The Portuguese conquest of Hormuz occurred in the early 16th century when Afonso de Albuquerque conquered the Kingdom of Hormuz and established fort Nossa Senhora da Conceição on the Island of Hormuz. Although an attempt in 1507 failed, the Portuguese succeeded in taking over Hormuz in 1515.
The campaign against Hormuz was part of a plan by king Manuel of Portugal to control the Indian Ocean trade and thwart hostile Muslim competitors, by capturing Aden to control trade through the Red Sea; Hormuz, to control trade through the Persian Gulf; and Malacca to control trade passing through the Malacca Straits.
The capture of Hormuz gave Portugal control of trade and shipping passing through the Persian Gulf for over a century.
Background
The Portuguese had reports suggesting that the island of Socotra was inhabited by Nestorian Christians and might prove useful in suppressing hostile Muslim shipping in the Indian Ocean. Socotra was then a dominion of the Banu Afrar clan of Qishn, in mainland Arabia, whom the Portuguese would refer to in the 16th century as Fartaques.
In April 1506, two fleets totaling 16 ships, under the overall command of Tristão da Cunha, were dispatched from Lisbon to capture Socotra and establish on it a fort. Cunha was assisted by Afonso de Albuquerque, who was to remain at Socotra and patrol the seas against hostile Muslim navigation, explore the Arabian coast and take points deemed useful, such as Hormuz.
The capture of Socotra, 1507
After a long journey of 12 months, 6 months longer than predicted, the fleet finally landed at Suq in Socotra in April 1507. After a brief but stiff struggle, the Portuguese took over the local fort, which was renamed São Miguel, and a tribute in goats was imposed on the population to sustain it. On the 27th of July, Tristão da Cunha proceeded to India, leaving Albuquerque with six ships on the island: those of his squadron and João da Nova on the great carrack Flor de la Mar. Nova was to return to Portugal at that time but since a ship had straggled in east Africa on the way to Socotra, his services were commandeered, despite his protests. Albuquerque confiscated the palm-groves belonging to the Muslims and redistributed them among the native Nestorian Christians.
Albuquerque no doubt realized the inadequacy of Socotra to serve as a military base and the need for his forces to capture the heavily fortified city of Aden.After such a long journey, that had taken sixteen months instead of six, he had lost many men to disease, his ships and equipment were in need of repairs and his food supplies and ammunition had almost run out. Socotra proved to be much poorer and remote than the Portuguese had anticipated, so the expedition soon ran the risk of starvation. Food supplies would last for no more than another week.
Malindi, Mozambique or any other friendly base were at least a thousand miles away, while the surrounding coasts were ruled by hostile Arabs. Because of this, after gathering a war-council with his officers Albuquerque set sail to the Strait of Hormuz on 10 August 1507 where, hopefully, he could acquire supplies by any means necessary, and accomplish his secret instructions to capture Hormuz.
When I saw myself this ruined, and the fleet lacking supplies, and a hundred and twenty men sick, lacking whatsoever to feed them, and a hundred men that the king had us stationed there, I was forced to change course, so as not to lose the fleet and the fortress, and discard the journey to Cambay, and seek the Strait of Hormuz to find supplies, and die like knights, rather than starving little by little, till we wrecked the ships.
— Letter of Afonso de Albuquerque, 27 of October 1507.
On the 14th of August, Albuquerque's fleet called at Khuriya Muriya islands, where they were nearly wrecked due to the thick fog and because the pilots were off their reckonings. The fleet then anchored off Ras al Hadd, where they found thirty or forty fishing-ships from Ormuz.
Portuguese conquest of Oman
In the early 16th century, the coastal cities of Oman were a dependency of the Kingdom of Hormuz, ruled by governors. On 22 August 1507, the squadron of Albuquerque reached Qalhat, a city the Portuguese estimated as roughly the size of Santarém in Portugal. It was an important port that exported large quantities of horses and dates to India. Its governor had heard of the capture of Socotra, so he preferred to negotiate and exchange hostages and offer provisions, mostly bales of dates.
As the loading of provisions was made at night, only when the fleet was underway again did the Portuguese realize that most of the dates were rotten. Qurayyat further north erected stockades and attempted to resist, but the town was assaulted and sacked. Muscat was then governed by a eunuch and former slave of the king of Hormuz, who surrendered to Albuquerque, but the garrison overruled his decision, for which the town was likewise sacked.
Sohar was then the only town in Oman protected by a small fort, but it promptly capitulated at the sight of the Portuguese. The town was spared, gifts were exchanged, and in return for a pledge of vassalage, its governor was entrusted with a Portuguese flag to hoist, and allowed to keep the annual tribute that he already paid to the king of Hormuz for himself and his troops ahead of the fort. The governor offered a signed document declaring the towns allegiance and the terms of surrender. Albuquerque personally offered the governor a scarlet cloak and a silver basin, while the other captains offered diverse gifts.
Khor Fakkan was sighted on the 22nd of September, but it was also sacked. At Khor Fakkan, the Portuguese captured an elder who seemed so distinguished that he was brought before Albuquerque. Speaking courteous words, he claimed to Albuquerque that his army "seemed to him to exceed that of Alexander". When questioned how he knew of Alexander, the man offered Albuquerque a crimson book written in Persian of the life of Alexander. Most likely, this was the famous Eskandar Nameh written by Nizami Ganjavi. Albuquerque "prized it more than anything else".
