On 7 November, Governor Castro arrived with 35 fustas, caturs, 3 galeons, naus and gales, with 3,000 Portuguese and 300 Indian men	10,000 men; 30 Ottoman ships
Casualties and losses
More than 200	3,000 killed; 600 prisoners
	class=notpageimage\| Location of Diu in present-day India

20°N 71°E / 20°N 71°E / 20; 71

The third siege of Diu was a siege of the Portuguese Indian city of Diu by the Ottoman Empire and Gujarat Sultanate in 1546. It ended with a major Portuguese victory.

Background

At the beginning of the 16th century, the Muslim Sultanate of Gujarat was the principal seapower in India. Gujarat fought the Portuguese fleets in collaboration with the Mamluk Sultanate. The Portuguese were defeated by a combined Mamluk-Gujarati fleet in 1508, which was in turn destroyed by a Portuguese fleet in the Battle of Diu (1509). By 1536, the Portuguese had gained complete control of Diu, while the Sultanate of Gujarat was under attack from the Mughals.

In 1538, the Ottoman Empire, which had taken over Egypt (1517) and Aden (1538) from Mamluk Egypt, joined hands with the Gujarat Sultanate to launch an anti-Portuguese offensive. They besieged Diu in 1538, but had to retreat.

The siege

After the failed siege of 1538, the Gujarati General Khadjar Safar besieged Diu again in an attempt to recapture the island. The siege lasted seven months from 20 April 1546 to 10 November 1546, during which João de Mascarenhas defended Diu.^[9]

A large fleet dispatched by Suleiman would also arrive in Diu and help in the struggle against the Portuguese defenders.^[10]^[11]

The siege ended when a Portuguese fleet under Governor João de Castro arrived and routed the attackers.^[9]

Khadjar Safar and his son Muharram Rumi Khan (who were probably of Albanian origin^{[citation needed]}^[relevant?]) were both killed during the siege.^[12]

References

^ Malekandathil, Pius (2010). Maritime India: Trade, Religion and Polity in the Indian Ocean. Primus Books. ISBN 978-93-80607-01-6.
^ Casale, Giancarlo (25 February 2010). The Ottoman Age of Exploration. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-970338-8.
^ ^a ^b History of the Portuguese navigation in India, 1497–1600, K. M. Mathew, p. 218, 1988
^ History of the Portuguese navigation in India, 1497–1600, K. M. Mathew, p. 219, 1988
^ The Cambridge history of the British Empire, John Holland Rose, Ernest Alfred Benians, Arthur Percival Newton, p. 16, 1960
^ Clodfelter, Micheal (24 April 2017). Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1492-2015, 4th ed. McFarland. ISBN 978-1-4766-2585-0.
^ History of the Portuguese navigation in India, 1497–1600, K. M. Mathew, pp. 218/219, 1988
^ The Cambridge history of the British Empire, John Holland Rose, Ernest Alfred Benians, Arthur Percival Newton, p. 17, 1960
^ ^a ^b Tony Jaques, ed. (2007). Dictionary of Battles and Sieges: A Guide to 8,500 Battles from Antiquity Through the Twenty-first Century. Vol. 1 (A-E). Greenwood. p. 304. ISBN 978-0-313-33537-2.
^ Malekandathil, Pius (2010). Maritime India: Trade, Religion and Polity in the Indian Ocean. Primus Books. ISBN 978-93-80607-01-6.
^ Clodfelter, Micheal (24 April 2017). Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1492-2015, 4th ed. McFarland. ISBN 978-1-4766-2585-0.
^ Kenneth Warren Chase (2003). Firearms: a global history to 1700 (illustrated ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 136. ISBN 978-0-521-82274-9.