Page 32 - Arab Navigation in the Indian Ocean (before portuguese)_Neat

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1 220 ARAB NAVIGATION AtfMAD IBN MAJID 221 I

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, >■ lines cut each other in the Wadi of Sirandib. Most of the inhabited travellers which comes from one side [of the island] only and it is ■
1 part of the earth is [f. 69r] in the two northern quarters and the two not ordinary lightning which is struck from the clouds but is cloud­ •'ft

;.j| southern quarters are mostly covered with water except certain re­ less lightning formed otherwise. It is said that Adam was buried14
gions10 such as Abyssinia and some of Syria for there the land pene­ in the island, but it is not correct that he has a built-up tomb like i
;! trates into the water. Sumatra has a large number of infidel kings. the tomb of our prophet Muhammad in Medina. 1
It is the land of white elephants, camphor, mace and musk, which To the south of this island in the sea at a distance of four days or !
i i can only be bought by weight of gold. All its governors are infidels. a little less are the Golden Is. called locally Tairam Tura,15 and they i
In the north of the island the latitude is 7^° L.B. and in the south a say there was (an) Elixir in it in olden time but there is no such IIS
little less than 4°. thing there at the present time. They are islands on which the waves
break, having no beaches and the largest of them have high peaks !!
(d) Java which travellers pass when travelling between the southern Maldives ii
The fourth island is Jdwa to the south of the equator, in the first and Sumatra. Those who return from the Coromandel coast and i!
southern climate. The latitude of its northern point when the those who return from Bengal to the Maldives see them and they
Farqadan are horizontal on the east at the culmination of Sunbula are on the equator where the Farqadan show 5° and 4°.
i is 3° according to the Arabs, but the Indians say otherwise. It is
not quite as large as Sumatra, and both Muslims and infidels (g) Zanzibar
dwell there, but its Sultans are infidel. It is the country for benjoin. i The seventh island is that of Zanzibar, extending from the coast of
The islands of Sandal11 are to the south east of it and so are the Zanj, covered with trees and containing rivers. In it are 40 districts16
islands of Spices.12 which are governed by Muslim Sultans, but on the coast of the ii •!
mainland above it they are infidel. It is an unhealthy island and the i
* » J (e) Al-Ghur i ancients say in their works of history that there are two unhealthy
' S The fifth island is that of al-Ghur, the country of the al-Ghuri islands one in the extreme south which is this island and one in the ■! ;
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v 4 iron and the sharp swords made from this iron. Its name in Jawi is extreme north which is Bahrain (which is also called Awal and is
Liklwu and its Sultan is an infidel at war with the Sultans of China especially unhealthy when the sun is in Libra, for when the citrus 11
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in spite of their strength and their ability. Its people have great ! turns yellow the fever and sickness begin).17 The poet has said about ?!•
!•* might and no race has more courage and other men cannot prevail this:
: i against them except by combined effort.
4 4 When your spring sojourn in Awail has ended
■ I (f) Ceylon V and the winter draws near, then evil becomes the sojourn. ii.
i The sixth island is that^f Silan which is north of the equator and j ; *
! south of the Coromandel coast [and] the islands of the south east (h) Bahrain i ii
y of the Indian coast. It has'a number of rulers who are infidels. It is The eighth island is Bahrain which I mentioned above and is also 1;:-
il an almost circular island and someone can go round it in a journey called Awal.18 In Bahrain are 360 villages and sweet water can be
■ m of approximately 10 days. Between Ceylon and the coast of Qa’il13 14 There is no verb in the text; literally “Adam is in the island”.
15 Tairam Tura I have identified elsewhere as part of the southern Maldives (see
are pearl fisheries which flourish in some years, but appear dead in
vi Hi other years. It is also a source of ivory, cinnamon and excellent p. 462) but there may be some confusion here with the rocks off the south ■■
coast of Ceylon known as Basses.
; sapphires and there is continuous lightning on the island to guide 16 The text has LL>- (both manuscripts) which I have read If is correct
it can only mean places of sermon or Friday mosques, i.e. forty large centres
:> 10 The word is (in both manuscripts) which is untranslatable but the of population. LW- is a common term in Qutami and means a flagstaff. /
meaning is obvious. 17 Reading JU! X* with the Damascus manuscript. The Paris manu­
11 The Lesser Sunda Islands. script has “when the winds become yellow (dust-laden?)” jVI j
15 Juzur aI-‘Aqaq!r. jy*..-
and also has above the line.
& 13 Qa‘il Jjli is on the Indian coast opposite Ceylon according to Sulaiman
al-Mahri, see p. 466. 18 This appears both as Awal and Awail Jj jl in the text.
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