Battle of Chaul

Battle of Chaul (1508)

Portuguese ships, 16th century

Date	March 1508
Location	Chaul, India
Result	Mamluk and Indian victory

Belligerents

Portuguese Empire

Mamluk Sultanate

Gujarat Sultanate
Calicut

Commanders and leaders

Lourenço de Almeida †

Amir Husain Al-Kurdi

Malik Ayyaz

Strength

3 ships and 5 caravels

6 Turkish carracks and 6 great galleys, 1500 combatants
40 Gujarat Sultanate galleys

Casualties and losses

6 ships
140 men

600-700

The Battle of Chaul was a naval battle between the Portuguese and an Egyptian Mamluk fleet in 1508 in the harbour of Chaul in India. The battle ended in a Mamluk victory. It followed the Siege of Cannanore (1507) in which a Portuguese garrison successfully resisted an attack by Southern Indian rulers. This was the first Portuguese defeat at sea in the Indian Ocean.

Previously, the Portuguese had been mainly active in Calicut, but the northern region of Gujarat was even more important for trade, and an essential intermediary in east–west trade: the Gujaratis were bringing spices from the Moluccas as well as silk from China, and then selling them to the Egyptians and Arabs.

The Portuguese' monopolizing interventions were however seriously disrupting Indian Ocean trade, threatening Arab as well as Venetian interests, as it became possible for the Portuguese to undersell the Venetians in the spice trade in Europe. Venice broke diplomatic relations with Portugal and started to look at ways to counter its intervention in the Indian Ocean, sending an ambassador to the Egyptian court. Venice negotiated for Egyptian tariffs to be lowered to facilitate competition with the Portuguese, and suggested that "rapid and secret remedies" be taken against the Portuguese. The sovereign of Calicut, the Zamorin, had also sent an ambassador asking for help against the Portuguese.

Since the Mamluks only had little in terms of naval power, timber had to be provided from the Black Sea in order to build the ships, about half of which was intercepted by the Hospitallers of St. John in Rhodes, so that only a fraction of the planned fleet could be assembled at Suez. The timber was then brought overland on camel back, and assembled at Suez under the supervision of Venetian shipwrights.

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