The Holy Sail

by Abdulaziz Al-Mahmoud

  A boat was lowered from Albuquerque’s ship carrying his lieutenant, Miguel, and made its way to the shore. Miguel disembarked and walked to the closed gate. The gate suddenly opened, revealing a man wearing a short izar that stopped at his knees. He was bare-chested and held a long spear and a small wooden shield. The two men stood staring at each other until Miguel finally spoke.

  ‘I have been sent by my master, Albuquerque, who represents the king of Portugal. We ask you to surrender immediately, pay a tribute, receive the king’s representative and swear allegiance to him. If you fail to comply we will destroy your city and kill all its inhabitants.’

  The Omani soldier kept his eyes fixed on Miguel until he finished speaking. He then blinked several times before he turned back to where he came from. Just before he disappeared behind the gate, Miguel shouted out, asking him to tell him the name of the town. Without turning around, the man replied, ‘Kuryat’, then crossed the wall and closed the gate behind him.

  The sailors on the Portuguese ships were watching closely the encounter on the shore. When Miguel returned, Albuquerque quizzed him about what had happened.

  ‘Nothing much, my lord. He heard what I told him then returned to the town.’

  ‘Damn! Is that all? He said nothing else?’

  ‘I think they’re prepared to defend the city. The Arab warrior did not come out to negotiate. I’m not sure whether he understood my message, but he told me the town is called Kuryat. News of our arrival must have reached these shores. I just hope the cities along the coast are not all waiting for us with cannons!’

  Albuquerque fiddled with his beard, as was his habit when he was deep in thought. He continued to stroke it, until his eyes flickered with a look that was all too familiar to people around him – the look of a wolf who had just caught the scent of blood.

  ‘Prepare to bombard the city. I shall lead the landing party myself!’

  At his signal, the ships’ guns began pounding the city with a barrage of cannonballs. The first shells landed a short distance from the cob wall, but those that followed were more precise. Parts of the wall were shattered along with bodies of the defenders; with each round, the Portuguese sailors cheered. Soon, they even began to place bets on hitting certain targets.

  The rounds fired by the Omani cannons set up on the wall could not reach the Portuguese ships, falling in the water and making a splash dozens of cubits away. They were small and ineffective. Albuquerque’s sailors felt triumphant seeing that their opponents were weak and that they were going to massacre them with great ease.

  Albuquerque watched the town with his crocodile eyes as it was being levelled. When he noticed the residents were starting to flee towards the mountains behind their town, he ordered the landing party to lower the boats.

  Each ship dropped two large boats. In seconds, dozens of soldiers wearing armour from head to toe jumped in. They carried muskets, which the defenders had never seen before, and long halberds.

  The rowers raced to reach the shore. When the boats were almost at the beach, Albuquerque shouted his final orders. ‘Kill all men, and spare the women, children and elderly, for I have something else in mind for them. Loot the town then burn it. And I don’t want to see this mosque standing in its place afterwards!’ Albuquerque then cried, ‘Are you ready to defend your king?’

  ‘We give our lives to the king! Long live the king!’ they responded with one voice.

  Albuquerque landed on the shore with his forces. The few defenders who were left thrust their spears and arrows at them, but they were useless against the attackers’ armour.

  Carnage ensued. The defenders’ spears were no match for the muskets of Albuquerque’s men. Only a few of the Omani warriors had swords, while the majority carried spears and arrows but little else.

  Bodies piled up. Homes were looted then burned down. The mosque was set alight after being bombarded with several rounds of cannon fire from the sea.

  The loot was carried in the small ships berthed at the harbour. The battle was uneven, and came to a quick end. When Albuquerque was about to return to his ship, the soldiers brought him a group of women, children and elderly who had not been able to flee from the battle. He ordered the women and children to be gored and then slaughtered, and forced the elderly men to watch the massacre. ‘You have seen what I did to your city and your people. I will send you to Hormuz to tell them everything you saw today!’

  He ordered his soldiers to cut off the noses and ears of the elderly men and put them on a boat to Hormuz, giving them only water. Albuquerque left Kuryat in ruins behind him. Plumes of smoke rose from the burning husk of the town and the ships in its harbour. There were no survivors.

