Gujarat Sultanate

Delhi’s diminished authority in the wake of Timur’s devastation has rendered the sultanate powerless to reverse …

…Gujarat and …

… Malwa from becoming separate Muslim kingdoms in 1401, when Dilawar Khan Ghauri, governor of the Malwa province of central India during the decline of the Delhi Sultanate, declares himself Sultan of Malwa.

The founder of the ruling Muzaffarid dynasty, Zafar Khan (later Muzaffar Shah I) had been appointed as governor of Gujarat by Nasir-ud-Din Muhammad bin Tughluq IV in 1391.

Having defeated Farhat-ul-Mulk near Anhilwada Patan and made the city his capital, he declares himself independent in 1407.

Gujarati king Ahmad Shah (r. 1411–1442) founds Ahmadabad, situated on the left bank of the Sabarmati River two hundred and eighty miles (four hundred and forty-five kilometers) north of Bombay, in 1411.

…friendly Malindi, where Cabral drops off the Malindi ambassador that Gama had taken the previous year.

The Sultan of Malindi gives Cabral an excellent reception.

Leaving behind two degredados (Luís de Moura and João Machado) and picking up two Gujarati pilots, Cabral's six-ship armada finally begins its Indian Ocean crossing on August 7.

Cabral's six ships, after an uneventful ocean crossing, land on August 23, 1500, in Anjediva Island (Angediva, Anjadip), where they rest and recuperate, repair and repaint the ships.

The Cabral expedition, sailing down the Indian coast, finally reaches Calicut, the capital of the Nair Hindu kingdom of same name ruled by the Zamorin, or Nediyuiruppu Swarupam, on September 13.

Gaily decorated native boats come out to greet them, but Cabral, remembering Vasco da Gama's experience, refuses to go ashore until hostages are exchanged.

He dispatches Afonso Furtado and the four Calicut hostages taken by da Gama the previous year, to negotiate the details of the landing.

This eventually done, Cabral finally goes ashore himself and meets the new Zamorin of Calicut, the wary old Zamorin met by Gama having recently died.

The Portuguese are better-prepared this time—Cabral presents the young Zamorin with much finer and more luxurious gifts than Gama had brought, and more respectful and personalized letters of address from King Manuel I of Portugal.

A commercial treaty is successfully negotiated, and the Zamorin gives Cabral a security-of-trade certificate etched on a silver plate.

The Portuguese are allowed to establish a factory in Calicut and Aires Correia, the designated factor for Calicut, goes ashore with some seventy men.

Once the factory is established Cabral releases the ship hostages as a sign of trust.

Correia immediately sets about buying spices in Calicut's markets for the ships to take home.

The Zamorin of Calicut dispatches a service request to Cabral's idling fleet in October.

Arab merchants allied with the rival city-state of Cochin are returning from Ceylon with a cargo of war elephants destined for the Sultan of Cambay (Khambhat, Gujarat).

Claiming it to be illegal contraband (the Zamorin can probably use the elephants himself), Cabral is asked if he can intercept them.

Cabral sends one of his caravels, brimming with cannon, under Pêro de Ataíde, nicknamed 'Inferno', to capture it.

Hoping for a spectacle, the Zamorin himself comes down to the beachfront to witness the engagement, but leaves in disgust when the Arab ship deftly slips past Ataide.

Ataíde gives chase, however, eventually catching up with it near Cannanore and successfully seizing the vessel.

Cabral presents as a gift to the Zamorin the captured ship, with its nearly intact elephant cargo (one pachyderm had been killed in the engagement).

The factor Aires Correi, after two months of operation, has only been able to buy enough spices to load two of the ships.

He complains to Cabral his suspicions that the guild of Arab merchants in Calicut have been colluding to shut out Portuguese purchasing agents from the city's spice markets.

This is not unlikely: Arab traders had reportedly used similar collusive tactics to drive out Chinese merchants earlier in the fifteenth century from various ports on the Malabar Coast.

Cabral presents the complaint to the Zamorin, and requests that he crack down on the Arab merchant guild or enforce Portuguese priority in the spice markets, but the Zamorin refuses to intervene in the matter—or rather makes only some vague promises, but disdains to become actively involved in the matter, as Cabral demands.

Frustrated by the Zamorin's inaction, Cabral decides to take matters into his own hands.

On the advice of Aires Correia, Cabral orders the seizure on December 17 of an Arab merchant ship from Jeddah that has been loading up with spices in Calicut harbor, claiming that as the Zamorin had promised the Portuguese priority in the spice markets, the cargo is rightfully theirs.

The Arab merchants around the quay, furious at this action, immediately raise a riot in Calicut and direct mobs to attack the Portuguese factory.

The Portuguese ships, anchored out in the harbor and unable to approach the docks, helplessly watch the unfolding massacre.

After three hours of fighting, some fifty-three (some accounts say seventy) Portuguese are slaughtered by the mobs—including the factor Aires Correia, the secretary Pêro Vaz de Caminha, and three (some accounts say five) of the Franciscan friars.

Around twenty Portuguese in the city manage to escape the riot by jumping into the harbor waters and swimming to the ships.

The survivors report to Cabral that the Zamorin's own Hindu guards had been seen either standing aside or actively helping the rioters.

At least one Portuguese, a man called Gonçalo Peixoto, survives the massacre, sheltered from the mob by a local merchant (whom the chronicles call "Coja Bequij").

In the aftermath, the wares in the Portuguese factory are impounded by the Calicut authorities.