The Battle of Diu, the fort of 1535 and the Portuguese conquest of 1546

Background

Diu's past is in the news this week because the Union Territory Administration of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, of which Diu is one of three districts, published its October 2026 gazette issues and notices.
The Administration's history page traces Diu's documented past to the Maurya Empire, with Chandragupta Maurya extending control over Saurashtra and Ashoka's governor ruling the region.
Indo-Greek kings held the area in the 2nd and 1st centuries BCE and the Kshaharatas in the 1st century CE; the Vaja dynasty of Somnath Patan ruled it in the early 1400s, followed by about 150 years of Gujarat Sultanate rule.
The Battle of Diu of 1509 set the Portuguese against a combined force that included the Sultan of Gujarat, Mahmud Begada, and Portuguese attempts at an outpost in 1513, 1521 and 1523 failed.
In 1535 Sultan Bahadur Shah allied with the Portuguese against the Mughal emperor Humayun and in return allowed them to build the Diu Fort and station a garrison on the island.
The alliance broke down, attempts to remove the Portuguese between 1537 and 1546 failed, and the page states that the Portuguese conquered Diu in 1546; the fort later withstood attacks by the Arabs of Muscat and the Dutch, and Diu declined in importance from the 18th century as Bombay grew.