Muscat Captured by Portugal

During the early sixteenth century the Portuguese, seeking to dominate the lucrative trade routes of the Indian Ocean, moved aggressively to seize key ports along the Arabian and East African coasts. Under commanders such as Afonso de Albuquerque, they targeted harbours that controlled access to the Persian Gulf and the spice trade.

Muscat, on the coast of Oman in southeastern Arabia, was captured by the Portuguese in 1507. They fortified the town and made it a base for their operations in the Gulf region, using it alongside Hormuz to control shipping and extract tribute from local rulers.

Portuguese dominance over Muscat lasted into the mid-seventeenth century, when the Ya'rubid dynasty of Oman, having unified much of the interior, drove the Europeans out, expelling them definitively from Muscat in 1650. The Omanis then built their own maritime power, eventually challenging the Portuguese along the East African coast and establishing a far-reaching seaborne empire.