  Albuquerque continued sailing along the coast of Oman until he reached Muscat. The city immediately captivated him. He ordered his ships to drop anchor, as he wanted to analyse the best way to conquer it with minimal losses.

  He studied the city, his eyes steady and unblinking, like a predator sizing up its prey, and at the same time, he nervously moved his fingers through his beard. Unexpectedly, he saw a boat approaching his ship carrying a few men. Albuquerque quickly ordered his men to load their muskets and aim them at the boat.

  The boat stopped near the flagship. One of the men on board shouted up at Albuquerque. ‘I have been sent by the ruler of Muscat. We heard about what happened in Kuryat. We do not want to repeat the carnage and are ready to listen to your demands!’

  Albuquerque responded from deck. ‘I want a letter signed by the ruler pledging obedience and allegiance to the king of Portugal. I must receive this letter by tomorrow morning with the ruler’s seal. Is that clear?’

  The messenger raised his hand, saluting Albuquerque and said, ‘I will deliver your demands to the ruler.’

  The boat returned quietly to shore.

  Albuquerque felt that the massacre he had staged in Kuryat had paid off, and that the messages he wanted to send had been read and received well.

  Albuquerque ordered Miguel to lead a scouting party and go to the coast to learn more about the fortifications and weaknesses in the city wall. At sundown, the party returned to the ship and Miguel reported back to Albuquerque.

  ‘My lord, the city is surrounded by a twenty-cubit-high outer wall made from palm trunks, supported by boulders. Behind it there are other wooden defences that are ten cubits wide. The entrance to the harbour is a shallow creek that can only be accessed at night when the water level is high enough. It is also fortified by walls built between two hills, and the defenders of the city can seal it off with boulders if needed.’

  As Miguel finished his report, Albuquerque muttered, ‘Let us wait until tomorrow morning. I will not leave the city until I make sure it swears allegiance to the king. Otherwise, I will raze it to the ground.’

  The next morning, the envoy returned to inform Albuquerque that the ruler had agreed to write up the document he demanded and to make peace without preconditions. Albuquerque kept him while he consulted his officers, then came back with more demands.

  ‘The city must pay tribute to the king of Portugal equivalent to the tribute paid to the king of Hormuz. The ruler must build a special port for the Portuguese fleet and supply it constantly with food and water. If these conditions are met, Muscat will be placed under the protection of the king of Portugal. Otherwise, we shall destroy the city and kill all its inhabitants.’

  Albuquerque ordered his lieutenant to escort the messenger back to Muscat to deliver the demands straight to the ruler. In the evening, Miguel returned with several boats carrying food and water and told Albuquerque the documents would be signed on the following day.

  In the morning, however, the city returned to silence. No boats arrived and not a living soul came past the closed main gate. Albuquerque was puzzled by the about-face, and decided to find out what had prompted the ruler to take this hostile action.

  At night, a Portuguese sailor spotted a small boat trying to sneak out from the port. Albuquerque ordered one
of his ships to pursue it and bring the people on board back to him. After they were tortured, they revealed that the city was gearing up for battle because the Jabrid’s soldiers had arrived to help defend it.

  Albuquerque asked Miguel to get more information from the prisoners about the Jabrid. After much torture and many mistranslations, Miguel was finally able to give his chief an update.

  ‘They say the Jabrid is the sultan of the Gulf, Najd and Arabia. His name is Muqrin bin Zamel. The prisoners say the soldiers who came to help are based in the Omani hinterland and are loyal subjects of the sultan. They have convinced the ruler of Muscat not to hand over the city to us.’

  Albuquerque replied quickly, ‘Ask them how many Jabrid soldiers there are and what kind of armament they have.’

  The prisoners started screaming as their torture continued. Miguel told Albuquerque, ‘They say there are a few thousand Jabrid soldiers, armed with swords, spears and bows and that they will fight fiercely to defend Muscat.’

  Albuquerque slapped his thigh in anger and ordered his men to prepare to destroy the city.

