Publication Date
2009
Categories
Name given to those who converted to Islam and who opted for serving a Muslim political authority. They were also designated arrenegados.
The phenomenon of the renegades had been known to the Portuguese since the 15th century North African conquests, when desertion by soldiers to join the opposing army was common. Not all of them converted to the Islamic faith, however. Some merely became mercenaries at the service of a Muslim king. The coeval documentation names them alevantados, confusing them with the renegades per say. In a passage from the Sétima Decada, Diogo de Sousa refers to them as chatins (a term that refers to a shady merchant, mercenary). Many of the future Portuguese renegades in Asia started by learning Arab in Morocco via the information gathering and message exchange missions that were assigned to them, as well as through contact with slaves, interpreters, merchants and imprisioned Muslims. It is probable that they began proliferating significantly throughout Asia after the 1520s.
Geographically speaking, the regions east of Cape Camorim were the ideal location for the majority of Portuguese renegades to take refuge, due to the weak presence of the Estado da India in these regions which harbored Portuguese communities that despite being well structured lived on the threshold of marginality. A number of private merchants, adventurers, deserters, alevantados, and mercenaries, many of whom had converted to Islam, were part of these communities. There are sources in existence that indicate that in 1627, between Bengal and Macassar, 5,000 Portuguese renegades were at the service of Asian potentates, though the number likely included both renegades and mercenaries.
There were various reasons that could lead a Portuguese man to renounce his political loyalty and religious beliefs. Many renegaded due either to being accused of a crime, or to being at risk for this to happen. When noblemen and persons of higher social classes who rarely renegaded did so, it was to evade accusations of criminality. The case of Gonçalo Vaz Coutinho, a nobleman who was arrested in Goa in 1540 due to accusations of assassination but managed to leave the city, is an example. Coutinho is referred to in Peregrinação by Fernão Mendes Pinto, as a powerful man, well connected and owner of several properties in Goa.
Others switched sides with the goal of reaching their political and economic ambitions. Despite the renegades´ diverse social origins, common soldiers, sailors, and rowers were more susceptible to desertion - it was they who were most likely to starve during the sieges and military campaigns, besides being poorly paid - thus seeking better conditions on the enemy side. There existed some attraction to Islam, which was accentuated by the prestige of Muslim civilization and society, and by the knowledge of the material benefits and social ascension which were offered to those who turned themselves over to it voluntarily and sincerely. It was known that those who deserted were rewarded by Muslim authorities with good salaries, benefits and, with a bit of luck, positions of authority. In this regard, Gonçalo Vaz Coutinho is once again an example. After becoming a pirate on his own, using a small fleet to attack and pillage Muslim ships in the Gulf of Bengal, he returned to Goa in 1542, sold his belongings and, fled to Bijapur, taking his wife and children with him. There, he converted to Islam and became a captain in Adil Shah´s cavalry.
Muslim religion itself was viewed by the renegades as a simple belief system, close to the individual, free of rituals and complicated dogmas, thus contrasting with Catholic doctrine. For the prisioners themselves, conversion was also a quick means to become freed men.
Some renegades had a prior cultural affiliation with Islam, as many of them were originally from North Africa and had Muslim progenitors. The act of apostatizing was for them a kind of return to the ancestral faith. There is knowledge as well of some new-Christians that converted to Islam in face of the impossibility of returning to Judaism. Adherence to Islam was otherwise considered a minor crime in the eyes of the Inquisition.
Generally, the renegades offered military services to other nations. In Asia, Europeans and Turks were especially sought after by the local Muslim potentates due to their knowledge of artillery. However, the use of European mercenaries - specifically of Portuguese - by Muslim rulers did not mean that conversion was obligatory. Like the Ottoman Empire or the Safavids of Persia, who utilized mercenaries of various origins, the Indian sultanates of Gujarat, Bijapur, and Ahmednagar, the Mongol empire and the Sultanates of Maritime Southeast Asia recruited this type of labor essentially for the military skills. For Muslim rulers, this practice presented several advantages: the superior technical knowledge possessed by these soldiers, their greater loyalty (due to not being connected with a local clan), and their not presenting a threat to the elites of the kingdom. Thus, the fact that they entered the service of a sovereign motivated merely by the necessity of fleeing a judicial process or of improving their life conditions did not justify their conversion.
