View source for Timoji

{{Short description|15/16th-century Indian privateer}}
{{More footnotes needed|date=July 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}}
'''Timoji''' (also '''Timoja''' or '''Timmayya''')<ref>Not to be mistaken for Timoji Nayak, a VOC's broker later, circa 1678, see [https://archive.org/details/dli.csl.3386/page/n146/mode/1up?q=timoja]</ref> was a bhandari [[privateer]] who served the [[Vijayanagara Empire]] and the [[Portuguese Empire]], in the first decade of the 16th century. He claimed to have been born in [[Old Goa]] and escaped the city in 1496, during the conquest by the [[Adil Shahi]] dynasty of [[Bijapur Sultanate|Bijapore]]. After his support in the [[1510 Portuguese conquest of Goa]], he was appointed ''[[aguazil]]'' of the city, for a short time.
==Background==
Since the 14th century the [[Deccan Plateau|Deccan]] had been divided in two entities: on the one side stood the Muslim [[Bahmani Sultanate]], and on the other stood the native [[raja|rajas]] rallied around the [[Vijayanagara Empire]]. Continuous wars demanded frequent resupplies of fresh horses, which were imported through sea routes from Persia and Arabia. This trade was subjected to frequent raids by thriving bands of pirates based in the coastal cities of Western India. Timoji acted both as a privateer (by seizing horse traders, that he rendered to the raja of [[Honavar]]) and as a pirate who attacked the Kerala merchant fleets that traded pepper with [[Gujarat]]. Timoji operated off [[Anjadip Island|Anjediva (modern Anjadip)]] Island, with two thousand mercenaries under his command and at least fourteen ships.
==Relations with the Portuguese==
{{See also|Portuguese conquest of Goa}}
He met [[Vasco da Gama]]'s fleet off Anjediva in 1498, but the Portuguese admiral suspected him of being a spy and refused his advances. In 1505, he attracted the Portuguese Viceroy [[Francisco de Almeida|Dom Francisco de Almeida]] to an estuary and, after keeping him waiting for three days, appeared before him richly attired and offered him his services and a token tribute. In 1507 Timoji warned the Viceroy of the upcoming [[Siege of Cannanore (1507)|siege of Cannanore]] by [[Kozhikode|Calicut]] forces and supplied the Portuguese [[St. Angelo Fort]] during the siege. In the end of 1507, when a [[Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo)|Mamluk]] fleet under [[Amir Husain Al-Kurdi]] (named "Mirocem" by the Portuguese<ref>The book of Duarte Barbosa By [[Duarte Barbosa]], Fernão de Magalhães, [[Mansel Longworth Dames]]</ref>) supplemented the Calicut forces, he became  de Almeida's main informant. Soon after the [[Battle of Diu (1509)|Battle of Diu]], Timoji met the Vijayanagara emperor [[Krishnadevaraya]] and offered him rich tribute. He then prompted the Portuguese to conquer [[Goa]], the main port for the horse trade. The city had been conquered from Vijayanagar by the Bahmani Sultans in 1469, and passed to Bijapur. In late 1509, the remains of the Mamluk fleet defeated in the battle of Diu had taken refuge there.
In 1510 the new governor [[Afonso de Albuquerque]] wanted to fight the [[Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo)|Egyptian Mamluk Sultanate]] fleet in the Red Sea or return to Hormuz. However, Timoji convinced him that it would be easier to fight them in [[Goa]], where they had sheltered after the Battle of Diu,<ref name="Bhagamandala Seetharama Shastry p. 34-36">Bhagamandala Seetharama Shastry, Charles J. Borges, "Goa-Kanara Portuguese relations, 1498-1763" p. 34-36</ref> and also of the illness of the Sultan [[Yusuf Adil Shah]] and war between the [[Deccan sultanates]].<ref name="Bhagamandala Seetharama Shastry p. 34-36"/> So he invested in the capture of Goa to the [[Sultanate of Bijapur]] with the support of Timoji.<ref>* {{cite book | author = Kerr, Robert | title = A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Arranged in Systematic Order | year = 1824 | publisher = William Blackwood | location = Edinburgh | url = http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00generallinks/kerr/vol06chap01sect05.html | author-link = Robert Kerr (writer) }} (volume 6, I chapter)</ref> On November, in a second strike, Albuquerque conquered Goa with a fleet fully renovated<ref>Foundations of the Portuguese Empire, 1415-1580, p. 253, Diffie, Winius 253, Diffie, Winius</ref> and about 300 [[wikt:Malabarese|Malabarese]] reinforcements from Cannanore.
They regained the support of the native population, although frustrating the initial expectations of Timoji, who aspired to gain the city. Afonso de Albuquerque rewarded him by appointing him chief "[[Aguazil]]" of the city, an administrator and representative of the native people, as a knowing interpreter of the local customs.<ref name="Bhagamandala Seetharama Shastry p. 34-36"/> He then made an agreement to lower yearly dues and started the first Portuguese [[Mint (coin)|mint]] in the East, after complaints from merchants and Timoji about the scarcity of currency.
Timoji was put in command of the native troops loyal to the Portuguese. However, he soon was relieved of his command due to his refusal to follow orders. The command of the native troops was given to a pretender to the throne of Honavar, and Timoji returned to piracy.
Timoji was made prisoner after a raid, and died by opium poisoning soon after being taken to the [[Vijayanagara Empire|Vijayanagar]] capital. His wife and children, however, returned to Goa where Albuquerque arranged for their upkeep.
== References ==
{{reflist}}
==Bibliography==
*[[Fernão Lopes de Castanheda|Castanheda, Fernão Lopes de]] [https://books.google.com/books?id=kcMNAAAAYAAJ História do descobrimento e conquista da Índia pelos portugueses] (full text in Portuguese).
* Geneviéve Bouchon, "Inde découverte, Inde retrouvée (1498-1630) Études d'histoire indo-portugaise" {{ISBN|972-8462-07-7}}
* Bailey, Diffie, [https://books.google.com/books?id=vtZtMBLJ7GgC "Foundations of the Portuguese Empire, 1415–1580"], p.&nbsp;250-251, University of Minnesota Press, 1977, {{ISBN|0-8166-0782-6}}
* Bhagamandala Seetharama Shastry, Charles J. Borges, [https://books.google.com/books?id=raLL0A3Pb_0C&pg=1 "Goa-Kanara Portuguese relations, 1498-1763"] p.&nbsp;34-36, Concept Publishing Company, 2000, {{ISBN|81-7022-848-4}},
* Charles Ralph, "The Portuguese Seaborne Empire 1415–1825", p.&nbsp;47, Hutchinson 1969, {{ISBN|0-09-131071-7}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=BChmAAAAMAAJ]
* Duarte Barbosa, Mansel Longworth Dames, (1518) [https://books.google.com/books?id=r5jnQzwZjOYC&pg=PP1 "The book of Duarte Barbosa: an account of the countries bordering on the Indian Ocean and their inhabitants"], Asian Educational Services, 1989, {{ISBN|81-206-0451-2}}
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[[Category:Year of birth missing]]
[[Category:Year of death missing]]
[[Category:Portuguese India]]
[[Category:Privateers]]
[[Category:Deaths by poisoning]]
[[Category:History of Goa]]