  Later that night, Albuquerque sent a unit to infiltrate the coast and gather information on the enemy’s preparations. But as soon as Albuquerque’s men landed on the shore, salvos of spears and arrows descended from above, killing and injuring a number of them and forcing them to retreat back to their ships.

  With the first signs of morning, the Portuguese ships rained down fire on the city for several hours. Bodies of the city defenders were scattered along the beach. The shelling opened several breaches in the city wall.

  Landing boats were dropped and made their way to the points Albuquerque had specified. When they approached the coast, they were showered with arrows, stones and spears from every side. However, Albuquerque and his men were in full armour and carried very long pikes with sharp ends. They also had muskets that they fired from close range, with deadly effect.

  The Omanis and Jabrids used everything they had to defend their positions, and threw rocks at the attackers from the rooftops. However, their primitive weapons were futile against the soldiers wearing armour and using modern weapons.

  As time passed, the resistance gradually weakened. Portuguese soldiers started taking women and children prisoners from their homes. Albuquerque ordered all prisoners to be struck down with no survivors. Soldiers would hold the young ones in front of their mothers and impale them with their spears, or cut them down with their swords, sometimes splitting the children in two. The soldiers then moved on to the women and elderly, and the mutilated corpses piled up in the city’s streets, rivers of blood flowing in the alleys.

  Albuquerque ordered his men to pursue the locals fleeing the city, after erecting barricades to protect them against reprisals by the inhabitants. They saw many women and children trying to climb the mountains surrounding the city in search of safety. The soldiers chased them and tortured them too before killing them. Then they brought all the jewellery and food they could find to Albuquerque, who ordered them to search all homes and turn them upside down to find any gold buried in them.

  The Portuguese razed the city after looting everything valuable from the markets and shops. They carried fresh water to their ships and did not leave the city until it was a wasteland, crows cawing over it.

  Albuquerque returned to his ship and went inside his cabin. He took out a parchment and quill, which he dipped in an inkwell, and then wrote: Muscat is a large and populous town, flanked on both sides with high mountains. There are orchards, gardens and palm groves with wells for watering them. The city is ruled by a governor appointed by Hormuz. The region that surrounds it inland is ruled by the Jabrids, whose power extends from Muscat to Dhofar, on the borders of the kingdom of Aden. The Jabrid rule extends to Bahrain and the coast of Qatif, where they rule on behalf of the kingdom of Hormuz.

  ‘I think that’s enough,’ he told himself. He snuffed out the candle and went to bed, happy with his victory.

  On the following day, the armada navigated along the coast, which veered north, running parallel to a chain of black mountains. It reached a small bay surrounded by mountains in the shape of a horseshoe. The bay looked enticing; there were many fishing boats there, and the water was deep enough for Albuquerque’s ships to navigate through it freely. The fleet came to a stop in front of a small village built from stone and cane.

  The locals spotted the huge ships and left everything they were doing. They came to the coast to check them out more closely, but when they saw the red cross on their sails they ran away and vanished. A while later, horsemen and camel cavalries singing battle chants appeared, waving their weapons for the Portuguese to see them.

  Albuquerque did not delay. He ordered his ships to open fire at the village, and within hours it was turned to rubble. Some of its inhabitants were able to escape to the mountains. At nightfall, Albuquerque ordered his soldiers to check the village and loot it, and sat on the shore waiting for his commanders to report back.

  Miguel brought an elderly man as a prisoner. He carefully held a book wrapped in a rolled cloth. ‘My lord, I found this old man at his home. He asked the soldiers to let him speak to you as they were about to kill him, saying he had a gift for you.’

  Albuquerque looked at the elderly man in contempt, wondering what gift he might possibly have for him.

  ‘This book is my most precious possession. I have decided to give it to you as a gift.’

  Miguel took the book from the man and gave it to Albuquerque, who started leafing through it. He could not read it. ‘What is this? Go on, ask him. What’s the book?’

  The old man replied quietly, ‘It is a book about Alexander the Great. When I saw you, I saw that man in you. You are both great conquerors who invaded faraway countries.’

  ‘What is your city called?’