In the battlefield, the renegades many times served as lieutenants, filling in for military commanders, gathering the foreign mercenaries and giving them combat orders. The renegades also served as double agents, especially during sieges, using their contacts among the Portuguese to pass on to their lords information about spots that were vulnerable to attack. On other ocasions, they provided false information to the Portuguese regarding a would-be enemy plan of attack. The renegades were utilized in "psychological warfare" as well: they incited Portuguese soldiers to desert and join their side, informing them of the benefits they could obtain if they did so.
This demonstrates as well that the contacts between the renegades and their society of origin were not always erased. Gonçalo Vaz Coutinho is a case in point: he maintained contact with his nephew António de Sousa, captain of Chaul, so that in 1546 he would request a safe-conduct from Dom João de Castro to enable his uncle to enter the city.
In any case, the act of renegading was an open door to duplicity: there was always the possibility of returning to the service of the Portuguese when the opportunity presented itself, and religious conversion was merely a cover. This was the case with João Machado, an exile left by Pedro Alvares Cabral in East Africa, who later would enter the service of Yusuf Adil Khan. After becoming the leader of the Sultan of Bijapur´s foreign mercenaries, the firangiyan, Machado demonstrated a desire to rejoin the Portuguese, and even secretely informed Afonso de Albuquerque of the enemy´s strategic maneuvers. In 1511, he deserted and joined the Portuguese side along with other compatriots, taking advantage of Portuguese despair during the siege of Goa, which contributed to restoring the credibility he had lost.
In fact, many renegades returned to Christian society, bringing with them tremendous advantages. There are numerous cases where ex-renegades were utilized by the Crown as informers, messengers, and interpreters, especially in relation to the Muslim world. Despite Dom Manuel´s orders that ex-renegades be treated leniently, Afonso de Albuquerque viewed this policy as encouraging desertion and severely punished the renegades who had taken refuge in Goa before the conquest of this city.
In times of war and of peace, the renegades were ideal intermediaries between Portuguese and Asians, serving as messengers between the Portuguese Estado da India and neighboring potentates, and as interpreters during diplomatic negotiations. Many of these interpreters became true political counselors of the Muslim rulers, as was the case with Fernão Rodrigues Caldeira, who worked in the Court of Golkonda, serving sultan Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah.
The adoption of certain Muslim cultural characteristics was one of the visible signs of a renegade. The use of Muslim dress, for example, could be one such sign, though many European Christian mercenaries also wore them. On the other hand, Circumcision, a bodily mark of a convert to Islam, was not always performed, as this practice depended on the social position of the convert and the duration of the conversion. We have as well examples of renegades like João Machado and Gonçalo Vaz Coutinho, who married Muslim women and, in the latter case, left descendants.
The sources of the time, namely the works of Gaspar Correia, João de Barros, and Diogo do Couto, manifest an ambiguous position relative to the renegades: if, on the one hand, they condemn them for betraying their faith and king, on the other they demonstrate some fascination with the renegades´ ability to assert themselves in a society that they had freely chosen and adopted.
Bibliography:
COUTO, Dejanirah, "Quelques observations, sur les renégats portugais en Asie au XVIe siécle", in Mare Liberum. Revista de História dos Mares, Número 16, Dezembro 1998, pp.157-185. CRUZ, Maria Augusta Lima, "Exiles and renegades in early sixteenth century Portuguese India", in The Indian Economic and Social History Review, v.23, no.3, 1986, pp. 249-262. SUBRAHMANYAM, Sanjay, O Império Asiático Português, 1500-1700: Uma História Política e Económica, Lisboa, Difel, 1995, pp.351-361.
