Table Of ContentThe Turkish superscription reads, ‘While Sinân Pasha (now Grand Vizier) was com
mander-in-chief in the Yemen the Portuguese fleet came against Aden, so he sent
Khidr Beg with the qddyrgas (against them) : (here you see) how their wickedness was
repulsed.’ The verses run, ‘As those (Portuguese) ships were not essential, but the
affairs of Aden were of the greatest importance, they (the Turkish squadron) turned
aside from the enemy and set their course for Aden’
The qddyrgas are propelled by sail and banks of oars. In the bows of each vessel a puff
of smoke is coming from the muzzle of a gun
THE PORTUGUESE
OFF THE
SOUTH ARABIAN
COAST
H A D R A M l CH R O N ICLES
With Yemeni and European accounts
of Dutch pirates off Mocha
in the seventeenth century
BY
R. B. SERJEANT
LIBRAIRIE DU LIBAN
BEIRUT
LIBRAIRIE DU LIBAN
Riad Solh Square - Beirut
Associated companies, branches and representatives
throughout the world.
First published by Oxford University Press
at The Clarendon Press 1963
Reprinted with minor corrections, 1974
© R. B. Serjeant 1974
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In preparing this volume I sought assistance of many scholars and
friends, from all of whom my inquiries met with a generous and
prompt response. My greatest debt is, however, to Professor C. F.
Beckingham of Manchester, the extent of whose aid is apparent
on many a page; I have also been privileged to draw upon the
learning of Professor Paul Wittek, and of Dr. John Walker of the
Coins and Medals Department of the British Museum. Informa
tion given me by Colonel J. G. Alban of Kamarân, Mr. B. Dutton
of Birkbeck College, Major Jim Ellis of the Aden Political Service,
Dr. L. P. Harries, Professor A. M. Honeyman of St. Andrews, the
late Professor L. A. Mayer of Jerusalem, Professor A. S. Tritton,
and Dr. P. Voorhoeve of Leiden University Library is gratefully
acknowledged. It is my pleasant duty also to thank Professor A. J.
Arberry of Cambridge and Professor A. F. L. Beeston of Oxford
for suggestions that have improved the arrangement of the material.
Among numerous Arab scholars and friends whom I take the
opportunity of thanking for their help are the late Saiyids Muham
mad b. Hâshim and 'Abd al-Rahman b. 'Ubaidullâh al-Sakkàf,
of Tarim and Saiwün respectively, Saiyid 'Abdullah Ba-’l-Fakih
of Tarim, Saiyid Sâlih al-IIâmidî of Saiwün, Saiyid Ahmad al-
'Attâs of al-Shihr, the 'Attâs Saiyids of Huraidah, Shaikh 'Abdul
lah al-Nâkhibï of al-Mukalla, my invaluable informant Shaikh
'Abdullah Rahaiyam of Tarim, the erstwhile kâdï of Dathinah
Muhammad Dja'far al-Sakkaf, the Bâ Surrah governor of al-Shihr
in 1948, and Mr. 'Alï Bâshâ.
For assistance with the illustrations I am indebted to Professor
George Maqdisi of Harvard, Dr. V. L. Ménage, Professor Ahmed
Ates of Istanbul, Messrs. A. N. Kinnard of the Tower of London
Museum, A. W. H. Pearsall of the National Maritime Museum,
R. Hoy of the Library of the School of Oriental and African
Studies, Senhor Carlos de Azevedo of the Museu Nacional de
Arte Contemporânea of Lisbon, Dr. A. A. Bake, Dr. Wendell
Phillips and the American Foundation for the Study of Man,
Professor P. Shinnie of Khartoum, Mr. R. L. Cleveland of Johns
Hopkins, Mr. Morton Nance, and others.
Not least I am happy to express my indebtedness to officers
VI ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
of the Aden Political Service in the field, and to the staff of the
Clarendon Press for the very great pains they have taken with this
book.
Since publication of this book has been unavoidably delayed for
several years, new materials relevant to it have meanwhile appeared.
