Publication Date
2009
Categories
The significance of Diu resulted from its magnificent strategic position in the Gujarat Peninsula, in the northwest coast of India, as it allowed for controlling navigation to and commerce with the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, and the eastern Indian Ocean. The growing influence of the Portuguese in the Malabar Coast increased the economic importance of Diu, which the Muslims controlled. Diu was one of the strongest positions in the Arabian navigation route and virtually held the monopoly of commerce with Malaca, a port that connected Far East products with India, and which was conquered in 1511 by Afonso de Albuquerque.
The Diu territory comprised the small island by the same name, with a length of 15Km and a maximum width of 5Km, and the village of Gogolá, with an area of only 2 square Km, which is situated in terra firma and from which the island is separated by the Chassi River. The city is located on the eastern tip and is separated from the rest of the island by a channel along which runs a large wall of Muslim origin. Dom João de Castro repaired and expanded the fortress with a wall that was 8 meters thick and about 280 meters in length. It ought to be pointed out, however, that little or nothing remains of the original Diu fortress which was defended by Antonio Silveira and João Mascarenhas in 1538. Of the one that was restored and resisted the second siege in 1546, only the bastion at the entrance remains. Almost all of what can be seen today of the Diu fortress is a product of several restorations and additions carried out during the 17th and 18th centuries. Simbor, also known as Forte do Mar or Pani-Kote, was a miniscule territory with an area of about one square kilometer - merely a fortified island and two strips of land separated by a creek - that was located about 25 Km east of Diu Island.
In Diu, as was the case in other Portuguese fortified strongholds of the former Estado da India, the Portuguese inhabitants, soldiers, officials, and casados [retired soldiers permitted to take part in commerce] converged. We know that at the end of the 16th century more than 200 families of Portuguese origin resided in Diu, as well as a Muslim population that could grow to a total of two thousand inhabitants. At the beginning of the 17th century, the number of Hindu residents could reach four to five thousand inhabitants. A century later, in 1720, through data available in the Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino we confirm that the Diu urban nucleus and the villages of Gogolá, Dangavarim, Brancavará, and Bunxivará totaled about 1,900 dwellings, housing around 6,500 Guajarat residents. The Hindus, Parsis and Jainists, represented 90.1% of the Indian population, while 9.8% were Muslims. During that same period the city of Diu counted 4,842 non-Catholic residents. Adding the number of Christians residing there in 1722 to this tally, one confirms that the urban population totaled 5,271 individuals. Finally, already in the 20th century, according to the statistical data compiled by Raquel Soeiro de Brito, it seems possible to conclude that there was some demographic stagnation in the city of Diu, inasmuch as the total population residing in the city was only 5,200 individuals, including Hindus, Muslims, and Catholics.
São Tomé Mother Church, the Misericórdia, the hospital and a cistern were located in the small city of Diu. These edifices became ruins during the first half of the 19th century. Today we find only structures that were quite modified, ruins, memorial monuments, ammunition storehouses, buildings that served as storehouses, military instalations, and prisons. In front of the fortress we can see São Paulo college, which was built by the Jesuits between 1600 and 1615 and, later, transformed into a See. Dominicans, Capuchins, and Carmelites also built their churches, but the Mother Church of São Tomé is all that is left, currently converted to a historical museum. The indigenous city, located outside the fortress area, is divided into distinct neighborhoods according to whether the residents were Muslim or Hindu, and these were grouped into castes that generally corresponded to various professions. A collection of small villages - Fodão, Malala, Dangavarim, Nagoá, Jasoatraque, Brancavará, and Bunxivará - is located further from the city.
From a historical point of view, the first great Portuguese intervention in Diu was carried out by Dom Francisco de Almeida, when he defeated the strong Mameluke armada. It is important to consider, even if succintly, the events that preceded this battle, which occurred in 1509 and is considered by Saturnino Monteiro as one of the most symbolic in the history of the Portuguese navy and "uma das raras batalhas navais em que a armada vencida foi totalmente aniquilada" ["one of the rare naval battles in which the vanquished armada was completely anihilated"]. In August 1507, a Mameluke Armada from Egypt arrived in the Indian Ocean. It comprised four ships with Turkish artillery and troops, commanded by Emir Hussein al Kurdi, whom Portuguese Chroniclers designated Mir-Hocem. In March 1508, Mir-Hocem´s fleet, reinforced with the aid of the ships, fustas, of the Captain of Diu, Malik Aiyaz, sailed to Chaul where the Portuguese armada in India, under the command of Dom Lourenço de Almeida, was stationed. A fierce battle took place in which Dom Lourenço de Almeida perished and both fleets suffered significant damage, leading to the Mameluke fleet´s return to Diu while the Portuguese one sought protection in Cochin. News of the death of Dom Lourenço infuriated his father, Dom Francisco de Almeida, the viceroy of India. However, the monsoon approached and the revenge of this affront had to wait a few more months, until the weather permitted. The punishment would take place the following year, in 1509. Setting aside all the steps to prepare the fleet and the various episodes of war described in detail by Saturnino Monteiro, it should be preserved here that Francisco de Almeida, disrespecting royal orders, decided to fight the Rumes (the designation given the Turks by the chroniclers) before turning over government to viceroy Afonso de Albuquerque, who had been nominated meanwhile. In the famous battle of Diu, the Rumes were defeated and made to flee.
