 By the 1520s, open confrontations between the Portuguese and the Mappilas, in southern India and in western Sri Lanka, became a common occurrence.After a series of naval battles, the once powerful Chinna Kutti Ali was forced to sue for peace with the Portuguese in 1540.The peace was soon broken, with the assassination of the Muslim judge of Kannur Abu Bakr Ali (1545), and the Portuguese again came down hard on the Mappilas.