The Islamic World and the Making of the Portuguese Empire, 1450-1520

Standard narratives of the emergence and consolidation of the Portuguese overseas empire stress the importance of decisions taken during the successive reigns of Dom João II (1481-95) and his cousin Dom Manuel (1495-1521). In this essay, I propose a different point of departure, namely one that stresses the frequently opportunistic character of Portuguese expansion. The central argument is that the Portuguese were not necessarily masters of the rhythms of their own empire. Their agency was heavily constrained by other historical actors and processes, particularly in the Islamic world, and the opportunities that these either created or closed off. Drawing on a large canvas of the transformation of European geopolitics after the death of Amir Timur in 1405, the emphasis would be on the complex struggle for hegemony in the Sunni inter-state system, especially between the Timurids, Mamluks and Ottomans, but also involving other polities such as the Aqquyunlu, the Muzaffarids (in Gujarat), and the Bahmanids (in the Deccan).