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High Seas – Habesha Traders and Pirates

The end of the Habashab-Portuguese War of 1506-1518 would have unforeseen consequences for not just the Portuguese but much of the Indian Ocean following the defeat of the Europeans. After several years of capturing and copying Portuguese ship designs from the coasts of Africa to India the shipwrights of the Habashah Empire had created fairly accurate copies of the Portuguese carracks and caravels. Initially these efforts were subsidized by Emperor Jamal ud-Din, but these efforts became increasingly expensive leading the imperial court to look at different avenues especially as the interests of the royal court turned back inland. To create fast cash for the Imperial treasury and cast off maintenance expenses the Habashabs decided to sell off a portion of the ships created for the royal navy, and to lease a patent for them to shipwrights in various ports. Though, the government did retain the armaments (also copied from German designs found on Portuguese ships) the plethora of cannon workshops that sprouted up during the war lead to private interests being able to re-arm the ships they had bought.

The trade routes of the Indian Ocean were, unlike their Portuguese counterparts, not a mystery to the captains and merchants of Habashah. Habesha, Somali, Arab and other merchants had been trading across the ocean for centuries. Habesha traders had even established loose dynasties over smaller islands such as the Maldives and Andaman Islands.

The end of the Habashab-Portugese war not only left many new ship designs in the hands of Habesha private interests it also had galvanized the Habesha, primarily Somali, who lives along the coastline. Adventurous captains and crews were able to make for themselves small fortunes by seizing Portuguese ships, now while the Portuguese were still fair game many also turned to local shipping very soon. Merchants who wanted to eliminate competition took advantage of the situation. Even religious aspects took over as young men of the Mewlewi Order, inspired by Guleed Ali, took to expanding the house of Islam into places where it had never been before. These included uninhabited islands such as the Commoros to pagan ports as far east as the east Indonesian islands. Habesha became synonymous with coin, made by trade or by gunfire became widespread as Habesha sailors made their impact across the Indian Ocean.

In India, raids increased on coastal villages and sometimes struck inland. On the island of Sri Lanka, the Habesha invaded the northern coast, taking over the Jaffna Kingdom and establishing an independent sultanate. In Southeast Asia many flocked to the busy port of Malacca owned by the Malacca Sultanate, using it an base to expand the Sultanate’s holdings on the island of Sumatra and establish their own independent polities in Java and Sumatra. These Habesha pirates were not afraid to take on fellow Muslims though, an alliance of Habesha warlords with support from the Malacca Sultanate would invade the young Brunei Sultanate, looting their capitol and creating independent polities in their territory. This eventually lead to the ruling dynasty to split, one half staying in Brunei and the other to flee to Mindanao and establish a separate kingdom there.

Eventually, as time would go on many of the descendants of these Habesha would assimilate into the local populations but there would still be small enclaves of ethnic Habesha (or new groups descended from a mix of them and the natives) who would become small but prolific minorities in the futures nation-states that would populate the Indian Ocean. Further, this advent also leads to the spread of the unique form of Islam native to Habashah, the Imranid branch, into Southeast Asia becoming a sizeable minority.

In particular, the overenthusiasm of the Habesha would lead to increasing tensions with the Safavid dynasty and the two powers would come to blows in good time. For the remainder of the early 16th Century the Habashah Empire turned its eyes not to the sea but to the land, the heart of Africa.