In 1514-16 the Ottomans cooperated with the Mamluks against the Portuguese. They provided an Ottoman commander in the person of Selman Reis, as well as firearms. Selman Reis entered the service of the Mamluks, and led a group of 2,000 armed Levantines, possibly against the own wishes of the Ottoman Sultan Selim I, and met with this force with the Sultan Qansuh at Suez in April 1514. Artillery defenses were also established in Jiddah and Alexandria. 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. The investment was huge, as the fleet cost around 400,000 dinars to the Mamluk Sultan. Following the disruption of the spice trade between India and Mamluk Egypt by the Portuguese, Selman Reis led a Mamluk fleet of 19 ships into the Indian Ocean in 1515. He left Suez leading the fleet on 30 September 1515. The fleet also included 3,000 men, 1,300 of whom were Turkish soldiers. The fleet built a fortress in Kamaran, but failed to take Yemen and Aden on 17 September 1516. The combined fleet was able to defend Jidda against the Portuguese in 1517, but by then the war between the Ottomans and the Mamluks was already raging on. As a consequence, the Portuguese were able to set up trading posts in the Indian subcontinent, and take-over the spice trade to Europe, which had been a major source of revenues for the Mamluk state. The Mamluk Empire became financially crippled, and was finally vanquished by the Ottoman Empire under Selim I, on land, in the Ottoman-Mamluk War . Cairo was captured by the Ottomans on January 26, 1517, leading to the disintegration of the Mamluk Empire.
What nationality was Selman Reis?
Ottoman