Page 39 - Arab Navigation in the Indian Ocean (before portuguese)_Neat

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446 ARAB NAVIGATION
other texts mention quite a few places in this area. Qalhdt W by
N of al-Hadd was and is the first place of importance beyond the
:
cape and in the 15th century was a considerable port (the Calayate
of the Portuguese) and has numerous references in the texts. Tb\'i
iSjA* appears at 11° P.S. in the 'Umda; elsewhere it is the Teive of
t
the Portuguese, Taiwa of Ibn al-Mujawir and Tibi of Ibn Battuta.96
Next and NNW of Qalhat comes Maskat (c£— or JaJ5__ in Ibn
i Majid) the most important port in Oman and probably Ibn Majid’s
■■ !
! home port for he has a lot to say in praise of it in the ninth fa'ida.
He mentions the island of al-Fahl J»UJI outside the harbour of
1 Maskat, and a place called al-Sa'tara ^jUJI which Tomaschek calls
II Ma'tara and equates it with the modern Matrah. al-Sa'tara is
1 placed by the *Umda at 11-J-0 P.S. and is in actual fact, the name
given to the mountain range south of Maskat and opposite Kuriyat.07
Also Ibn Majid mentions the mountain of Ja'ldn u^>L»- which is the
high mountain behind Ra’s al-Hadd, that of Qahwan jlpJ which
cannot be identified but may be in Oman or perhaps somewhere
on the south coast of Arabia, and that of Jawddir jdj? which can
be seen from the Gulf of Oman, but which could be on either side
■■ i of the Gulf. North of Maskat the 'Umda gives Jabal Hai 'A?im
rJrr at 12° P.S. but it is not mentioned elsewhere. Then at
124° P.S. is Suhar jU3 another important port (Portuguese Coar)
mentioned by both authors. Suhar was W by N of Maskat and SSE
of Fak al-Asad -uVI lU which is placed by Sulaiman next up the
* coast. This is due south of Hormuz. This may be the place known
■i as Khor Fakkan which appears on today’s maps and also on
Portuguese charts as Corfacam.98 Beyond that Cape Musandam
known to all the texts and is placed at 13° P.S. by the 'Umda.
(Ibn Majid’s Ra*s al-'Arab is probably the same as Mu­
sandam). The 'Umda finally brings its list of places to an end with
Hormuz, at 13^° P.S. Hormuz also in the plural, y\j» and
; ■
it perhaps for the people) was the important trading centre of
ga Teive seems only lo appear in Portuguese charts given by Tomaschek in Die
topographischen Capitel, Tafel xii. See also Ibn Battuja Hakluyt ed. vol. II
p. 397. Ibn Mujawir, op. cit., vol. 2, pp. 280, 284. Sidi Qelebi has
*' Called Jebel Sohteri by Miles: The countries and tribes of the Persian Gulf
p. 400. Tomaschek {Die topographischen Capitel, Tafel xi) mentions the
Suadi islands some miles west of Maskat and it is possible that he saw in
the word tf-bj-JI. He is following Hammer (JASB, Aug. 1836,
p. 462 and note) who reads Saatari and equates it with “Swardi near Mascat”.
However the texts of Ibn Majid, Sulaiman and Sidi Celebi clearly read
jk-JI- Tomaschek also adds §ur and Qariyat on this coast.
%
os Kammerer: op cit., tome III, 3e ptie, plates cxlix, clxiv, clxxx. Qutami gives
the name Fak al-Asad to the channel between Musandam and the mainland
SI- but this is too far north and not given by any other sources.
i
I
if
tl
A_
THE TOPOGRAPHY OF THE NAVIGATIONAL TEXTS 44 7
the Persian Gulf captured soon after I bn Majid’s time by the
Portuguese. At this time it came second to Aden as a terminus for
Indian Ocean trade. It was also known as Jurun djand Jj j j which
was the original name of the small island on which it was situated:
Old Hormuz was on the mainland. Ibn Majid gives a brief descrip­
tion of the island in his tenth fa'ida. A former port in this neighbour­
hood also described by Ibn Majid is Qishm, a name which also
applies to the island on which it is situated. This is ^ in the Minhaj
but ftiJI to Ibn Majid. It was also called the island of Ibn Jdwdn
jljU vj>- and Burkhut cs-j (Brokht in Persian), the latter name
belonging to a place in the island according to Ibn Majid. Ldrak
iljN is an island mentioned by Ibn Majid near Qishm and is actually
east of Qishm and just south of Hormuz. Laiban or Labtan ^
mentioned by Sulaiman when leaving for India may be Labtiab,
now a village on Larak island.
South of Hormuz and north of Musandam are the islands known
as the Quoin islands. Gt. Quoin is also called Salama today,
(Portuguese as salamas)" and this appears in the Fawd'id as
also here are {Uwair jj* and Kuwair jm£ a pair renowned for a
proverb which is quoted both by Ibn Majid and Ibn Battuta. 100
Which islands are actually ‘Uwair and Kuwair is doubtful.
(d) The Persian Gulf
Except for a short poem on navigation in the Persian Gulf which
gives considerable but obscure detail, this sea is omitted by all the
navigators. However, in the ninth fa'ida when dealing with the
coasts of the world, Ibn Majid mentions the following places; Qatif
still a port on the Saudi Arabian coast; Qatar the penin­
sula and sheikhdom between Bahrain and theTrucial coast; al-Hasd
the present-day province there: Bahrain itself is mentioned
Li-l the general name of the Saudi Arabian coast and the name of
and so is Awal Jtjl the main island and Qasasir the island
off the coast of Bahrain with undersea springs of fresh water—this
name cannot be equated with anything else although undersea
springs can be found in this area; al-Salamiya LU-J1 which might be
read LJl-11 al-Musallamiya, the name of a village north of Qatif on
the Saudi Arabian coast; Abbadan <JLL* at the head of the Gulf.
On the Persian side of the gulf the Fawa'id mentions Siraf
the former great port of Abbasid times; Lashatan jlilil opposite
Qishm which is probably the Lashtagan of the GSGS 1 : 4m map
3U This only occurs in Tafel xii of Tomaschek, Die topographischen Capitel.
100 See note 52 on p. 213.