Portuguese in Chittagong

(Banglapedia article on Chittagong)

	Of the Europeans, the descendants of the portuguese are still to be
	seen in Chittagong. Most of them married local women and are known as
	Kala Firinghis or Matia (earth coloured) Firinghis. They are mostly
	Roman Catholic Christians. During the British period they enjoyed
	certain privileges and were given preference in appointments in
	certain institutions like the port and the railway and to clerical
	posts in government offices. An area in the city known as Firingi
	Bazar is said to be named after them. 

 	The most significant contribution of the Portuguese is the presence
	of many Portuguese words in the Bengali language which are in daily
	use till now. A few examples are:

		AnAras (pineapple),	
		pepe (papaya), 		
		pAdri (clergyman),
		fita (ribbon), 
		Alpin (pin), 
		botAm (button), 
		chAbi (key) etc.

	During the period from 1538 to 1666 the Portuguese were dominant in
	Chittagong and virtually ruled it.  For these 128 years Chittagong
	became known as the home of Portuguese and Magh pirates.
	The Mughal Commander Umeed Khan expelled the Portuguese from the area
	in 1666 and established Mughal rule. The city was renamed Islamabad.

---
By 1580, Satgaon (on the river saraswati) had started to silt up, and hughli
became the main bastion of the portuguese.

However, the Portuguese became arrogant with their mastery at sea, and along
with the Arakan (magh) started abducting natives to sell them as slaves.
This, together with some practices of forced conversion, resulted in Shah
Jahan sending Qasim khan jwini to suppress the portuguese.

As a rebel prince, Shahjahan spent some time in Bengal, and he was
acquainted with the problems relating to the Portuguese.  Also, the Firingis
(Portuguese pirates of Chittagong) fought against the Mughals for the king of
Arakan. [qbp Shahjahan]

Four years after Shahjahan's accession, the port of Hughli was sacked in
1632, and the portuguese powers diminished.  The Dutch were given farmans and
established their trading post at Chinsura near Hooghly, trading in opium,
saltpetre, raw silk, silk goods, cotton yarn, cotton goods, rice, sugar,
butter, vegetables etc procured mostly from the Patna, Maldah, kasimbazar,
Mullick Kashim Hat and Hughli markets and also from their own cultivation.

from banglapedia[bp] QASIM KHAN JWINI:
   The Portuguese were the earliest European settlers in Bengal. During the
   anarchical conditions that prevailed in Bengal before the establishment of
   strong Mughal rule there, the Portuguese, whose main objectives were confined
   to trade and commerce, indulged in many other irregular and high-handed
   activities. Their atrocities and manifold misdeeds multiplied the sufferings
   of the local inhabitants. They continued their trading and other nefarious
   activities from their already established trading outposts in Hughli, Dhaka,
   Jessore and Chittagong. The Portuguese used to commit inhuman atrocities in
   lower Bengal by plundering wealth and riches and used to carry away men,
   women and children for selling them as slaves or forcibly converted them to
   Christianity.

   Thus innocent people used to remain in constant fear of 'Feringi
   Pirates'. The Portuguese activities in Bengal were so provocative that the
   Mughals had to take effective action against them under Qasim Khan. It was
   part of Emperor Shahjahan's wider policy of restricting the Portuguese
   highhandedness in Bengal.
		 [KM Karim]

   By about 1630 there were 7000 Christians at Hughli, consisting of
   Portuguese, their Eurasian descendants, and converts, including
   slaves. The monastery was destroyed when shahjahan attacked Hughli in
   1632, but the Augustinians were subsequently allowed to resettle at
   Bandel, where they built a church which still survives. [qbp Christianity]

The Portuguese were allowed to return after a year but they came with much
lessened strength.