That year Afonso de Albuquerque also handled the handing over of Diu but only obtained authorization from Malik Aiyaz for the construction of a house that would serve as a trading post, appointing Fernão Martins Evangelho as factor.
Until 1533 there were several attacks to attempt to conquer Diu: by Diogo Lopes de Sequeira in 1521, by Dom Nuno da Cunha in 1523 and 1531. All of these failed. In 1534, the Sultan of Gujarat, Bahadur Shah, fearing the Great Mogul Humayun, asked the Portuguese for assistance, allowing for the construction of a fortress in exchange. In 1535 the construction of the aforementioned fortress began. Later, the sultan of Bahadur wanted to annul this concession, but had to give in, dying in the melee, under fire by the men of Nuno da Cunha.
In 1538 the first siege of Diu took place and the Portuguese, under the command of António da Silveira, were able to withstand all the attacks. In 1546, while Dom João de Castro was viceroy, the second siege of Diu occurred and was even more intense and brutal than the previous one. This time the armada that came to the aid of the fortified stronghold destroyed the Muslim forces. After this blockade, an imposing defensive system was erected in Diu, which to this day causes perplexity and wonder due to its magnificence.
It is impossible to understand the economic significance and the influence of Diu in the control and dominion of navigation and commerce with the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the Malabar Coast, without emphasizing the relevance of its location in Gujarat, a great and rich region of the northwest of the Indian sub-continent.
From the most remote times, Gujarat was one of the provinces having a relevant role in overseas commercial connections with the Indian Ocean. There, a notable textile industy was developed around which other manufacturing arose, which produced a diversified array of merchandise destined for markets as faraway as the African sertões [wilderness areas in the interior] in the west, or Maritime Southeast Asia in the east. In exchange for the exportation of these manufactured products, namely luxury cloth, carpets, jewelry, perfumes, leather and ivory artifacts large amounts of raw materials and spices converged to Gujarat.
This commercial and manufacturing specialization led to the emergence of important port cities, where the various merchant, bankers, and sailor castes that were involved in these activities prospered. Diu´s social and economic fabric rested on a coherent communication network that was dominated by the Banyans, in which persons and goods from different cultures circulated, and that assured close contact with various ports in Kathiawar and the relatively close Gulf of Cambaia, other ports in Sinde and Oman - already at a reasonable distance - as well as other more distant ones located in the Red Sea and the East African Coast.
As discussed before, whoever held political and military domain over Diu had a means of controlling the transoceanic commercial and passenger routes traveling to Mecca on pilgrimage.
The portuary movement of the 1700s, a result of the activity of a very ancient network of interregional commerce, still presented some dynamism. Commercial exchanges with traders from locations at a short distance were frequent. Throughout the year, ships from nearly all Gujaratan ports arrived at the port of Diu, ladden with two types of merchandise: foodstuffs for daily consumption, namely various types of rice, coconuts, white areca [a type of palm tree], pepper, cane or coconut sugar, wheat, coffee, olive oil, butter, and vegetables, as well as raw materials needed for the citadel´s manufacturing industry, namely calaim [Indian tin], raw yarns and fabrics and other types of cloth suitable for commerce with East Africa. These ships returned to their ports of origin loaded with ivory teeth, either whole or sawed into rings, which came from the East African Coast.
From Mascate, Macala, Cachem (Kutch) and Mangalor - all ports located at an intermediate distance - gum, incense, coffee, areca, senna, dry fruits, precious stones, and patacas [coins]. From places at a greater distance, such as Jeddá, Moca, and Mozambique, there came slaves, ivory, turtle shell, Spanish patacas, gold, rhinoceros horn, cowry, coffee, sugar, paper, and tar. The ships of the Diu Banyans traveled to these ports in the Red Sea and the African coast, carrying all kinds of grains and other small products.
