Battle of Ash-Shihr (1523)

Battle of Ash-Shihr
Purple: Portuguese presence in Yemen, 16th and 17th century. Pink: Allied sultan territories
Date February 28 – March 2, 1523 (1523-02-28 – 1523-03-02) Location Ash-Shihr, Kathiri Sultanate
Belligerents
Kingdom of Portugal	Kathiri Sultanate
Commanders and leaders
Duarte de Meneses Luís de Meneses[1]	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.[2] 6 galleons.[1] 400-700 soldiers[2]	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.^[3]

In Thursday, February 28, 1523 (10 of the month of Rabi’ al-Awwal in the year 929 AH), the Portuguese governor of India, Dom Duarte de Meneses, dispatched his brother, Dom Luís de Meneses, to the Red Sea with a force of 6 galleons. Dom 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.^[1] 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.^[4] It was then successfully attacked and sacked while the inhabitants fled. Shihr was further plundered by the settlement's garrison, and by vagrants.^[5] 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.^[5] 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.^[6]