Mombasa

Vasco da Gama met a cold welcome at Mombasa in 1498, and the Portuguese returned repeatedly to punish it: they sacked the town in 1500, stormed it under Almeida in 1505, and in 1528 Nuno da Cunha left it in ruins. After an Ottoman squadron under Ali Bey briefly won the coast away from them in 1585, they retook Mombasa in 1589 and this time meant to stay, raising Fort Jesus at the harbour mouth between 1593 and 1596 and handing the town to princes of Malindi, their one loyal ally. In 1631 one of these rulers, known to the Portuguese as Dom Jerónimo, turned on his patrons and massacred the garrison. The fort was retaken, and it took the Omanis under Saif bin Sultan a two-year siege, ending in 1698, to drive the Portuguese out. Within half a century Mombasa was defying Oman too: in 1746 its Omani governor, Ali bin Uthman of the Mazrui family, declared it independent.