Battle of Ash-Shihr (1523)

Not to be confused with Battle of al-Shihr (1531) or Battle of al-Shihr (1548).

Battle of Ash-Shihr
Painting depicting Portuguese soldiers attacking and burning the city
Date February 28 – March 2, 1523 (1523-02-28 – 1523-03-02) Location Ash-Shihr, Kathiri Sultanate Result Portuguese victory [1] [2]
Belligerents
Kingdom of Portugal Mahra Sultanate	Kathiri Sultanate
Commanders and leaders
Duarte de Meneses Luís de Meneses [2]	Badr Abu Tuairq al-Kathiri Mutran bin Mansur  † Atif bin Dahdah Yaqoub Al-Haridi  † Salem Baaween  † Hussein Al-Aidaroos  † Ahmed ba-Fadl  † Fadl ba-Fadl  † Ahmed bin Abdullah ba-Fadl  †
Strength
8 ships [3] 6 galleons [2] 400-700 soldiers [3]	Unknown
Casualties and losses
Unknown	480+ killed

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

A 1523 letter from Henrique de Macedo to the King of Portugal, reporting the successful raid on Xael (Shihr). De Macedo writes, "This year I went to serve in the Straits with Dom Luis, in which expedition he attacked Xael and captured a large place (hum lugar grande) from them . . . he burnt and destroyed [the lugar grande] because it seemed to him to be to your service."

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]}

1. Prince Mutran bin Mansur - Emir of the city of Ash-Shihr
2. Yaqoub bin Saleh Al-Haridi
3. Salem bin Saleh Baaween
4. Hussein bin Abdullah Al-Aidaroos
5. Ahmed bin Radwan ba-Fadl
6. 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 Iddah dance

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

• Yemen portal
• Portugal portal

• Siege of Aden
• Capture of Aden (1548)
• Battle of al-Shihr (1548)

References

1. Liebhaber 2018.
2. Monteiro 1989, p. 25.
3. R. B. Serjeant: The Portuguese Off the South Arabian Coast. Hadrami Chronicles, 1974, Oxford University Press, pp. 171-172.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. João de Barros: Da Ásia, III, II, Regia Officina Typpographica, 1779 edition, pp. 206-209.
7. "خمسة قرون على الفداء | خيُوط". www.khuyut.com. Archived from the original on 2022-11-27. Retrieved 2023-08-04.
8. 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.
9. "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. Stanford University Press. Retrieved 2024-08-17.