or Mopla
merchants in the Malabar cities is fully described in the
Tohfut-ul-mujahideen, which shows how the Muhammadan communities were
bound together and preserved their independence with regard to the
Hindu sovereigns. Such a situation would have entirely agreed with
the first notions of the Portuguese visitors to India. But the
natural jealousy of the Muhammadan merchants would not permit a new
trading community to spring up side by side with them.

King Emmanuel with great sagacity perceived the true meaning of the
rivalry between the Portuguese and the Muhammadans in the East. He
grasped the fact that he had not to deal with the merchants {150}
alone; he understood that the whole force of Egypt and the Turks
would be arrayed against him. No division of trade could in those
days be expected. He therefore resolved to cut off entirely the
mid-way connection between the Levant and the chief markets of Asia.
For this purpose he directed the building of a fortress in the island
of Socotra; for this purpose he continually urged his commanders to
seize Aden and close the Red Sea to commerce; for this purpose he was
willing to receive ambassadors from the Hindu princes of India, but
would hear of nothing but war against the Muhammadans. His captains
carried out his instructions to the letter. The atrocious acts of
cruelty committed by all of them against Muhammadans may have been in
part due to religious animosity and to their Portuguese origin, but
they were not discouraged by the Portuguese monarch, who was inspired
more by his anxiety to destroy their trade than their faith.

The despatch of the Egyptian fleet, which was defeated by Almeida,
was a proof that King Emmanuel's fears were justified. The internal
wars of the principal Muhammadan rulers alone prevented that fleet
from being followed at once by others still more formidable.
Fortunately for the Portuguese, however, at this very period the
Sultan Selim I of Constantinople was engaged in fierce war with the
Mameluke Sultan of Egypt, and Ismail Shah of Persia was at open issue
with both dynasties. But the necessity for closing the former trade
routes would {151} not have led to the ruin and slaughter of
Muhammadans settled in India itself, had they not systematically
opposed the Portuguese.

Albuquerque, after his first conquest of Goa and after that of
Malacca, showed himself ready to treat the Moslems with clemency. In
both instances that clemency was abuse