THE SIEGE OF FORT JESUS MOMBASA
The siege of Mombasa was
an attack on the Portuguese city of Mombasa and Fort Jesus by
the army of the Ya'rubid ruler of Oman, Saif
I bin Sultan, from 13 March 1696 to 13 December 1698.
The Yarubid
dynasty had been expanding since the expulsion of the Portuguese
Army from Oman in 1650. They attacked Portuguese possessions in East
Africa and engaged in the slave trade. In 1660,
they attacked Mombasa for the first time, sacking the city, but could not
capture the fort.
When the Omanis surrounded Fort
Jesus in 1696, the garrison consisted of between 50 and 70 Portuguese soldiers
and several hundred loyal African slaves. Hunger
and disease thinned the garrison and the civilian population who had taken
refuge in the fort. Queen Fatuma of Zanzibar sent
three dhows full of supplies to the fort; however,
the dhows were captured and burned by the Omanis, forcing Fatuma to flee to the
interior of the Island. No reinforcements arrived from the Portuguese until the
siege was lifted in December 1696, when
the Omani forces captured Fort Jesus and installed an Omani governor, then
attacked Zanzibar, drove out the last Portuguese settlers, and captured Queen
Fatuma.[3] Fatuma
was taken to Oman and remained there in exile for the next 12 years. While she
was away, her son Hassan took the title of Mwinyi Mkuu but pledged allegiance
to Oman and paid tribute. She
was allowed to return to rule Unguja in 1709 as a vassal and client state of
Oman for the rest of her reign.
Soon, the Omanis returned and the
disease killed all the Portuguese soldiers. The defence was left in the hands
of Sheikh Daud of Faza with
seventeen of his family members, 8 African men and 50 African women. Portuguese
reinforcements arrived again on September 15 and December 1697. After another
year of siege, in December 1698, the garrison comprised only the Captain, nine
men and a priest. The last Omani attack on December 13 captured the fort. Just
seven days after its capture, a Portuguese relief fleet arrived to see the fort
lost. The
siege had lasted almost three years. Mombasa would remain in Omani hands until
1728. With this successful siege, the whole coast of Kenya and Tanzania,
with Zanzibar and Pemba, fell
to the Omani Arabs.
Aftermath
The news of the siege only
reached Lisbon in
the end of 1698, at the same time that the city surrendered. Alarmed,
King Peter II of Portugal immediately ordered
to organise a relief squadron,
which was constituted by two ships
of the line and three frigates, with
a terço of
950 soldiers embarked. The
squadron sailed from the Tagus River on 25 March 1699, arriving in Mozambique Island on 15 July, where it
was known that the city had surrendered months ago. The
squadron then sailed to Zanzibar Island, with the intention of putting pilots that
conducted them to Mombasa, but after failing in getting pilots, the captain-major of
the squadron, Henrique Jacques de Magalhães,
sailed to Goa,
arriving there in September with 300 soldiers less, due to disease, and with
the remaining sick. The news of the surrender of the city only reached Lisbon
on 26 March 1700. However, King Peter II of Portugal did not give up, and he
ordered to send another squadron in 1700 and 1701. Both failed, due again to
disease within the troops.
In 1701, the Viceroy of India, António Luís Gonçalves da
Câmara Coutinho, organised a squadron consisting of one ship of the line,
two frigates and the Strait Squadron (did not arrive),
which failed again due to a storm at the Mandovi
River, which sank the three ships. At the same time, King Charles II of Spain died, postponing the
recuperation of Mombasa to sine die. Animated
by their success of conquering Mombasa and with the incapacity showed by the
Portuguese for its recuperation, the Omani started to attack Portuguese cities,
capturing Pemba Island, Kilwa
Island and attacking Mozambique Island and Salsette
Island. (Thanks Wikipedia).
Comments