First conquest of Hormuz, 1507
Late in the evening of September 25, 1507, the Portuguese fleet approached the harbour of Hormuz, adorned with flags and salvoing the city for half an hour. They were received with an intense sound of trumpets, cymbals and shouting, that impaired hearing on the fleet. It did not impress Albuquerque, who directed his vessels to anchor in the middle of the crowded harbour.
News of the Portuguese conquest of Oman sowed considerable distress within the city and rumour had spread that the Portuguese even devoured people. Likely for this reason, Albuquerque was greeted by no emissaries, with whom he could engage in diplomatic relations. In such case, he summoned the captain of the largest vessel in the harbor – an 800 long tons (810 t) Gujarati trade ship – to his ship instead, to act as a conveyor of his intentions to the sovereign of Hormuz, threatening to sink it if the captain did not comply. He declared to have come with orders from King Manuel of Portugal to vassalize Hormuz and take it under his protection, but he offered the city the chance to capitulate bloodlessly.
Hormuz was then ruled not by its sovereign, the young fifteen year-old king Seyf Ad-Din, but by its powerful old vizier, the Bengali eunuch Cogeatar (Hwaga Ata), who proved unintimidated by the comparatively small fleet. He expressed to Albuquerque his willingness to negotiate and would authorize his soldiers to come ashore peacefully on leave if they wished, a ruse intended to allow Cogeatar to get an idea of their numbers. Albuquerque rejected the offer, though the interpreter Gaspar Rodrigues was ferried ashore with a companion to buy food. He issued an ultimatum to have a definitive reply ready by 8 o'clock of the next day.
The bulk of the Hormuzi fleet was away by then but it was recalled and it arrived at night. During the night, the Portuguese could hear men being ferried onto the ships and barricades erected, revealing to them the vizier's intention to resist. Albuquerque gathered a war-council with his officers, in which many denounced the Hormuz campaign as a mistake, but the determination of the Portuguese commander convinced everyone to fight. On shore Cogeatar gave out orders to capture as many Portuguese alive as possible, as he intended to press them into his service.
Battle
The Portuguese were surrounded by some 50−60 large armed merchant ships on the landward side and somewhere between 120 and 200 light oarvessels on the seaward side. Albuquerque made no attempts to escape this encirclement; he would instead take advantage of the excessive number of enemy vessels specifically to allow the artillery to fire for greater effect.
When the following day broke the larger vessels could be seen taking positions away from the Portuguese. Signalling his squadron to follow, Albuquerque positioned his ship close to the great Gujarati ship. Cannon were in evidence and both swords as well as polearms could be sighted as they gleamed under the sun. As negotiations broke down, Albuquerque's flagship Cirne opened fire, and the rest of the fleet followed suit.
When I saw that the solution was to fight, I wanted to be the first to begin and so I waited for my ships and informed the captains of my decisions and of what each one had to do. Since our ships were very high-sided and our men were already at their posts, I ordered them all, including my ship, to fire their large cannon. Everyone did this and, with the first shots of the large cannon, we sent two ships to the bottom, with many of their finest armed men and many swords with silver hilts and shining weapons. Most of the men on these two ships were drowned.
— Afonso de Albuquerque
Volleys were exchanged between the Hormuzi fleet and the Portuguese, with a clear advantage to the latter, and large clouds of smoke formed around the ships, greatly impairing visibility. The battle caused panic among the civilians within the city, while some observed from the beaches. Some were killed by stray cannonballs, and scattered.
The Hormuzi light-oar ships, carrying a great number of mercenary Persian bowmen, maneuvered to attack the Portuguese fleet en masse. At this point, the Portuguese experienced some difficulties due to their lack of personnel, but the compact group of shallow enemy vessels made for an ideal target for Portuguese gunners: about a dozen were sunk and many more disabled, thus obstructing the path of the ones following.
As confusion set in amongst the Hormuzis, the Portuguese passed on the offensive: Albuquerque had his ship grapple the great carrack of Gujarat, which was boarded by 20 men and captured after a stiff fight. Most ships were captured or burned. Albuquerque staged a landing by the shipyards and began setting fire to the outskirts of Hormuz. Yet he did not wish to assault such a large city with so few men, and had them reembark. The vizier, Cogeatar, feared a Portuguese assault, so he raised a white flag over the royal palace. A Tunisian envoy was dispatched to the Portuguese flagship requesting peace, and Albuquerque promptly accepted the capitulation.
Mutiny
After long negotiations, on October 10, Afonso de Albuquerque met with the King of Hormuz Seyf Ad-Din, the vizier Cogeatar, and his right-hand man Rais Nureddin Fali, to sign the terms of capitulation: They consisted of a tribute worth 15,000 ashrafi (a Persian coin worth 400 reis), Portuguese exemption from paying customs dues, and the right to erect a fortress on the island, in exchange for allowing the king to keep his position under Portuguese military protection, while the merchants had the vessels captured in the battle returned to them. The conditions were inscribed on two separate scrolls, one in Arabic chiselled on gold leaf, another in Persian inscribed on paper in letters of gold and blue.
Albuquerque ordered his soldiers to set about erecting the fort on the northernmost tip of the island in turns, and every night the Portuguese would reembark before landing the following morning, to avoid revealing how few the Portuguese actually were. Every day the Portuguese troops landed with different sets of arms and armour to elude the Hormuzis of their few numbers. This ruse worked; Cogeatar estimated the strength of the Portuguese to be 1,200 men. Hormuzi stonemasons were employed, and the Portuguese soldiers participated in the construction of the fortress with no regard to rank. This astonished the Hormuzis, as they were unaccustomed to seeing fighting men engage in menial work. At the same time, the ships were careened.