Manuel I Qansuh al-Ghuri A number of armed engagements between the Egyptian Mamluk Sultanate and the Portuguese Empire in the Indian Ocean took place during the early part of the 16th century.

[7] In 1504, the Mamluk Sultan Qansuh al-Ghuri first sent an envoy to the Pope, in the person of the Grand Prior of the Saint Catherine's Monastery, warning that if the Pope did not stop the exactions of the Portuguese against Muslims, he would bring ruin to the Christian Holy Place in the Levant and to the Christians living in his realm.

[7][8] In 1504, the Venetians, who shared common interests with the Mamluks in the spice trade and desired to eliminate the Portuguese challenge if possible, sent envoy Francesco Teldi to Cairo.

[9] Teldi tried to find a level of cooperation between the two realms, encouraging the Mamluks to block Portuguese navigations.

[10] There were claims, voiced during the War of the League of Cambrai, that the Venetians had supplied the Mamluks with weapons and skilled shipwrights.

The fleet was built with timber and weapons from the Ottoman Empire, and crews and shipwrights were recruited throughout the eastern Mediterranean.

[6] The expedition, under Amir Husain Al-Kurdi, left Suez in November and travelled by sea to Jeddah, where they fortified the city.

[8] This coincided with the dispatch of the 7th Portuguese India Armada into the Indian Ocean, under Francisco de Almeida.

[18] In the letter to Shah Ismail, Albuquerque proposed a joint attack against the Mamluks and the Ottomans: And if you desire to destroy the Sultan [Qansuh] by land, you can recount on great assistance from the Armada of the King my Lord by sea, and I believe that with small trouble you must gain the lordship of the city of Cairo and all his kingdoms and dependencies, and thus my Lord can give you great help by sea against the Turks, and thus his fleets by sea and you with your great forces and cavalry by land can combine to inflict great injuries upon themFollowing their victory at the Battle of Diu and the elimination of rival Muslim fleets in the Indian Ocean, the Portuguese endeavoured to the systematic destruction of Muslim commercial shipping.

[19] Albuquerque landed at Aden on 26 March 1513, at the entrance of the Red Sea and attempted to take the city, but he was repulsed.

[20] This concentration on the Portuguese front had the ultimate effect however of weakening the Mamluk strengths that could be put against the Ottomans in the Levant.

[16] The Ottomans, on the other hand, managed to establish a strong presence in the Indian Ocean, which they would further develop during the rest of the century.

Egypt, on the other hand, lost its status as a great power, and, deprived of the resources of the Indian Ocean trade, essentially faded into the background for the next three centuries.