Chittagong attack 1655 [banglapedia]

    The Portuguese tried twice, without success to capture Chittagong, first
    in 1517 under John de Silviera and again in 1527 under
    Alfonso-de-Millo. Finally they secured it and satgoan, from mahmud shah
    the ruler of Bengal, in return for helping him against sher shah
    Sur. Under the Portuguese, Chittagong prospered and became a commercial
    centre acquiring the title of "Porto Grande", the great port, as opposed
    to Satgoan, the "Porto Pequene". [bp Chittagong port]

   During the period from 1538 to 1666 the Portuguese made inroads into
   Chittagong and virtually ruled it. During these 128 years Chittagong
   became the home of Portuguese and Magh pirates.  In this period,
   Chittagong city and port grew and became a famous centre of business and
   trade.

   From the beginning of the 17th century the portuguese also started piratical
   activities after they had lost their trade supremacy in competition with the
   dutch and the english. The Portuguese pirates found asylum in Arakan, where
   the king employed them along with the magh pirates to plunder the enemy
   territory of Bengal. These raids continued for a long time, not a house was
   left inhabited on either side of the rivers lying on the pirates' track from
   Chittagong to Dhaka. The coastal districts became desolate, and according to
   contemporary historians 'they were swept clean with the broom of plunder and
   kidnapping, so that none was left to occupy any house or kindle a light in
   that region'. The pirates carried off Hindus and Muslims, men, women and
   children along with their property. The pirates sold their captives to
   foreign merchants, the Dutch, the English and the French and at the ports of
   the Deccan.

   Shaista Khan (ruled 1664-1688) took steps to win over the Firingis
   (Portuguese) to his side, for he realised that the mainstay of the Arakanese
   navy were the Portuguese sailors with their superior ships and
   firearms. ... [Eventually] the Firingis of Chittagong came over to the side
   of the Mughals. Luckily for the Mughals, a feud had then broken out between
   the Magh ruler of Chittagong and the Portuguese of that place. To escape from
   the wrath of the Arakanese king, the Portuguese fled from Chittagong with
   their families, ships and artillery; they took shelter with the Mughal
   commandant of Bhulua (Noakhali). Shaista Khan received and honoured the
   Portuguese captain, who was given a cash reward of Rs 2000/- and monthly pay
   of Rs 500/-, and his followers were also enlisted in the Mughal service with
   suitable pay and allowances.

   Shaista Khan sent his long-planned Chittagong expedition in the last week of
   December 1665 AD. The overall command was given to his son bujurg umid khan,
   while Ibn Husain, the admiral, was given command over the navy, and the
   subahdar himself took up the responsibility of supplying provisions. The army
   and navy started simultaneously, one by land and the other by sea, keeping
   close contact with each other. The land force had to cut their way through
   the jungles. There was a great naval battle in the sea and then in the river
   Karnafuli; the Mughals with the aid of the Portuguese came out
   successful. The Arakanese navy being defeated, their sailors fled and some of
   them took shelter in the fort. But the fort of Chittagong was besieged and
   captured on 26 January 1666. Buzurg Umid Khan made a triumphal entry into the
   fort the next day, and Chittagong was annexed to the Mughal empire. It became
   the seat of a Mughal faujdar and with the emperor's permission Chittagong's
   name was changed to Islamabad. The conquest of Chittagong caused
   indescribable joy throughout the country, mainly because the people became
   safe from the plunder, oppression and tyranny of the Magh-Portuguese
   pirates. Another important result of the conquest was the release of
   thousands of kidnapped and enslaved Bengali peasants who now returned to
   their homes and joined their families. -  [Abdul Karim]

The Portuguese introduced the ironing of clothes and the Bengali word for
ironing, istri is derived from the Portuguese. bp dhopa]

 abt 90 P. origin words in bAnglA, abt 50 of which appear only in bAngla,
 other 40 also in Hindi/marathi etc. marathi has 56 Portuguese loan-words,
 of which 16 do not appear in bangla. ]

also contributed by writing grammars of the Indian languages- Francis Xavier
- language of malabar, Thomas Stephens of Konkani.   The first book in
Bengali, though printed in the roman script, was a grammar of bAnglA by the
Augustinian Manoel de Asumpca~o, printed in Lisbon 1743.  p.343:

	[if] you wish to learn the Bengali language, I here offer you this
	work in which you will find the grammatical rules of this language
	and a vocabulary in two parts, the first Bengali into Portuguese, the
	second Portuguese into Bengali...