Dr. L. O. Schuman’s Political History of the Yemen at the beginning
of the Sixteenth Century (Groningen, 1962) (review Bull, of the
School of Oriental and African Studies, 1962, xxv. 2. 350-1) covers
the years 1500-19. Portuguese activities as seen from Mameluke
Egypt are recorded in Die Chronik des Ibn Ijâs, pt. iv (Wiesbaden,
i960). There is much information pertinent to our story here,
notably concerning the pay, recruitment, and constitution of the
Mameluke forces sent to South Arabia, and it is particularly inter
esting to find numbers of troops excused service abroad since
they were afflicted with habb Jfrandjï, the ‘bouton franc’ ! It is my
intention to translate and comment on these passages to supple
ment this volume. Where trade and sea-faring are concerned the
reader may now profitably consult G. R. Tibbetts, ‘Arab Naviga
tion in the Red Sea’, Geographical Journal (London, 1961), cxxvii.
3. 322-34, based on G. Ferrand’s texts, and L. Riveiro, ‘Uma
Geografia Quinhentista’, Studia (Centro de Estudos Histdricos
Ultramarinos, Portugal) (Lisboa, 1961), vii. 200, 202-4, for Aden,
Fartak, al-Shihr, and Zufar.
R. B. SERJEANT
FOREWORD TO THE SECOND EDITION
Since the first edition of this book was published by the Claren
don Press about ten years ago, new studies relevant to my researches
have appeared, there are more recent though not necessarily improved e
ditions of older texts, in further reading one chances upon additional
data, and I have now published an article on the habb ifrandjt. Above
all, my two journeys in the former Royalist areas of northern Yemen
and subsequent visits to the Republic have acquainted me with such en
chantingly remote places as Shahârah and Südah, formerly for me only
uncertain positions on a map, as well as §an‘a\ Ta‘izz, and Mocha.
Through the hospitality of H.B.M. Consul in Muscat, Mr David Crau-
ford, and Mrs Crauford, I was able to see the Portuguese inscriptions
published on pp. 163-66, and of course visit Djalâlï fort. In 1967 my
wife and I were privileged to be numbered among the civilian members
of the Middle East Command Expedition to Socotra led by Major Peter
Boxhall when the last dark days of the Aden Federation were beginning:
it is unlikely that we shall be able to visit this beautiful island again.
To Dr Ray L. Cleveland I am indebted for sending me his review
from the Middle East Journal (xvii, iii, 1963) the corrections in which
I have incorporated in the present reprint, except for a few cases where
I do not altogether agree with him, and to Mr Abd al-Hafez Kamal of
Aramco I^am indebted also for a letter criticising certain points and sug
gesting improvements, most of which I have accepted. Shaikh Muham
mad ‘Abd al-Kâdir Bà Matraf when we met last in al-Mukalla in 1964
also made useful suggestions discussed infra.
Among the more important new sources now available to me, I
now have in my possession a photograph of a modern copy of Bâ
Sandjalah’s Khatt, from which it might be possible to improve my text,
but in these last years I have had little time to turn to analysing this
new find, and it would seem better to attempt an edition of the Khatt
in toto. Editions of the works of Ahmad b. Màdjid and Sulaimân al-
Mahrï which have been appearing in Damascus make these authors easier
to consult, the Beirut edition of al-Bark al-Yamânï renders this work
more accessible, and at least some background information may be avail
able in al-MakrïzFs K. al-Sulük, the publication of which has now been
recommenced. Correlation of the data in my study might be made with
Die Chronik des I bn If as, edit. Mohamed Mostafa, Bibliotheca Islam-
ica, 5d., vierter Teil, A.H. 906-92 i/A.D. 1501-1515, Wiesbaden, i960.
Dr Colin Imber has also drawn my attention to Turkish archival mat
ter in the Muhimme Defteri, vols, iv-vi and provided me with extracts of
the information contained therein. I regret that, in preparing the first
edition, J. Strandes, The Portuguese Period in East Africa, trans. by J.
