Battle of Aden (1586)
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| Battle of Aden | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Ottoman Empire |
.svg){kind=small} Portuguese Empire | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Unknown | Unknown | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 2000 horsemen. | 70 men | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Unknown | 5 or 6. | ||||||
The Battle of Aden was a armed engagement between the Ottomans and the Portuguese in which the Portuguese suffered a defeat as a result of an ambush by Ottoman forces.[1][2][3][4]
In the fall of 1585 the Portuguese dispatched a fleet to south Arabia with instructions to attack Muslim shipping.[3] This was led by Ruy Gonçalves da Câmara and was the first serious attempt by the Portuguese to restrict access to the Red Sea in more than a decade.[3] Furthermore, the fleet, numbering 26 vessels was one of the largest naval force sent to the region by the Portuguese.[3]
While anchored at a bay 30 miles south of Mocha Rui Gonçalves landed an officer ahead of a scouting party of 70 men to fetch water for the fleet, but it was attacked by a force of 2000 Turkish horsemen from Mocha and forced to reembark the following day, having suffered five or six dead,[5] This was later reported by Ottoman authorities as a major victory.
Despite the numerical strength of the Portuguese fleet, Ruy Gonçalves da Câmara failed to catch any ship in four months.[3]
References
- ^ Andreu Martínez d’Alòs-Moner; Conquistadores, Mercenaries, and Missionaries: The Failed Portuguese Dominion of the Red Sea. Northeast African Studies 1 April 2012; 12 (1): 1–28. p.9.
- ^ Eldridge, Frank Burgess. The Background of Eastern Sea Power. Phoenix House, 1948.
- ^ a b c d e Casale, Giancarlo. The Ottoman Age of Exploration. United States: Oxford University Press, USA, 2010.
- ^ Ernst van Veen, Leonard Blussé. Rivalry and Conflict: European Traders and Asian Trading Networks in the 16th and 17th Centuries, p .95 [1]
- ^ Saturnino Monteiro: Batalhas e Combates da Marinha Portuguesa Volume IV 1580-1603, Livraria Sá da Costa Editora, 1992, p.146