Khoja Zufar or Coje Çafar (1500 – 24 June 1546 - probably born a few years before 1500[1]), also called Coge Sofar, or Safar Aga[2] in Portuguese, Cosa Zaffar in Italian, and Khwaja Safar Salmani in Turkish or Khuádja Tzaffar (خوجا زفار) in Arabic,[3] was a soldier and local ruler in Western India during the 16th century.

[15][16] He began his career as a military adventurer, serving in the armies of Italy and Flanders, and was captured at sea at the age of fifteen by an Ottoman general Selim I.

[21] In February 1531, Khoja Zufar and Ottoman Admiral Mustafa entered the harbor of Diu, a Portuguese island fortress on the coast of the Gujarat Sultanate in what is now Western India.

Zufar was aided by the local kings which resulted in Silveira ordering his men to abandon the town and instead fortify the port.

... venne un chiamato il Cosa Zaffer, il quale é da Otranto, ma renegato, et fatto turcho, et era patrone di una galea quando il Signore Turcho mandó l'altra armata ...[30] ... there came a lad called the Khoja Zuffar, who is from Otranto, but a renegade, and made Turk, and was the patron of a galley when the Sultan sent the other army ...[31] In 1537, Sultan Bahadur and Khoja Zufar agreed to meet with the Portuguese governor Nuno da Cunha in Diu, on his ship and despite being warned, Bahadur was murdered and his body thrown into the ocean, while Zufar barely escaped onto the ship of Antonio de Soto-Maior.

[32] Determined to avenge himself, Zufar wrote to his relative Nacoda Hamede, the ruler of Zebit, to send the Ottoman army to India, to which the Sultan approved.

[34] In April 1538, Zufar, having received news of the Portuguese fleet preparing for war, secretly sent his wife and children to safety.

[38] Throughout his reign as a governor, Zufar had urged the Muslim leader of Gujarat to expel the Portuguese,[39] who had taken possession of Surat Port and robbed the city at the beginning of the century.

Que temos que recear deste Império de loucos, que com um braço na Ásia e outro no Ocidente, querem abarcar o Mundo?

[40] Delayed by other conflicts, Suleiman arrived with a fleet of 72 vessels, and told his men of a certain "Cosazaffer who originally came from Otranto and was a renegade for Islam".

[56] C. K. Goertz wrote that "Safar Salmani was a man of genius and determination, circumspection and foresight, and it was upon these qualities that he advances to Bahadur Shah's inner circle.

[57] Before his death, Zufar had a wakil, a servant, named Bahar Khan Yagut Salmani, an Ottoman slave, who also accompanied him during the Siege of Diu.