The Portuguese-Mamluk Naval War: How the Battle of Chaul Shook the Indian Ocean

The History of Portugal: The Small Nation That Built a Global Empire — Fexingo History · Jul 8, 2026 · 8m · transcript

In 1508, a Portuguese fleet commanded by Lourenço de Almeida was ambushed and crushed at the Battle of Chaul by a joint Mamluk-Gujarat-Calicut force. This episode explores the forgotten naval conflict that erupted before the famous Battle of Diu. We follow the rise of the Mamluk Sultanate's Red Sea fleet, the unlikely alliance between the Mamluks, the Zamorin of Calicut, and the Sultan of Gujarat, and how a Portuguese defeat forced Francisco de Almeida to seek bloody vengeance. We also examine how the Mamluks acquired shipbuilding expertise from the Ottomans and Venetian technology, and…