Translated by: Maria João Pimentel
The phenomenon of the renegades had been known to the Portuguese since the 15th century North African conquests, when desertion by soldiers to join the opposing army was common. Not all of them converted to the Islamic faith, however. Some merely became mercenaries at the service of a Muslim king. The coeval documentation names them alevantados, confusing them with the renegades per say. In a passage from the Sétima Decada, Diogo de Sousa refers to them as chatins (a term that refers to a shady merchant, mercenary). Many of the future Portuguese renegades in Asia started by learning Arab in Morocco via the information gathering and message exchange missions that were assigned to them, as well as through contact with slaves, interpreters, merchants and imprisioned Muslims. It is probable that they began proliferating significantly throughout Asia after the 1520s.
Geographically speaking, the regions east of Cape Camorim were the ideal location for the majority of Portuguese renegades to take refuge, due to the weak presence of the Estado da India in these regions which harbored Portuguese communities that despite being well structured lived on the threshold of marginality. A number of private merchants, adventurers, deserters, alevantados, and mercenaries, many of whom had converted to Islam, were part of these communities. There are sources in existence that indicate that in 1627, between Bengal and Macassar, 5,000 Portuguese renegades were at the service of Asian potentates, though the number likely included both renegades and mercenaries.
There were various reasons that could lead a Portuguese man to renounce his political loyalty and religious beliefs. Many renegaded due either to being accused of a crime, or to being at risk for this to happen. When noblemen and persons of higher social classes who rarely renegaded did so, it was to evade accusations of criminality. The case of Gonçalo Vaz Coutinho, a nobleman who was arrested in Goa in 1540 due to accusations of assassination but managed to leave the city, is an example. Coutinho is referred to in Peregrinação by Fernão Mendes Pinto, as a powerful man, well connected and owner of several properties in Goa.
Others switched sides with the goal of reaching their political and economic ambitions. Despite the renegades´ diverse social origins, common soldiers, sailors, and rowers were more susceptible to desertion - it was they who were most likely to starve during the sieges and military campaigns, besides being poorly paid - thus seeking better conditions on the enemy side. There existed some attraction to Islam, which was accentuated by the prestige of Muslim civilization and society, and by the knowledge of the material benefits and social ascension which were offered to those who turned themselves over to it voluntarily and sincerely. It was known that those who deserted were rewarded by Muslim authorities with good salaries, benefits and, with a bit of luck, positions of authority. In this regard, Gonçalo Vaz Coutinho is once again an example. After becoming a pirate on his own, using a small fleet to attack and pillage Muslim ships in the Gulf of Bengal, he returned to Goa in 1542, sold his belongings and, fled to Bijapur, taking his wife and children with him. There, he converted to Islam and became a captain in Adil Shah´s cavalry.
Muslim religion itself was viewed by the renegades as a simple belief system, close to the individual, free of rituals and complicated dogmas, thus contrasting with Catholic doctrine. For the prisioners themselves, conversion was also a quick means to become freed men.
Some renegades had a prior cultural affiliation with Islam, as many of them were originally from North Africa and had Muslim progenitors. The act of apostatizing was for them a kind of return to the ancestral faith. There is knowledge as well of some new-Christians that converted to Islam in face of the impossibility of returning to Judaism. Adherence to Islam was otherwise considered a minor crime in the eyes of the Inquisition.
Generally, the renegades offered military services to other nations. In Asia, Europeans and Turks were especially sought after by the local Muslim potentates due to their knowledge of artillery. However, the use of European mercenaries - specifically of Portuguese - by Muslim rulers did not mean that conversion was obligatory. Like the Ottoman Empire or the Safavids of Persia, who utilized mercenaries of various origins, the Indian sultanates of Gujarat, Bijapur, and Ahmednagar, the Mongol empire and the Sultanates of Maritime Southeast Asia recruited this type of labor essentially for the military skills. For Muslim rulers, this practice presented several advantages: the superior technical knowledge possessed by these soldiers, their greater loyalty (due to not being connected with a local clan), and their not presenting a threat to the elites of the kingdom. Thus, the fact that they entered the service of a sovereign motivated merely by the necessity of fleeing a judicial process or of improving their life conditions did not justify their conversion.
