Publication Date
2009
Categories
(Soqotra, Suqutra), island in the west of the Indian Ocean, at the entrance to the Gulf of Aden (Yemen), close to the Cape of Guardafui (Somalia). It is the largest island in this region, with an area of about 3580 km² and a population of about 40,000 inhabitants. The island of Socotorá was known in Classical times and Christianized during Late Antiquity; from early on, it attracted the attention of the Portuguese. Vicente Sodré is said to have reached the island in March or April of 1503, before his shipwreck in the islands of Curia Muria, and Diogo Fernandes Piteira also reached it, at the end of 1503 or beginning of 1504. Piteira informed King Manuel, who ordered the conquest and fortification of the island, since he considered it to be in a strategic location to block the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb and a focal point for evangelization in Asia. The Portuguese conquest of Suq, the main locality in Socotorá, occurred in April of 1507, under the joint command of Tristão da Chunha and Afonso de Albuquerque. Suq had been occupied since 1481 by the Banu Afrar, the reigning family of sultans of Caxem (Kishn) in the country of Mahra (present-day Hadramaute, eastern Yemen). The garrison, led by Dom Afonso de Noronha, was neither able to garner the support of the local population, nor to deal with the lack of resources of the island itself, which was arid and dependent on the importation of rice and other goods. In 1511, Diogo Fernandes of Beja dismantled the fort, by order of the king, thereby allowing the immediate return to Suq of the Banu Afrar of Caxem, who ruled until the 19th century.
At an unknown date after the Portuguese left, Caxem became the strongest ally of the State of India in Southern Arabia, a region that had been under strong Ottoman pressure since the 1530s. During the entire 16th century, Socotorá was a water supply stop for Portuguese vessels. Besides provisions such as meat and fish, the island exported woolen fabrics, amber, aloe and dragon's blood. The island's traditional network of commerce connected it to Melinde, Magadoxo, Caxem, Ormuz, Diu and Goa.
Socotorá was also the stage for concerted Catholic missionary work. After the parish work done by the Franciscan António do Loureiro from 1507 to 1510/1511, the following stand out: an anonymous Franciscan mission in 1542-43; a Jesuit mission led by Gaspar Coelho in 1562-63; and an Augustine mission organized by the archbishop of Goa, Frei Aleixo de Meneses, and led by Leonardo da Graça and Valério do Loreto in 1603-04. Mention should also be made of the visits of the Jesuits Francisco Xavier in 1542, and Gonçalo Rodrigues and Fulgêncio Freire in 1555. Attempts to evangelize failed, less because of internal politics (the conversion of Socotorá to Islam would only begin in the 19th century), but mostly because, since the 14th century, Christianity in the island had diverged greatly from Nestorian orthodoxy. During the 15th century, Christianity in Socotorá was markedly shaped by the ancient, local Semitic substratum. By the 16th and 17th centuries, the population of Socotorá had already adhered to a unique, hybrid religious culture, which the missionaries of the Catholic Church were neither able to understand nor to control.
After the beginning of the 17th century, Socotorá offered support to the commercial activity of VOC and EIC, without becoming a stage for armed combat between the different western powers. During the 18th century, a number of Portuguese subjects frequented the island.
Bibliography: BIEDERMANN, Zoltán, 'Nas pegadas do apóstolo: Socotorá nas fontes europeias dos séculos XVI e XVII', in Anais de História de Além-Mar, 1 (2000), pp. 287-386. BRÁSIO, António, Missões Portuguesas de Socotorá (Col. Pelo Império, 93), Lisbon, 1943. COSTA, José Pereira da, Socotorá e o domínio português do Oriente (Ancient Chartography Studies, Coimbra Section, 82), Coimbra, 1973.
Translated by: Rosa Neves Simas
At an unknown date after the Portuguese left, Caxem became the strongest ally of the State of India in Southern Arabia, a region that had been under strong Ottoman pressure since the 1530s. During the entire 16th century, Socotorá was a water supply stop for Portuguese vessels. Besides provisions such as meat and fish, the island exported woolen fabrics, amber, aloe and dragon's blood. The island's traditional network of commerce connected it to Melinde, Magadoxo, Caxem, Ormuz, Diu and Goa.
Socotorá was also the stage for concerted Catholic missionary work. After the parish work done by the Franciscan António do Loureiro from 1507 to 1510/1511, the following stand out: an anonymous Franciscan mission in 1542-43; a Jesuit mission led by Gaspar Coelho in 1562-63; and an Augustine mission organized by the archbishop of Goa, Frei Aleixo de Meneses, and led by Leonardo da Graça and Valério do Loreto in 1603-04. Mention should also be made of the visits of the Jesuits Francisco Xavier in 1542, and Gonçalo Rodrigues and Fulgêncio Freire in 1555. Attempts to evangelize failed, less because of internal politics (the conversion of Socotorá to Islam would only begin in the 19th century), but mostly because, since the 14th century, Christianity in the island had diverged greatly from Nestorian orthodoxy. During the 15th century, Christianity in Socotorá was markedly shaped by the ancient, local Semitic substratum. By the 16th and 17th centuries, the population of Socotorá had already adhered to a unique, hybrid religious culture, which the missionaries of the Catholic Church were neither able to understand nor to control.
After the beginning of the 17th century, Socotorá offered support to the commercial activity of VOC and EIC, without becoming a stage for armed combat between the different western powers. During the 18th century, a number of Portuguese subjects frequented the island.
Bibliography: BIEDERMANN, Zoltán, 'Nas pegadas do apóstolo: Socotorá nas fontes europeias dos séculos XVI e XVII', in Anais de História de Além-Mar, 1 (2000), pp. 287-386. BRÁSIO, António, Missões Portuguesas de Socotorá (Col. Pelo Império, 93), Lisbon, 1943. COSTA, José Pereira da, Socotorá e o domínio português do Oriente (Ancient Chartography Studies, Coimbra Section, 82), Coimbra, 1973.
Translated by: Rosa Neves Simas