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442 ARAB NAVIGATION THE TOPOGRAPHY OF THE NAVIGATIONAL TEXTS 443
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order to sail direct to north India. It is the Syagros of the Periplus Muriya is given by Sulaiman’s texts at 8° P.S. Ibn Majid uses this
1 and the C. dc fartaque of the Portuguese.86 Ibn Majid mentions that cape with Madraka in examples to show that all ships do not sail
here is the boundary between the Kathiri Sultanate of Shihr and theoretical zdms in the same time.88 It is here that the topography of
the domain of Zafar. The texts all agree that its latitude is 6£° P.S. Sulaiman’s texts begins to be at variance and from here to the north I
I! and it was ENE of Aden, SW by W of Khuriya Muriya, and SW the texts begin to talk of ishdrdt, i.e. weeds, snakes and birds as
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of Sajar. features for identification. Sauqira (Minhaj) is a locality for sea-
■!
North of Fartak, the small harbour of Khalfdt oUU, where boats snakes in some seasons. On a modern map the next real cape beyond
are still hauled up during the SW monsoon, is mentioned by Sulai Sauqira is Madraka (Portuguese Cabo de Matraca)89 which occurs
: man and Sidi £elebi. Shaghawdt ol^, a large wadi west of Zalar in all the texts (as ifj.u). However, the ‘Umda places it at 8J° P.S.
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■ is then given by the texts at latitude 6J° P.S., while Jabal Sajar and the Minhaj at 9° and the intermediary detail in both cases r
: (Ra’s Sajar on modern maps) is given at 7° P.S. East of differs. The ‘Umda has Ghubbat al-Hashish (the bay of
Sajar, Sulaiman places the Jibdl al-Din ^aII which may be Jabal Grass or floating vegetation) at 81-° and Jabal Shiddr jUi
. !.*
Du‘an or Jabal al-Samlan. The latter is the usual name of the . (jlki in the Leningrad poems) at 8£°. The Minhaj has these at 84°
mountains near the coast here but the resemblance to the written and 8|° respectively with al-riqq wa’l-Jazir jjli-lj 3at 8i° Jazir K
form of the name is not close. After this follows the Zafar (jUt and exists today between Sauqira and Madraka. Riqq means shallows f
jUkJl) region which like the Mishqas region is treated by the navi and the Red Sea Pilot states “The coast from . . . Ras as-Sauqara
i gators as a port. Presumably the town stood where the modern i as far as Ras Khushnayim is bordered by a bank. . . There is ;
town of Salala stands. This was another important place for setting usually a strong ripple over the western part on this bank, whence
out on Indian Ocean voyages and was known for its almost con it derives its name of Riqq al-Jazir”.90 Shidar is unknown in this hi
!.
tinuous SW-S winds. At 1\° P.S. the Minhaj places Jdqa still area, but a fairly rocky cape with a village on it known as Ras !;
a locality in Zafar while the ‘ Umda has Murbdt here. The latter Siddara in the Red Sea Pilot exists in the Gulf of Masira north of r
i name still appears on maps as a cape and bay; the last place in the lists, one place in the ‘Umda and two in the Minhaj; in actual fact j;
Madraka. One feels that this place has slipped down in the qiyds
Zafar region before the mountainous area of Samhan. With the
exception of Zafar itself Ibn Majid mentions no other features be Madraka is much nearer Sauqira than these lists would lead us to
) tween Fartak and Khuriya Muriya. Sulaiman however continues suspect. Thus it is also possible that the name Ghubbat al-Hashish
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the detail. At 7£° P.S. he places Cape Mutawwaq 3j1*- also has slipped past Madraka, for in modern maps this name is given
called Jinjari ^ (Qinqari on modern maps) south of the Samhan to the bay between the mainland and the Hikman peninsula near
range and at 7|° P.S. in the Minhaj he has Jabal Nus ^ where Masira. Normally in these texts the Hashish is floating vegetable if
the eastern end of the Samhan range reaches the sea. The latter is matter but the modern bay must get its name from the thin green ii
the Portuguese terra alta de nozP However in the ‘Umda at this line of mangroves which line its shore. The bay of Sauqira also has :
latitude Sulaiman has Khor Hasik dJL-U a bay and village still mangroves and is in the right place (south of Madraka) for Sulai i!
bearing the same name a little to the north of Jabal Nus. The islands man’s lists. Ibn Majid, although he mentions the Bay of Hashish, ii
of Khuriya Muriya b are mentioned several times by Ibn gives no position—it seems that either of these bays could be the
Majid and also by Sulaiman especially in describing routes and Ibn one mentioned. At the same time Ibn Majid mentions the Ghubba t;
Majid uses it as a base for measuring latitude by the heights of Tihdn L* as a neighbouring bay which is as dangerous as that of
Suhail and al-Difdac. In addition Ibn Majid gives Hair aw an jl Hashish. This cannot be identified: it may be the same as Sidi 1
as an alternative name for the islands a name which cannot be Celebi’s Ghubba Tin Oy v which appears in Sulaiman as “the
v. traced elsewhere. Sulaiman also mentions dangers around the island two bays”. Another unidentified name hereabouts is Ra's al-Mariza
of al-Hasikiya LOJ-I the westernmost of the group. Ra*s •JjLlI “the cape of the sea-snake”. This could be Sauqira (see ;
ft Sauqira and the next prominent cape beyond Khuriya
i 86 Hyde: Ancient Greek Mariners, (New York 1947), pp. 215-216. 88 See p. 303.
88 Kammerer: La Mer Rouge, tome III, 3e ptie, in ail the plates mentioned in
note 82 above, p. 440.
1: 87 This phrase only occurs in the Portuguese maps given in Tomaschek: Die Red Sea Pilot (10th ed., 1955), p. 408. Qutami also has j jU-1 3j, p. 51.
topographischen Capitel, Tafel xii.
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