Page 33 - Arab Navigation in the Indian Ocean (before portuguese)_Neat

\
9
222 ARAB NAVIGATION i AHMAD IBN MAJID 223 n

SI found in a number of places. A most wonderful place there is called :( Arabs and Persians live. There are people and ships, fields and HI i:i
habitations in all its districts and it is an island opposite to Lashatan
al-Qa§a$Ir where a man can dive into the salt sea with a skin and
on the Farsi coast and contains fruits, vines, melons and vegetables
can fill it with fresh water while he is submerged in the salt water.
[Meaning by this that it is sweet enough to be palatable for drinking. r i of all sorts. N !
If The water1® is really brackish because it is a mixture of the salt i (j) Soqotra
water from above and the fresh from underneath. Altogether it
stretches for about three times a man’s height or 3 fathoms.]
The tenth island is Soqotra which is an inhabited island approxi­
M Around Bahrain are pearl fisheries and a number of islands all of mately round, and smaller than the islands mentioned previously. !
.
which have pearl fisheries and connected with this trade are about
Its length and its breadth are about 50 farsangs but maybe more.
1,000 ships. In Bahrain are a number of Arab tribes and a number In it there is water everywhere. It is to the east of the Somali coast
i -ii of merchants. Also there are a large number of date palms of various and some ruffianly Christians dwell there and some say they are l! :
qualities and horses, camels, cattle, sheep and goats, and flowing
remnants of the Greeks. ‘Umar b. Ayyub b. Shahinshah22 the author
; ii springs with [f. 70r] pomegranates, figs, and oranges and limes. It is of the book Taqmm al-Buldan mentioned them and there are many
m at the limit of cultivation and at the date of this book belongs to people, about 20,000 men. Many people have possessed it from
Ajwad b. Zamil b. Hasin al-‘Amiri and was given to him with al- olden days [f. 70v] but only its own people remained [permanently],
1 Qatif by Sultan Sarghal b. Nurshah20 so that he should help him ! but today it is ruled by Muhammad b. ‘All b. ‘Amr b. ‘Afrar and
against his (Sarghal’s) brethren who ruled the island of Jurun
the Bani ‘Abd al-Nabi23 aJ-Sulaimani al-Himyari both of them
v< Hormuz which has been mentioned before. He wrote for it title- Sheikhs from Mahra and they built a fort and ruled over some of
i. • deeds, setting aside some of its gardens. And he rose up and helped its people, making them subservient and taking from each man a I!
A
him to conquer Jurun. He took Bahrain and al-Qafif in the year present (mann) of samn and from each woman cloaks of local
■:
a.h. 880. His son Saif b. Zamil took ‘Umman b. Shihab with the ; weaving.24 In the time of the Abbasids there ruled there a man from
sword from Sulaiman b. Sulaiman b. Nabhan in the year a.h. 893 the Persians.25 The people used deceit against him and they made him
and the Imam of the Ibadis rose up and prevented him from ob­
A and his companions drunk and killed them. They also killed Ahmad
taining his object. Then his people came to his help and rose up to b. Muhammad b. ‘Afrar who ruled them after the death of his
help him and all its fortresses were destroyed and ‘Umar b. al- father, and his uncles and tribe came and took revenge for him and
4 m Khattab the Ibadi prevailed over them.21 made them subservient and set Ibn ‘Abd al-Nabi over them. It is
I;'! said that it would bring bad luck to anyone who reigned over them. II
;;'l (i) Hormuz and Qism j: But they are a mild tempered people and when a stranger appears I l!
tl The ninth island is the Island of Ibn Jawdn also known as the among them, they offer him water and provisions and they offer H
island of Burkhut or aFQism for al-Qism is a place on the north him their clothes26 and their women. A woman is their governor.
■' m eastern cape of the island which faces Hormuz and it is divided They are married by the Christian priests who dwell in the churches27
i amongst the rulers of Hormuz: Burkhut is in the middle of the island and they act on the advice of this woman but her rule is decadent *
and is a place of palm trees and fields and animals. In Burkhut are and weak at the moment. The Mahra only ruled them when they i
500 weavers weaving silk and its western cape has two wells where wished to watch over their affairs and unite with them because of
, ' v • ' * • * J •' ... 1 ■ • •• . • !
f ^ • i. their fear and their weakness against the Sultans of the Haqlramaut I
19 Reading *U.I for gili. This section is in the margin and has been inserted and other places. Muhammad b. ‘All b. ‘Amr sometimes used to ask
t by the text after Qa$5$Ir, but it should really be at the end of the sentence i
where. I have placed it It is in.the copyist’s hand but really seems to be a i 32 i.e. AbuT-Fida.
marginal note. > . !
i 23 Or perhaps as below.
t0 Sarghar Shah was the Sultan of Hormuz in a.h. 880 (Zambaur). I have not ! !
yet discovered this story elsewhere. 24 Parts of this are translated by R. B. Sergeant in his “The Portuguese off the .
§outh Arabian coast”, p. 157.
£i “ ,H£?ar rb*-aWChattab al-Yahmadi was the ‘Ibadi Imam of Oman 855-896. 16 The word is used by Ibn Majid for any non-Arab race, e.g. the Sudanese.
The family of Ibn Nabhan ruled in Oman until 809 and presumably de­
1 scendants still ruled in parts or pursued their claim to the country, cf. 28 Or cloth. Sergeant op. cit, p. 157.
Badger: The Imams and Seyyids of Om&n, pp. 41-52. 17 Priest (qasfs) is singular but the verb is in the plural. ■
t J • ■ . * :
1 i
jil!
i
■ .
mmmstgm