Cite
MLA
“The Kunjali Marakkars and the Zamorin’s fleet.” Hindu History, 2026, https://www.hinduhistory.in/samudra/kunjali-marakkars/. Accessed .
APA
Hindu History. (2026). The Kunjali Marakkars and the Zamorin’s fleet. Retrieved , from https://www.hinduhistory.in/samudra/kunjali-marakkars/
What defines it
- 01
Kunjali: hereditary title of the Samoothiri’s admirals
- 02
Portuguese fort at Chaliyam taken, 1571
- 03
Siege of Kottakkal, 1599–1600
- 04
Kunjali IV executed at Goa, 1600
01War from the first day
When Vasco da Gama returned in 1502 he bombarded Kozhikode, and the Portuguese then set about forcing every ship on the coast to carry their pass. The Samoothiri, the Hindu king of Kozhikode, gave command of his sea war to the Marakkars, a Muslim family of seafaring merchants. Their light, fast paros fought the heavy Portuguese carracks by swarming them in calm water and slipping into shallow creeks.
02Chaliyam and Kottakkal
In 1571 the Samoothiri’s forces, with the Marakkars, besieged and took the Portuguese fort at Chaliyam, near the mouth of the Chaliyar. Kunjali III built a fortified base at Kottakkal near Iringal, north of Kozhikode. The Tuhfat al-Mujahidin of Zainuddin Makhdum, written in the 1580s, is the main Malabar account of these wars.
03The fall of Kunjali IV
Kunjali IV grew powerful enough to fall out with the Samoothiri himself. In 1599–1600 the Samoothiri’s army besieged Kottakkal by land while a Portuguese fleet under André Furtado de Mendonça attacked from the sea. Kunjali surrendered in March 1600 on a promise of his life, was handed to the Portuguese, taken to Goa and beheaded there. India Post issued a stamp in 2000 for the 400th year of his death, and the naval base INS Kunjali at Mumbai bears the name.
In the texts
- Tuhfat al-Mujahidin of Zainuddin Makhdum II (1580s)