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Timoji (also Timoja or Timmayya) [1] was a privateer who served the Vijayanagara Empire and the Portuguese Empire, in the first decade of the 16th century. He claimed to have been born in Old Goa and escaped the city in 1496, during the conquest by the Adil Shahi dynasty of Bijapore. After his support in the 1510 Portuguese conquest of Goa, he was appointed aguazil of the city, for a short time.
Since the 14th century the Deccan had been divided in two entities: on the one side stood the Muslim Bahmani Sultanate, and on the other stood the native rajas rallied around the Vijayanagara Empire. Continuous wars demanded frequent resupplies of fresh horses, which were imported through sea routes from Persia and Arabia. This trade was subjected to frequent raids by thriving bands of pirates based in the coastal cities of Western India. Timoji acted both as a privateer (by seizing horse traders, that he rendered to the raja of Honavar) and as a pirate who attacked the Kerala merchant fleets that traded pepper with Gujarat. Timoji operated off Anjediva (modern Anjadip) Island, with two thousand mercenaries under his command and at least fourteen ships.
He met Vasco da Gama's fleet off Anjediva in 1498, but the Portuguese admiral suspected him of being a spy and refused his advances. In 1505, he attracted the Portuguese Viceroy Dom Francisco de Almeida to an estuary and, after keeping him waiting for three days, appeared before him richly attired and offered him his services and a token tribute. In 1507 Timoji warned the Viceroy of the upcoming siege of Cannanore by Calicut forces and supplied the Portuguese St. Angelo Fort during the siege. In the end of 1507, when a Mamluk fleet under Amir Husain Al-Kurdi (named "Mirocem" by the Portuguese [2] ) supplemented the Calicut forces, he became de Almeida's main informant. Soon after the Battle of Diu, Timoji met the Vijayanagara emperor Krishnadevaraya and offered him rich tribute. He then prompted the Portuguese to conquer Goa, the main port for the horse trade. The city had been conquered from Vijayanagar by the Bahmani Sultans in 1469, and passed to Bijapur. In late 1509, the remains of the Mamluk fleet defeated in the battle of Diu had taken refuge there.
In 1510 the new governor Afonso de Albuquerque wanted to fight the Egyptian Mamluk Sultanate fleet in the Red Sea or return to Hormuz. However, Timoji convinced him that it would be easier to fight them in Goa, where they had sheltered after the Battle of Diu, [3] and also of the illness of the Sultan Yusuf Adil Shah and war between the Deccan sultanates. [3] So he invested in the capture of Goa to the Sultanate of Bijapur with the support of Timoji. [4] On November, in a second strike, Albuquerque conquered Goa with a fleet fully renovated [5] and about 300 Malabarese reinforcements from Cannanore.
They regained the support of the native population, although frustrating the initial expectations of Timoji, who aspired to gain the city. Afonso de Albuquerque rewarded him by appointing him chief "Aguazil" of the city, an administrator and representative of the native people, as a knowing interpreter of the local customs. [3] He then made an agreement to lower yearly dues and started the first Portuguese mint in the East, after complaints from merchants and Timoji about the scarcity of currency.
Timoji was put in command of the native troops loyal to the Portuguese. However, he soon was relieved of his command due to his refusal to follow orders. The command of the native troops was given to a pretender to the throne of Honavar, and Timoji returned to piracy.
Timoji was made prisoner after a raid, and died by opium poisoning soon after being taken to the Vijayanagar capital. His wife and children, however, returned to Goa where Albuquerque arranged for their upkeep.
Afonso de Albuquerque, 1st Duke of Goa, was a Portuguese general, admiral, and statesman. He served as viceroy of Portuguese India from 1509 to 1515, during which he expanded Portuguese influence across the Indian Ocean and built a reputation as a fierce and skilled military commander.
The Portuguese Empire, also known as the Portuguese Overseas or the Portuguese Colonial Empire, was composed of the overseas colonies, factories, and later overseas territories, governed by the Kingdom of Portugal, and later the Republic of Portugal. It was one of the longest-lived colonial empires in European history, lasting 584 years from the conquest of Ceuta in North Africa in 1415 to the transfer of sovereignty over Macau to China in 1999. The empire began in the 15th century, and from the early 16th century it stretched across the globe, with bases in Africa, North America, South America, and various regions of Asia and Oceania.
The State of India, also known as the Portuguese State of India or Portuguese India, was a state of the Portuguese Empire founded six years after the discovery of the sea route to the Indian subcontinent by Vasco da Gama, a subject of the Kingdom of Portugal. The capital of Portuguese India served as the governing centre of a string of military forts and maritime ports scattered along the coasts of the Indian Ocean.
The Battle of Diu was a naval battle fought on 3 February 1509 in the Arabian Sea, in the port of Diu, India, between the Portuguese Empire and a joint fleet of the Sultan of Gujarat, the Mamlûk Burji Sultanate of Egypt and the Zamorin of Calicut.
Kanara or Canara, also known as Karavali, is the historically significant stretch of land situated by the southwestern Konkan coast of India, alongside the Arabian Sea in the present-day Indian state of Karnataka. The subregion comprises three civil districts, namely: Uttara Kannada, Udupi, and Dakshina Kannada. Kasaragod was included prior to the States Reorganisation Act.
