Battle of Suez (1541)

Battle of Suez
Part of Ottoman–Portuguese conflicts (1538–1559)

Portuguese fleet in Suez 1541
Date26 April 1541[1]
Location
Suez, Egypt
29°58′N 32°33′E / 29.967°N 32.550°E / 29.967; 32.550
Result Ottoman victory
Belligerents
Portuguese Empire Ottoman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Estêvão da Gama
Cristóvão da Gama		 Davud Pasha
Strength
16 warships[2]
250 soldiers[2]		 2,000 horsemen[3]
Casualties and losses
Unknown Unknown

The Battle of Suez occurred in 1541 and was a failed attack by the Portuguese against the Ottomans.[4][5]

In 1541 the Portuguese fleet under the command of the Portuguese governor of India Estêvão da Gama and his brother Cristóvão da Gama penetrated into the Red Sea.[6] The Portuguese fleet consisted of 80 ships and 2,300 soldiers.[4] After sacking Suakin, the governor detached 16 light oarvessels and 250 picked men.[2] The aim was to attack Suez but the attack was a failure as the heavy defence as well as the opposition of Davud Pasha and the Ottoman artillery forced the Portuguese to retreat.[5][4][7][6] A few retreating Portuguese forces which landed at Massawa would be ambushed by the Adal Sultanate at the Battle of Massawa in the same year.[8]

For the duration of the 1541 Suez campaign, the Portuguese remained within the Red Sea for seven months, never being confronted by the Ottoman navy, while Muslim trade was paralized.[9]

  1. ^ Frederick Charles Danvers: The Portuguese in India: A.D. 1481-1571 .H. Allen & Company, 1894, p.449.
  2. ^ a b c Saturnino Monteiro: Batalhas e Combates da Marinha Portuguesa 1139-1975, volume III, p.39.
  3. ^ Monteiro, 1991, p.41
  4. ^ a b c Özbaran, Salih. Portekizli seyyahlar: İran, Türkiye, Irak, Suriye ve Mısır yollarında. Turkey: Kitap Yayınevi, 2007.
  5. ^ a b Orhonlu, Cengiz. Osmanlı imparatorluğun̓un güney siyaseti Habeş eyaleti. Turkey: Edebiyat Fakültesi Matbaası, 1974.
  6. ^ a b Peacock, A. C. S. "The Ottoman Empire and the Indian Ocean." In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History. 2018.
  7. ^ Türk dünyası araştırmaları. Turkey: Türk Dünyası Araştırmaları Vakfı, 2003.
  8. ^ Hespeler-Boultbee, John (April 2011). A Story in Stones: Portugal's Influence on Culture and Architecture in the Highlands of Ethiopia 1493-1634. CCB Publishing. p. 188. ISBN 9781926585994.
  9. ^ Monteiro, 1991, p.43