In the battlefield, the renegades many times served as lieutenants, filling in for military commanders, gathering the foreign mercenaries and giving them combat orders. The renegades also served as double agents, especially during sieges, using their contacts among the Portuguese to pass on to their lords information about spots that were vulnerable to attack. On other ocasions, they provided false information to the Portuguese regarding a would-be enemy plan of attack. The renegades were utilized in "psychological warfare" as well: they incited Portuguese soldiers to desert and join their side, informing them of the benefits they could obtain if they did so.
This demonstrates as well that the contacts between the renegades and their society of origin were not always erased. Gonçalo Vaz Coutinho is a case in point: he maintained contact with his nephew António de Sousa, captain of Chaul, so that in 1546 he would request a safe-conduct from Dom João de Castro to enable his uncle to enter the city.
In any case, the act of renegading was an open door to duplicity: there was always the possibility of returning to the service of the Portuguese when the opportunity presented itself, and religious conversion was merely a cover. This was the case with João Machado, an exile left by Pedro Alvares Cabral in East Africa, who later would enter the service of Yusuf Adil Khan. After becoming the leader of the Sultan of Bijapur´s foreign mercenaries, the firangiyan, Machado demonstrated a desire to rejoin the Portuguese, and even secretely informed Afonso de Albuquerque of the enemy´s strategic maneuvers. In 1511, he deserted and joined the Portuguese side along with other compatriots, taking advantage of Portuguese despair during the siege of Goa, which contributed to restoring the credibility he had lost.
In fact, many renegades returned to Christian society, bringing with them tremendous advantages. There are numerous cases where ex-renegades were utilized by the Crown as informers, messengers, and interpreters, especially in relation to the Muslim world. Despite Dom Manuel´s orders that ex-renegades be treated leniently, Afonso de Albuquerque viewed this policy as encouraging desertion and severely punished the renegades who had taken refuge in Goa before the conquest of this city.
In times of war and of peace, the renegades were ideal intermediaries between Portuguese and Asians, serving as messengers between the Portuguese Estado da India and neighboring potentates, and as interpreters during diplomatic negotiations. Many of these interpreters became true political counselors of the Muslim rulers, as was the case with Fernão Rodrigues Caldeira, who worked in the Court of Golkonda, serving sultan Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah.
The adoption of certain Muslim cultural characteristics was one of the visible signs of a renegade. The use of Muslim dress, for example, could be one such sign, though many European Christian mercenaries also wore them. On the other hand, Circumcision, a bodily mark of a convert to Islam, was not always performed, as this practice depended on the social position of the convert and the duration of the conversion. We have as well examples of renegades like João Machado and Gonçalo Vaz Coutinho, who married Muslim women and, in the latter case, left descendants.
The sources of the time, namely the works of Gaspar Correia, João de Barros, and Diogo do Couto, manifest an ambiguous position relative to the renegades: if, on the one hand, they condemn them for betraying their faith and king, on the other they demonstrate some fascination with the renegades´ ability to assert themselves in a society that they had freely chosen and adopted.
Bibliography:
COUTO, Dejanirah, "Quelques observations, sur les renégats portugais en Asie au XVIe siécle", in Mare Liberum. Revista de História dos Mares, Número 16, Dezembro 1998, pp.157-185. CRUZ, Maria Augusta Lima, "Exiles and renegades in early sixteenth century Portuguese India", in The Indian Economic and Social History Review, v.23, no.3, 1986, pp. 249-262. SUBRAHMANYAM, Sanjay, O Império Asiático Português, 1500-1700: Uma História Política e Económica, Lisboa, Difel, 1995, pp.351-361.
Translated by: Maria João Pimentel