HIPPO practice- 2019 DBQ

Source: Advice given in 1500 by the Muslim merchants of Calicut to the Hindu ruler of Calicut concerning the arrival of the second Portuguese expedition to the city. Recorded in the History of the Discovery and Conquest of India by the Portuguese by Fernão Lopes de Castanheda, a Portuguese historian, published in1551.

Your Majesty: we are astonished that you should lower yourself by receiving these Portuguese enemies into your kingdom, who seem to be pirates rather than merchants. We, your Muslim subjects, have always been loyal to you and have brought valuable foreign merchandise to this country and have exported its native products to increase your revenue greatly. You appear to forget all this, by receiving those newcomers into your favor as if your own numerous and faithful subjects were incompetent for the purpose. In this you dishonor yourself, and embolden these strangers to hold your power in contempt. The true intent of the Portuguese in coming into these seas is to take possession of your city, and not to trade for spices as they pretend. The place you have given them for a trading post, they will convert into a fort, from where they will make war on you when you least expect it. We say these things to you out of good will rather than out of any desire for profit; for if you do not listen to our advice, there are other cities on India’s Malabar Coast from which we can conduct our trade in spices.

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Source: Duarte Barbosa, government official employed in a Portuguese trading-post on the Malabar Coast, travel narrative published in Portugal in 1516.

The Muslims in Calicut are rich, and live well, and they used to control all the sea trade from that town. Indeed, if the king of Portugal had not discovered India, Malabar would already have been in the hands of the Muslims. In addition to the local Muslims, there are also foreign Muslims in Calicut such as Arabs, Persians, and Gujaratis. They are great merchants, sail to all parts of the world with their goods, and have their own Muslim leader who rules over them and disciplines them as necessary, without the Hindu king of Calicut meddling with them. And before the king of Portugal discovered the country, the Muslim traders were so numerous and powerful in the city of Calicut that the Hindus did not dare to enter into disputes with them. And after the king of Portugal made himself master there, and these Muslims saw that they could not defend their position there, they began to leave Calicut, so that very few of them remain today.

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