Portuguese: 11 Apr. 1593 Fortaleza de Jesus -
15 Aug. 1631
Sultan of Mombasa: 15/16 Aug. 1631 - 16 May 1632
Abandoned: 16 May 1632 - 5 Aug. 1632
Portuguese: 5 Aug 1632 - 13 Dec. 1698
Oman: 13 Dec. 1698 - Mar. 1728
Portuguese: 16 Mar. 1728 - 26 Nov. 1729
Oman: Nov. 1729 - 1741
Governor of Mombasa: 1741 - 1747
Oman: 1747
Governor of Mombasa: 1747 - 1828 (English protection 1824-1826)
Oman: 1828
Governor of Mombasa: 1828 - 1837
Oman: 1837 - 1856
Zanzibar: 1856 - 1895
English: 1895 - 1963
In 1498 the
Portuguese explorer Vasco De Gama arrived in Mombasa on his route to India. Fort Jesus was built after the Portuguese had been masters of the
East African coast for nearly an hundred years. During this time they had as main base an
unfortified factory at Malindi.
The Turkish raids
of 1585 and 1588 were decisive for the Portuguese to decide the construction of the fort
in Mombasa. On 11 April 1593 the fortress was dedicated and named "Fortaleza de Jesus
de Mombaça" by Mateus de Mendes de Vasconcelos (he was the captain of the coast,
that resided at Malindi). The fort was completed in 1596, the plan was a quadrilater
with four bastions: S. Felipe, S. Alberto, S. Mathias and S. Mateus. The main gate was
near S. Mathias bastion. Above the gate is a Portuguese inscription that records the
dedication to the fort: "Reinando em
Portugal Phellipe de Austria o primeiro ... por seu mandado ....... fortaleza de nome
Jesus de Mombaca aomze dabril de 1593 ..... Visso Rei da India Mathias Dalboquerque
....... Matheus Mendes de Vasconcellos que pasou com armada e este porto .......
arquitecto mor da India Joao Bautista Cairato servindo de mestre das obras Gaspar
Rodrigues."
Fort Jesus, located on the edge of a coral ridge
overlooking the entrance to the Old Port of Mombasa, was built by the Portuguese in
1593-1596 to protect their trade route to India and their interests in East Africa. It was
designed by an Italian architect, Giovanni Battista Cairati*. Mombasa became
Portugal’s main trading centre along the East Coast of Africa.
Some old
walls inside Fort Jesus. Photo by Dietrich Köster.
Cannons and
buildings inside the fort. Photo by Dietrich Köster.
This
is the plaque presented by the Oman embassy in Kenya to the National Museum of Kenya with
some historical dates of Fort Jesus. Photo by Dietrich Köster.
This
gun was salvaged from the German warship "Königsberg", used by the Germans
during the East African campaign in World War I and later seized by British Empire forces,
who took it as a trophy from German East Africa (now Tanzania) to Kenya. It
is located next to the entrance gate of Fort Jesus. Photo by Dietrich Köster.
Relation between the
Portuguese and the Sultan of Mombasa began to deteriorate after the departure of the first
captain Mateus de Mendes de Vasconcelos. In 1626, Muhammad Yusif, who had received
education in Goa and that was baptized as Dom Jeronimo Chingulia, was made Sultan. On 16
August 1631, the Sultan Dom Jeronimo Chingulia entered the fort and took the Portuguese by
surprise, he killed the Portuguese captain, Pedro Leitão de Gamboa, and massacred the
whole Portuguese population of Mombasa (45 men, 35 women and 70 children). A Portuguese
expedition was send from Goa to retake the fort, but after two months of siege (10 January
1632-19 March 1632) they abandoned the enterprise. On 16 May the Sultan abandoned Mombasa
and became a pirate. On 5 August 1632 a small Portuguese force under the captain Pedro
Rodrigues Botelho, that had remained at Zanzibar, reoccupied the fort.
Plan of
Fort Jesus, Mombasa, Kenya.
In February 1661 the
Sultan of Oman sacked the Portuguese town of Mombasa but did not attack the fort. It was
in 1696 that a large Omani Arabs expedition reached Mombasa, from 13 March 1696 the fort
was under siege, the fort had a garrison of 50-70 Portuguese soldiers and several hundred
loyal coast Arabs. The fort was relieved in December 1696 by a Portuguese expedition, but
in the following months a plague killed all the Portuguese of the garrison and by 16 June
1697 the defence of the fort was in the hand of Sheikh Daud of Faza with 17 of his family,
8 African men and 50 African women. On 15 September 1697 a Portuguese ship arrived with
some reinforcement and also at the end of December 1697 another ship came from Goa with a
few soldiers. After another year of siege, in December 1698, the Portuguese garrison was
reduced to the Captain, 9 men and a priest (Fr. Manoes de Jesus). After a siege of two
years and nine months the Omani Arabs took the fort. They could do this because the
garrison was reduced to nine soldiers the others were death by disease. On the morning of
13 December 1698 the Omani Arabs did the decisive attack and took the fort, just seven
days later a Portuguese relief fleet arrived at Mombasa, but it was too late. With the
conquest of Fort Jesus the whole coast of Kenya and Tanzania with Zanzibar and Pemba fell
to the Omani Arabs.
Fort Jesus,
Mombasa, Kenya.
Fort Jesus,
Mombasa, Kenya.
The
Portuguese retook the fort in 1728, because the African soldiers in the fort mutined
against the Omanits, the Sultan of Pate to which was offered the fort handed the fort over
to the Portuguese on 16 March 1728. In April 1729, the Mombasans revolted against the
Portuguese and put under siege the garrison that was forced to surrender on 26 November
1729.
The Fort is today know as one of the best examples of 16th century Portuguese military
architecture.
*Giovanni Battista Cairati: born
in Milan, he was a leading military architect under the service of King Philip II of
Spain, which was also King of Portugal, he worked at Malacca, Mannar, Ormuz, Muscat,
Damão, Bassein and Mombasa. He probably never saw completed Fort Jesus, because he died
in Goa in 1596.
Bibliography:
- Hinawi Mbarak Ali "Al Akida and Fort Jesus, Mombasa"
85 pp. East African Literature Bureau, 1950, Nairobi,
Kenya.
- Boxer,Ch.R. – de Azevedo,C. "A
fortaleza de Jesus e os Portugueses em Mombaça 1593-1729"
127 pp. 6 maps, Centro de Estudos Historicos Ultramarino, 1960 Lisboa, Portugal.
History of Mombasa under the Portuguese, description of Fort of Jesus.
- Freeman-Grenville, G. S. P. "The Portuguese on the Swahili Coast: buildings
and language"
In STUDIA N° 49, pp. 235-253, 1989, Lisbon, Portugal.
- Kirkman,J. "Fort Jesus: a Portuguese fortress on the East African
coast"
327 pp. 38 maps, Oxford University Press, 1974 London, United Kingdom.
Detailed description of Fort Jesus by an archeological point of view.
- Nelson, W.A. "Fort Jesus of Mombasa"
84 pp. Canongate Press, 1994, Edinburgh, UK
- Pearson,M.N. "Port cities and
intruders: the Swahili Coast, India and Portugal in the Early Modern Era"
202 pp. 2 maps, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998, Baltimore and London.
Index: The Swahili coast and the Afrasian sea; the Swahili coast and the interior; East
Africa in the world-economy; the Portuguese on the coast.