After the 18th century, the strategic significance of Diu declined gradually, as its commercial significance became a shadow of its former days, until it became reduced to a location of unquestionable historical value and of great interest to the study of military architecture.
Diu would remain under Portuguese dominion until 1961. Perhaps for this reason Diu is perceived as a symbol of unsubmissiveness and persistence, and its fortress was designed to last through the ages. Additionally, because it was deemed one of the most harmonious and majestic fortresses built by the Portuguese, it merited being chosen to be one of the "sete maravilhas de origem portuguesa espalhadas pelo mundo" ["seven wonders of Portuguese origin spread throughout the world."]
Bibliography:
Sources: A.H.U., Índia, Maço 22, (9), 20.03.1726. A.H.U., Índia, cx. 46, doc. 50, 23.11.1720. COUTINHO, Lopo de Sousa, O primeiro cerco de Diu, pref. de Luís de Albuquerque, Edições Alfa, Biblioteca da Expansão Portuguesa, 41, Lisboa, 1989. BAIÃO, António, História quinhentista (inédita) do segundo cêrco de Dio ilustrada com a correspondência original, também inédita, de D. João de Castro, D. João de Mascarenhas, e outros [autor provável Leonardo Nunes] pub. e pref. por António Baião ; [ed. lit.] Academia das Sciencias de Lisboa, Coimbra, Imprensa da Universidade, 1925; MATOS, Artur Teodoro de, O Tombo de Diu R08; 1592, CNCDP, Lisboa, 1999. Studies: ANTUNES, Luís Frederico Dias, «Diu. Espaços e quotidianos», in Os Espaços de um Império. Estudos, CNCDP, Lisboa, 1999. IDEM, «Diu, a actividade comercial de um pequeno porto do Guzerate (1680R08;1800): os documentos portugueses», in Sources européennes pour le Gujarat, Moyen Orient & Océan Indien XVR08;XIX s., Société d'Histoire de l'Orient, 10, Paris, 1998. QUADROS, Jerónimo, Diu: apontamentos para a História e Chorographia, Nova Goa, 1899. MENDES, A. Lopes, A Índia Portugueza, Lisboa, Imprensa Nacional, 1886. PEREIRA, A. B. de Bragança, «Os Portugueses em Diu», Separata de O Oriente Português, Bastorá, 1938. MONTEIRO, Armando Saturnino, Batalhas e Combates da marinha Portuguesa, Sá da Costa, Lisboa, 1989. BRITO, Raquel Soeiro de, «O Meio e os Homens nas Províncias do Norte», in Mare Liberum, 9, CNCDP, Julho, 1995.
Translated by: Maria João Pimentel
The Diu territory comprised the small island by the same name, with a length of 15Km and a maximum width of 5Km, and the village of Gogolá, with an area of only 2 square Km, which is situated in terra firma and from which the island is separated by the Chassi River. The city is located on the eastern tip and is separated from the rest of the island by a channel along which runs a large wall of Muslim origin. Dom João de Castro repaired and expanded the fortress with a wall that was 8 meters thick and about 280 meters in length. It ought to be pointed out, however, that little or nothing remains of the original Diu fortress which was defended by Antonio Silveira and João Mascarenhas in 1538. Of the one that was restored and resisted the second siege in 1546, only the bastion at the entrance remains. Almost all of what can be seen today of the Diu fortress is a product of several restorations and additions carried out during the 17th and 18th centuries. Simbor, also known as Forte do Mar or Pani-Kote, was a miniscule territory with an area of about one square kilometer - merely a fortified island and two strips of land separated by a creek - that was located about 25 Km east of Diu Island.
In Diu, as was the case in other Portuguese fortified strongholds of the former Estado da India, the Portuguese inhabitants, soldiers, officials, and casados [retired soldiers permitted to take part in commerce] converged. We know that at the end of the 16th century more than 200 families of Portuguese origin resided in Diu, as well as a Muslim population that could grow to a total of two thousand inhabitants. At the beginning of the 17th century, the number of Hindu residents could reach four to five thousand inhabitants. A century later, in 1720, through data available in the Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino we confirm that the Diu urban nucleus and the villages of Gogolá, Dangavarim, Brancavará, and Bunxivará totaled about 1,900 dwellings, housing around 6,500 Guajarat residents. The Hindus, Parsis and Jainists, represented 90.1% of the Indian population, while 9.8% were Muslims. During that same period the city of Diu counted 4,842 non-Catholic residents. Adding the number of Christians residing there in 1722 to this tally, one confirms that the urban population totaled 5,271 individuals. Finally, already in the 20th century, according to the statistical data compiled by Raquel Soeiro de Brito, it seems possible to conclude that there was some demographic stagnation in the city of Diu, inasmuch as the total population residing in the city was only 5,200 individuals, including Hindus, Muslims, and Catholics.
