Diu

Diu is an island and harbour at the southern tip of the Kathiawar peninsula, guarding the entrance to the Gulf of Khambhat. Gujarati merchants used its port for trade with the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf and the wider Indian Ocean. Villages such as Delvada, on the Machhundri river a few kilometres inland from Diu, lay on the mainland coast opposite the island.

In February 1509 a Portuguese fleet destroyed the combined navy of the Gujarat sultan Mahmud Begada, the Mamluk sultan of Egypt and the Zamorin of Calicut off Diu. Several Portuguese attempts to seize the island failed in the following decades. In 1535 Sultan Bahadur Shah, hard pressed by the Mughal Humayun, allowed them to build a fort and garrison the island, and the great fortress was raised in 1535-36. The alliance quickly broke down, and Bahadur Shah died in a clash with the Portuguese. In 1538 the lord of Cambay joined an Ottoman fleet in besieging Diu, and the Portuguese garrison held out. In 1546 he returned and was killed in a second great siege, which the Portuguese broke by land and sea. Afterwards the fort was strong enough to stand against Omani and Dutch attacks in the late 17th century. From the 18th century Diu declined as Bombay rose, though it stayed Portuguese.