The history of Goa dates back to prehistoric times, though the present-day state of Goa was only established as recently as 1987. In spite of being India's smallest state by area, Goa's rich history is both long and diverse. It shares a lot of similarities with Indian history, especially with regard to colonial influences and a multi-cultural aesthetic.
Dom Francisco de Almeida, also known as the Great Dom Francisco, was a Portuguese nobleman, soldier and explorer. He distinguished himself as a counsellor to King John II of Portugal and later in the wars against the Moors and in the conquest of Granada in 1492. In 1505 he was appointed as the first governor and viceroy of the Portuguese State of India. Almeida is credited with establishing Portuguese hegemony in the Indian Ocean with his victory at the naval Battle of Diu in 1509. Before Almeida returned to Portugal he lost his life in a conflict with indigenous people at the Cape of Good Hope in 1510. His only son Lourenço de Almeida had previously been killed in the Battle of Chaul.
Duarte Pacheco Pereira, called the Portuguese Achilles by the poet Camões, was a Portuguese sea captain, soldier, explorer and cartographer. He travelled particularly in the central Atlantic Ocean west of the Cape Verde islands, along the coast of West Africa and to India. His accomplishments in strategic warfare, exploration, mathematics and astronomy were of an exceptional level.
St. Angelo Fort is a fort facing the Arabian Sea, situated 3 km from Canannore (Kannur), a city in Kerala state, south India.
Bhatkal is a coastal town in the Uttara Kannada District of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bhatkal lies on National Highway 66, which runs between Mumbai and Kanyakumari, and has Bhatkal railway station which is one of the major railway stations along the Konkan Railway line, which runs between Mumbai and Mangalore.
Amir Husain Al-Kurdi, named Mihir Hussain or Mir-Hocém or Mirocém by the Portuguese, was a Kurdish governor of the city of Jeddah in the Red Sea, then part of the Mamluk Sultanate, in early 16th century. He stood out as admiral of the Mamluk fleet fought by the forces of the Portuguese Empire in the Indian Ocean. Shortly after the arrival of the Portuguese to the Indian sea, Mirocem was sent by the last Mamluk Sultan, Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghawri, to defend his interests in the sea, including the defense of the fleets of Muslim pilgrims to Mecca, then part of the sultanate.
Malik Ayyaz, called Meliqueaz by the Portuguese, was a naval officer and governor of the city of Diu, in the mouth of the Gulf of Khambhat (Cambay), circa 1507–1509 under the rule of Gujarat Sultanate. He was one of the most distinguished warriors of his time.
The Battle of Chaul was a naval battle between the Portuguese and an Egyptian Mamluk fleet in 1508 in the harbour of Chaul in India. The battle ended in a Mamluk victory. It followed the Siege of Cannanore in which a Portuguese garrison successfully resisted an attack by Southern Indian rulers. This was the first Portuguese defeat at sea in the Indian Ocean.
The Portuguese conquest of Goa occurred when the governor Afonso de Albuquerque captured the city in 1510 from the Sultanate of Bijapur. Old Goa became the capital of Portuguese India, which included territories such as Fort Manuel of Cochin, Bom Bahia, Damaon, and Chaul. It was not among the places Albuquerque was supposed to conquer. He did so after he was offered the support and guidance of Timoji and his troops.
Mateus, also known as Matthew the Armenian, was an Ethiopian ambassador sent by regent queen Eleni of Ethiopia to king Manuel I of Portugal and to the Pope in Rome, in search of a coalition to help on the increasing threat that Ethiopia faced from the growing Muslim influence in the region. Mateus arrived at Goa in 1512, and traveled to Portugal in 1514, from where he returned with a Portuguese embassy, along with Francisco Álvares. The Portuguese only understood the nature of his mission after they arrived in Ethiopia in 1520, shortly after Mateus' death, a fact that complicated their mission to the new Ethiopian Emperor.
A number of armed engagements between the Egyptian Mamluk Sultanate and the Portuguese Empire in the Indian Ocean took place during the early part of the 16th century. The conflicts came following the expansion of the Portuguese after sailing around the Cape of Good Hope in 1498, from 1505 to the fall of the Mamluk Sultanate in 1517.
The Goan Muslims are a minority community who follow Islam in the Indian coastal state of Goa, some are also present in the union territory of Damaon, Diu & Silvassa. They are native to Goa, unlike recent Muslim migrants from mainland India, and are commonly referred to as Moir by Goans in Goan Konkani.[a]Moir is derived from the Portuguese word Mouro. The Portuguese called them Mouros because they were in contact with the Moors, people of predominantly Muslim Maghreb country, who had conquered and colonised the Iberian peninsula for centuries.
The following lists events that happened during 1500 in India.
Adil Shahi–Portuguese conflicts refers to the various armed engagements that took place in India between the Portuguese Empire and the Sultanate of Bijapur, ruled by the Adil Shahi dynasty, whose rulers were known to the Portuguese as Hidalcão.
The Zamorin–Portuguese conflicts were a series of military engagements between the Zamorins of Calicut and the Portuguese Empire during the 16th century in the Indian Ocean.