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.[4]
The battle
On Thursday, February 28, 1523 (or 9 Rabi’ II, 929 AH[5]), the Portuguese governor of India, Duarte de Meneses, dispatched his brother, Luís de Meneses, to the Red Sea with a force of 6 galleons. 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.[2] 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.[1] It was then successfully attacked and sacked while the inhabitants fled. Shihr was further plundered by the settlement's garrison, and by vagrants.[6] 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.[6] 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.[1]
Losses
About 480 residents of the city of Al-Shehr were killed in the battle, in addition to the killing of seven resistance leaders in the city of Al-Sheher:[7][8]
- Prince Mutran bin Mansur - Emir of the city of Ash-Shihr
- Yaqoub bin Saleh Al-Haridi
- Salem bin Saleh Baaween
- Hussein bin Abdullah Al-Aidaroos
- Ahmed bin Radwan ba-Fadl
- Fadl bin Radwan ba-Fadl
In addition to: Ahmed bin Abdullah Belhaj ba-Fadl,[8] whose family at the time requested that he be buried next to his father in the Dome of Belhaj ba-Fadl.
Cultural significance
The people of Ash-Shihr built the Shrine of the Seven Martyrs, and its walls contained illustrations and evidence of the number of people buried there, in commemoration of their memory. The shrine became a place of visit every year once or twice, especially on the fourth or fifth day of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. The visits include: popular dances such as the Baraa and the Iddah, the gathering of visitors, the selling of sweets, etc.[9]
See also
References
- ^ a b c Liebhaber 2018.
- ^ a b c d Monteiro 1989, p. 25.
- ^ a b R. B. Serjeant: The Portuguese Off the South Arabian Coast. Hadrami Chronicles, 1974, Oxford University Press, pp. 171-172.
- ^ Luiz, Francisco de San (1875). Obras completas do Cardeal Saraiva d. Francisco de S. Luiz Patriarcha de Lisboa: Precedidas de uma introducção pelo Marquez de Rezende. Publicadas por Antonio Correia Caldeira (in Brazilian Portuguese). National Press.
- ^ Serjeant, Robert Bertram (1974). The Portuguese Off the South Arabian Coast: Ḥaḍramī Chronicles; with Yemeni and European Accounts of Dutch Pirates Off Mocha in the Seventeenth Century. Librairie du Liban. pp. 52–53.
- ^ a b João de Barros: Da Ásia, III, II, Regia Officina Typpographica, 1779 edition, pp. 206-209.
- ^ "خمسة قرون على الفداء | خيُوط". www.khuyut.com. Archived from the original on 2022-11-27. Retrieved 2023-08-04.
- ^ a b نت, صحافة 24. "البرتغال تتلقى هزيمة موجعة على يد أبناء حضرموت شرق اليمن". صحافة 24 نت (in Arabic). Archived from the original on 2023-01-01. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "الشهداء السبعة تضحية الاجداد وإهمال الاحفاد | الاتحاد نت". alittihadnet.net. Archived from the original on 2023-12-24. Retrieved 2023-12-24.
Sources
- Monteiro, Saturnino (1989). Batalhas e combates da Marinha Portuguesa: 1522-1538 (in Brazilian Portuguese). Livraria Sá da Costa Editora. ISBN 978-972-562-321-3.
- Liebhaber, Samuel (2018). "When Melodies Gather: The Mahra, the Āl Kathīr, and the Portuguese (1495 CE - 1548 CE)". When Melodies Gather: Oral Art of the Mahra. Standford University Press. Retrieved 2024-08-17.