São Tomé Mother Church, the Misericórdia, the hospital and a cistern were located in the small city of Diu. These edifices became ruins during the first half of the 19th century. Today we find only structures that were quite modified, ruins, memorial monuments, ammunition storehouses, buildings that served as storehouses, military instalations, and prisons. In front of the fortress we can see São Paulo college, which was built by the Jesuits between 1600 and 1615 and, later, transformed into a See. Dominicans, Capuchins, and Carmelites also built their churches, but the Mother Church of São Tomé is all that is left, currently converted to a historical museum. The indigenous city, located outside the fortress area, is divided into distinct neighborhoods according to whether the residents were Muslim or Hindu, and these were grouped into castes that generally corresponded to various professions. A collection of small villages - Fodão, Malala, Dangavarim, Nagoá, Jasoatraque, Brancavará, and Bunxivará - is located further from the city.
From a historical point of view, the first great Portuguese intervention in Diu was carried out by Dom Francisco de Almeida, when he defeated the strong Mameluke armada. It is important to consider, even if succintly, the events that preceded this battle, which occurred in 1509 and is considered by Saturnino Monteiro as one of the most symbolic in the history of the Portuguese navy and "uma das raras batalhas navais em que a armada vencida foi totalmente aniquilada" ["one of the rare naval battles in which the vanquished armada was completely anihilated"]. In August 1507, a Mameluke Armada from Egypt arrived in the Indian Ocean. It comprised four ships with Turkish artillery and troops, commanded by Emir Hussein al Kurdi, whom Portuguese Chroniclers designated Mir-Hocem. In March 1508, Mir-Hocem´s fleet, reinforced with the aid of the ships, fustas, of the Captain of Diu, Malik Aiyaz, sailed to Chaul where the Portuguese armada in India, under the command of Dom Lourenço de Almeida, was stationed. A fierce battle took place in which Dom Lourenço de Almeida perished and both fleets suffered significant damage, leading to the Mameluke fleet´s return to Diu while the Portuguese one sought protection in Cochin. News of the death of Dom Lourenço infuriated his father, Dom Francisco de Almeida, the viceroy of India. However, the monsoon approached and the revenge of this affront had to wait a few more months, until the weather permitted. The punishment would take place the following year, in 1509. Setting aside all the steps to prepare the fleet and the various episodes of war described in detail by Saturnino Monteiro, it should be preserved here that Francisco de Almeida, disrespecting royal orders, decided to fight the Rumes (the designation given the Turks by the chroniclers) before turning over government to viceroy Afonso de Albuquerque, who had been nominated meanwhile. In the famous battle of Diu, the Rumes were defeated and made to flee.
That year Afonso de Albuquerque also handled the handing over of Diu but only obtained authorization from Malik Aiyaz for the construction of a house that would serve as a trading post, appointing Fernão Martins Evangelho as factor.
Until 1533 there were several attacks to attempt to conquer Diu: by Diogo Lopes de Sequeira in 1521, by Dom Nuno da Cunha in 1523 and 1531. All of these failed. In 1534, the Sultan of Gujarat, Bahadur Shah, fearing the Great Mogul Humayun, asked the Portuguese for assistance, allowing for the construction of a fortress in exchange. In 1535 the construction of the aforementioned fortress began. Later, the sultan of Bahadur wanted to annul this concession, but had to give in, dying in the melee, under fire by the men of Nuno da Cunha.
In 1538 the first siege of Diu took place and the Portuguese, under the command of António da Silveira, were able to withstand all the attacks. In 1546, while Dom João de Castro was viceroy, the second siege of Diu occurred and was even more intense and brutal than the previous one. This time the armada that came to the aid of the fortified stronghold destroyed the Muslim forces. After this blockade, an imposing defensive system was erected in Diu, which to this day causes perplexity and wonder due to its magnificence.
It is impossible to understand the economic significance and the influence of Diu in the control and dominion of navigation and commerce with the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the Malabar Coast, without emphasizing the relevance of its location in Gujarat, a great and rich region of the northwest of the Indian sub-continent.
From the most remote times, Gujarat was one of the provinces having a relevant role in overseas commercial connections with the Indian Ocean. There, a notable textile industy was developed around which other manufacturing arose, which produced a diversified array of merchandise destined for markets as faraway as the African sertões [wilderness areas in the interior] in the west, or Maritime Southeast Asia in the east. In exchange for the exportation of these manufactured products, namely luxury cloth, carpets, jewelry, perfumes, leather and ivory artifacts large amounts of raw materials and spices converged to Gujarat.
