Towards the end of the year 1507, the Portuguese Viceroy Francisco de Almeida was informed that a column of 13 Muslim ships had taken cargo - mainly spices -  from Ponnani and was about to leave for the Red Sea.
The Viceroy immediately decided to corner the fleet.
The decision was perhaps made with a view to retrieve the Portuguese prestige lost on account of some incidents at Angediva and Dabul.
Almeida himself commandeered the fleet of 12 vessels consisting of four naus, six caravels, and two gales.
The fleet had about 6,000 European soldiers, led by a collection of noblemen such as Pero Barreti, Diogo Pires, Lourenco de Almeida, and Nuno da Cunha, son of Tristao da Cunha and a handful of Cochin soldiers.

The defenses of the Ponnani Port were repaired and strengthened by the Zamorin after this event.
The Zamorin appointed Kunjali Marakkar I, his loyal naval chief, in the port of Ponnani, to resist the Portuguese occupation.
It was the first navy in the Indian subcontinent.
It seems that Kunjali Marakkar I, assisted by Kutti Ali and Pacchi Marakkar, subsequently constructed a naval base at Ponnani.
Kutti Ali sent harassing raids from Ponnani to Cochin and reinforcement fleets to Kozhikode.
In 1523 when the Viceroy Menezes sailed with all the available ships to Hormuz, an Arab merchant, one Kutti Ali of Tanur, had the effrontery to bring a fleet of two hundred vessels to Calicut, to load eight ships with pepper, and to despatch them with a convoy of forty vessels to the Red Sea before the very eyes of the Portuguese.

The Zamorin later faced a protest in 1540 by Kutti Pocker, who is popularly known as Kunjali Marakkar II (a title given to the naval chief of the Zamorin) when the Zamorin signed a treaty with the Portuguese power in Ponnani.
Tanur town was one of the earliest Portuguese colonies in the Indian subcontinent.
In 1552, the Zamorin received assistance in heavy guns landed at Ponnani, brought by certain Yoosuf, a Turk, who had sailed against the monsoon winds.
In 1566 and again in 1568, Kutti Pocker and his men captured two Portuguese ships.
Around a thousand soldiers from one of these ships were killed either by the sword or drowning.
Kutti Pocker was later in killed off the coast of Mangalore while returning from a successful raid on the Portuguese fort there.

A Portuguese fleet of 40 vessels under the command of Diogo de Meneses is known to have pillaged Ponnani, sometime before 1570 AD.
In 1571, the Zamorin sent against the Fort Chaliyam certain of his ministers in command over the Moors (a term used by William Logan to indicate Mappilas and Arab Merchants) of Ponnani, Tanur, and Parappanangadi, who was assisted by bodies of people from Chaliyam.
The army led by troops of Zamorin won to seize the Portuguese fort at Chaliyam In 1573, Parappanangadi town was burnt by the Portuguese.
In 1578, peace negotiations between Zamorin and the Portuguese were strengthened.
However, the Zamorin refused to agree to construct a Portuguese fort at Ponnani.
It is also known that Gil Eanes Mascarenhas opened fire from his ships to the port and killed a large number of natives in 1582.
Mascarenhas was later captured and executed by the forces of Kunjali Marakkar.

The Tuhfat Ul Mujahideen written by Zainuddin Makhdoom II in Ponnani during 16th-century CE is the first-ever book fully based on the history of Kerala, written by a Keralite.
It is written in Arabic and contains pieces of information about the resistance put up by the navy of Kunjali Marakkar alongside the Zamorin of Calicut from 1498 to 1583 against Portuguese attempts to colonise Malabar coast.
It was first printed and published in Lisbon.
A copy of this edition has been preserved in the library of Al-Azhar University, Cairo.
Towards the end of the year 1507, the Portuguese Viceroy Francisco de Almeida was informed that a column of 13 Muslim ships had taken cargo - mainly spices -  from Ponnani and was about to leave for the Red Sea. The Viceroy immediately decided to corner the fleet. The decision was perhaps made with a view to retrieve the Portuguese prestige lost on account of some incidents at Angediva and Dabul. Almeida himself commandeered the fleet of 12 vessels consisting of four naus, six caravels, and two gales. The fleet had about 6,000 European soldiers, led by a collection of noblemen such as Pero Barreti, Diogo Pires, Lourenco de Almeida, and Nuno da Cunha, son of Tristao da Cunha and a handful of Cochin soldiers.
The defenses of the Ponnani Port were repaired and strengthened by the Zamorin after this event. The Zamorin appointed Kunjali Marakkar I, his loyal naval chief, in the port of Ponnani, to resist the Portuguese occupation. It was the first navy in the Indian subcontinent. It seems that Kunjali Marakkar I, assisted by Kutti Ali and Pacchi Marakkar, subsequently constructed a naval base at Ponnani. Kutti Ali sent harassing raids from Ponnani to Cochin and reinforcement fleets to Kozhikode. In 1523 when the Viceroy Menezes sailed with all the available ships to Hormuz, an Arab merchant, one Kutti Ali of Tanur, had the effrontery to bring a fleet of two hundred vessels to Calicut, to load eight ships with pepper, and to despatch them with a convoy of forty vessels to the Red Sea before the very eyes of the Portuguese.
The Zamorin later faced a protest in 1540 by Kutti Pocker, who is popularly known as Kunjali Marakkar II (a title given to the naval chief of the Zamorin) when the Zamorin signed a treaty with the Portuguese power in Ponnani. Tanur town was one of the earliest Portuguese colonies in the Indian subcontinent. In 1552, the Zamorin received assistance in heavy guns landed at Ponnani, brought by certain Yoosuf, a Turk, who had sailed against the monsoon winds. In 1566 and again in 1568, Kutti Pocker and his men captured two Portuguese ships. Around a thousand soldiers from one of these ships were killed either by the sword or drowning. Kutti Pocker was later in killed off the coast of Mangalore while returning from a successful raid on the Portuguese fort there.
A Portuguese fleet of 40 vessels under the command of Diogo de Meneses is known to have pillaged Ponnani, sometime before 1570 AD. In 1571, the Zamorin sent against the Fort Chaliyam certain of his ministers in command over the Moors (a term used by William Logan to indicate Mappilas and Arab Merchants) of Ponnani, Tanur, and Parappanangadi, who was assisted by bodies of people from Chaliyam. The army led by troops of Zamorin won to seize the Portuguese fort at Chaliyam In 1573, Parappanangadi town was burnt by the Portuguese. In 1578, peace negotiations between Zamorin and the Portuguese were strengthened. However, the Zamorin refused to agree to construct a Portuguese fort at Ponnani. It is also known that Gil Eanes Mascarenhas opened fire from his ships to the port and killed a large number of natives in 1582. Mascarenhas was later captured and executed by the forces of Kunjali Marakkar.
The Tuhfat Ul Mujahideen written by Zainuddin Makhdoom II in Ponnani during 16th-century CE is the first-ever book fully based on the history of Kerala, written by a Keralite. It is written in Arabic and contains pieces of information about the resistance put up by the navy of Kunjali Marakkar alongside the Zamorin of Calicut from 1498 to 1583 against Portuguese attempts to colonise Malabar coast. It was first printed and published in Lisbon. A copy of this edition has been preserved in the library of Al-Azhar University, Cairo.
Malappuram district