1. “Notices on the ‘Frankish chancre’ (Syphilis) in Yemen, Egypt and Persia,” Journal
of Semitic Studies, Manchester, x, ii, 241-52.
viii FOREWORD TO THE SECOND EDITION
F. Wallwork, edit. J.S. Kirkman, Nairobi, 1961, came to my notice too
late to use.
In 1964, at al-Shihr, Saiyid Muhammad al-Mukharish showed
me the tomb of the “Seven Martyrs” slain by the Portuguese, though in
fact only six persons are mentioned in the texts as meeting their end at
Portuguese hands. The Bal-Hâdjdj shaikh (p. 53) mentioned as one of
their number was said to be a son of ‘Abdullah Bal-Hâdjdj after whom
Masdjid ‘Abdullah Bal-Hâdjdj, in al-Shihr today, was named. The mem
ory of the Portuguese actions against al-Shihr has not been forgotten
there, and graves of unknown persons on the foreshore are popularly
said to contain the mortal remains of others killed by the Portuguese. In
al-Shihr, Bâ Matraf is of the opinion that the Kathïrï fort (p. 27) was
not Husn Bin ‘Aiyâsh, near the wâdï of the same name, as I have sug
gested, for he thought that the Kathîrî fort would have been situated close
to the shore.
From our camp in Socotra near Sük we sailed by dhow along the
north coast of the island as far as Kalanslyah (Kalenzia), so I was able
to study the organisation of this little port, and in general to amend, to
some extent, the sections of the published text of Ibn al-Mudjâwir cov
ering Socotra, as well as re-adjusting my observations on the island set
out in Appendix V (pp. 157-9). Brian Doe, Socotra, An Archaeological
Reconnaissance in 1967, Florida, 1970, has given a full account of the
foundations of structures in the locality which he examined. On the
bluff to the east of Sük he studied a fort (Doe, 46, plates 47-9, fig. 22)
which, one can have no doubt at all, was occupied and probably con
structed by the Portuguese since it commands a view of the maritime
approaches to Socotra from east and w’est, and also of the plain towards,
and inland of Hadibu. It is a little difficult to reconcile the archaeo
logical findings with Plate 12, but perhaps one should regard the fort-
with its adjacent tower to the left of the picture as representing that dis
covered by the Expedition on the bluff, and the building to the right
of it with what appears to be a belfry as a church, as corresponding to
the site excavated first by Shinnie and later by Doe, just outside Sük.
Some points cannot be dealt with by simple adjustments to my
text. For the second line of verse on p. 24. Abd al-Hafez Kamil
proposes a reading al-nahdji for anhudji. If this can be accepted the
translation might then run, “And began to rule them from that route.”
Presumably in this case it alludes to the arrival of the Franks via the
Cape.
The word takhattaf which is rendered, “to act the pirate, to rob”,
(pp. 49, 58, 109) would accord with the note in Tardjï1 al-Atyâr1, but in
al-Mukalla it was later explained to me as “to pass a place”, or, “they
see it from afar (yishüfûnah min ba'îd).” This sense might seem ap
propriate in some of these places.
1. Al-Ànisî, ‘Abd al-Rahman Yahya, Tardfi al-Afyar, edit., ‘Abd al-Rahman IryanI & ‘Ab
dullah ‘Abd al-Ilah al-Aghbarï, Cairo, 1950, 345.
FOREWORD TO THE SECOND EDITION IX
I have long doubted the accuracy of translating salb as “crucify
ing” and in present-day Yemen it can be used of sticking a head up on
a pole. This sense suits the events described on p. 95, and resolves the
apparent inconsistency of the sources, one of which states that Shaikh
‘Amir was hanged, not crucified. So p. 95, lines 9-10, might be render
ed, “He ordered them all to be strung up {salb), and string them up
they did...”
Abd al-Hafez Kamal further suggests that marâmï (sing, proba
bly mirmâ) in marâmï li-1-barûd (pp. 161-2) means “guns” not “em
brasures”, although the word is not now so used. This seems to offer
a better sense, and the translation would then read, “in which are guns
{marâmï li-1-barüd) for those who use them in fighting.”
R. B. SERJEANT
San‘a’, June 1972