This commercial and manufacturing specialization led to the emergence of important port cities, where the various merchant, bankers, and sailor castes that were involved in these activities prospered. Diu´s social and economic fabric rested on a coherent communication network that was dominated by the Banyans, in which persons and goods from different cultures circulated, and that assured close contact with various ports in Kathiawar and the relatively close Gulf of Cambaia, other ports in Sinde and Oman - already at a reasonable distance - as well as other more distant ones located in the Red Sea and the East African Coast.
As discussed before, whoever held political and military domain over Diu had a means of controlling the transoceanic commercial and passenger routes traveling to Mecca on pilgrimage.
The portuary movement of the 1700s, a result of the activity of a very ancient network of interregional commerce, still presented some dynamism. Commercial exchanges with traders from locations at a short distance were frequent. Throughout the year, ships from nearly all Gujaratan ports arrived at the port of Diu, ladden with two types of merchandise: foodstuffs for daily consumption, namely various types of rice, coconuts, white areca [a type of palm tree], pepper, cane or coconut sugar, wheat, coffee, olive oil, butter, and vegetables, as well as raw materials needed for the citadel´s manufacturing industry, namely calaim [Indian tin], raw yarns and fabrics and other types of cloth suitable for commerce with East Africa. These ships returned to their ports of origin loaded with ivory teeth, either whole or sawed into rings, which came from the East African Coast.
From Mascate, Macala, Cachem (Kutch) and Mangalor - all ports located at an intermediate distance - gum, incense, coffee, areca, senna, dry fruits, precious stones, and patacas [coins]. From places at a greater distance, such as Jeddá, Moca, and Mozambique, there came slaves, ivory, turtle shell, Spanish patacas, gold, rhinoceros horn, cowry, coffee, sugar, paper, and tar. The ships of the Diu Banyans traveled to these ports in the Red Sea and the African coast, carrying all kinds of grains and other small products.
After the 18th century, the strategic significance of Diu declined gradually, as its commercial significance became a shadow of its former days, until it became reduced to a location of unquestionable historical value and of great interest to the study of military architecture.
Diu would remain under Portuguese dominion until 1961. Perhaps for this reason Diu is perceived as a symbol of unsubmissiveness and persistence, and its fortress was designed to last through the ages. Additionally, because it was deemed one of the most harmonious and majestic fortresses built by the Portuguese, it merited being chosen to be one of the "sete maravilhas de origem portuguesa espalhadas pelo mundo" ["seven wonders of Portuguese origin spread throughout the world."]
Bibliography:
Sources: A.H.U., Índia, Maço 22, (9), 20.03.1726. A.H.U., Índia, cx. 46, doc. 50, 23.11.1720. COUTINHO, Lopo de Sousa, O primeiro cerco de Diu, pref. de Luís de Albuquerque, Edições Alfa, Biblioteca da Expansão Portuguesa, 41, Lisboa, 1989. BAIÃO, António, História quinhentista (inédita) do segundo cêrco de Dio ilustrada com a correspondência original, também inédita, de D. João de Castro, D. João de Mascarenhas, e outros [autor provável Leonardo Nunes] pub. e pref. por António Baião ; [ed. lit.] Academia das Sciencias de Lisboa, Coimbra, Imprensa da Universidade, 1925; MATOS, Artur Teodoro de, O Tombo de Diu R08; 1592, CNCDP, Lisboa, 1999. Studies: ANTUNES, Luís Frederico Dias, «Diu. Espaços e quotidianos», in Os Espaços de um Império. Estudos, CNCDP, Lisboa, 1999. IDEM, «Diu, a actividade comercial de um pequeno porto do Guzerate (1680R08;1800): os documentos portugueses», in Sources européennes pour le Gujarat, Moyen Orient & Océan Indien XVR08;XIX s., Société d'Histoire de l'Orient, 10, Paris, 1998. QUADROS, Jerónimo, Diu: apontamentos para a História e Chorographia, Nova Goa, 1899. MENDES, A. Lopes, A Índia Portugueza, Lisboa, Imprensa Nacional, 1886. PEREIRA, A. B. de Bragança, «Os Portugueses em Diu», Separata de O Oriente Português, Bastorá, 1938. MONTEIRO, Armando Saturnino, Batalhas e Combates da marinha Portuguesa, Sá da Costa, Lisboa, 1989. BRITO, Raquel Soeiro de, «O Meio e os Homens nas Províncias do Norte», in Mare Liberum, 9, CNCDP, Julho, 1995.
Translated by: Maria João Pimentel
Image credit
Manuel Magalhães