  ‘Its name is Khor Fakkan.’ The man looked at his devastated city with horror, and corrected himself. ‘Its name was Khor Fakkan!’

  Albuquerque asked his lieutenant, ‘Is he saying it is called Gorfacan?’

  ‘Yes, my lord.’

  ‘And is he really saying I am like Alexander the Great? Give him food and water and let him go!’ Albuquerque took another look at the book. ‘You must translate this for me immediately, Miguel!’

  – 23 –

  India

  Hussein’s ships arrived in Diu. Located on a peninsular headland on the northwestern coast of India, the port looked more like a military fort. The fortifications were formidable. Soldiers patrolled the length of the wall running alongside the port. Coloured signalling flags and pennants were being waved in different patterns from the tops of the towers, suggesting updates were being sent around the clock. Military ships scoured the bays surrounding the port, inspecting incoming ships to prevent Portuguese spies from entering the city.

  Hussein saw all this movement from the top of his ship. He knew that he had finally arrived in a city that had declared war on the Portuguese and was prepared for all contingencies. He was pleased, because what he needed most was a military base rather than a trading post.

  Si al-Tayeb approached Hussein after he saw his sharp interest in the city. He wanted to brief him a little about the king he was going to meet in Diu. They kept their eyes focused on the city and its port as they spoke. Si al-Tayeb had many insights about India that he had gained throughout the years, and wanted to share them with Hussein.

  ‘Malik Ayaz is one of the few kings who declared war against the invaders and did not accept their presence in India. He clashed with them several times when they were exploring the coast, but they left him alone once they were welcomed by other kings to the south of here, where the land is more fertile and trade is more profitable.’

  Hussein’s gaze remained fixed on the flags on the tower tops, as he tried to decipher what they meant. He was impressed by the skilled soldiers sending messages in this manner.

  Si al-Tayeb continued speaking, while pointing at the flags. ‘I think they are relaying
the news of your arrival, Hussein Pasha. This is good news for Malik Ayaz and the people of this city. They feel they are alone against the Portuguese. Ever since they wrote to Sultan al-Ghawri in Egypt and the Jabrid sultan in East Arabia, they have been waiting for help to come. I have never been to this city, but Qasimul Haq has good relations with Malik Ayaz. This is why he asked you to visit Diu; he is confident the two of you will forge a formidable alliance that can ultimately repel the Portuguese invasion.’

  Si al-Tayeb paused for a moment, carefully weighing his words. ‘This land is as strange as its people. Nothing is what it seems. It’s so enchanting that your mind will be charmed as well as your senses.’

  Hussein asked Si al-Tayeb to elaborate on his cryptic remark.

  ‘What I mean, Hussein Pasha, is that India is a vast country, where religion mixes with tradition, tribes with kings, and loyalty with hostility. It’s difficult for strangers to decipher what’s happening. Everything has two sides here and they think in a different way than we do. Their calculations are almost completely different from our calculations. Those who you see as friends could become your enemies in the blink of an eye, and vice versa. Loyalty here is like water: its source doesn’t matter as long as it quenches one’s thirst.’

  He knocked unconsciously on the wooden railing. ‘Be wary of everything, Pasha!’

  Hussein was still not quite sure what Si al-Tayeb’s point was, except that he should be careful. But wasn’t he always careful? What mattered most to him was that he had found a strong ally and a walled city – and well-armed soldiers ready to fight.

  Hussein disembarked with Si al-Tayeb. They walked with a large delegation that was waiting for them on the shore towards the palace of Malik Ayaz. Located on a hill overlooking the harbour, the palace was clad in white marble and surrounded by trees, gardens and fresh water streams.

  Hussein was fascinated by how beautifully designed the place was. The delegation continued its way inside the palace, where Hussein could not help but notice the sheer magnitude of the wealth Malik Ayaz and his city lived in. This did not please Hussein: affluence in his view was a liability in times of war. For one thing, Hussein thought, it meant people lived in comfort and made them averse to taking up arms and defending themselves. For another, wealth put rulers in the difficult position of not wanting to lose their fortunes, palaces and precious possessions. Hussein wondered whether things would be different with Malik Ayaz.