Page 40 - Arab Navigation in the Indian Ocean (before portuguese)_Neat

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448 ARAB NAVIGATION
(also called Latidan) and the ports of Walashtdn OtJJ, (Lashatan?),
Hazalmir jdjU, Laitshahr J (?) and Lishahr The last if not
a duplicate of the last but one may represent Rishahr the modern
port, the remainder cannot be identified.
(e) The Mekran Coast of Persia and Sind1*1
Sailing SSE from Hormuz one reaches the cape of Koh-i Mubarak
djL. at 13° P.S. if Umda) still called by this name today although
it often appears on European maps as Ras al-Kuh. SE from here is
the port of Jash the Persian Jask,102 the cape of which is once
\ called al-Karan by the Minhaj a name ^jl^Cll for which there is no
other authority. The latitude of Jash is given as \2\° P.S. Beyond
Jash the Persian coast trends almost due east hence great distance
appears between latitude intervals and this together with the in­
hospitable nature of the coast (and the fact that one bearing only
1 is necessary from Jash to Sind, E by S) has led to sparceness of
! information in the texts. The only identifiable place on this coast is
> Basani placed by the cUmda at 12° P.S. and in one place stated
to be on the route from Hormuz to Diul al-Sind. This is the modern
Pasni, a small harbour on the Baluchistan coast also marked on
Portuguese charts (Pasanin etc.).103 Next appear two names from a
a single passage in Ibn Majid’s Fawa’id,104 When sailing from Ra’s
al-Hadd to Sind if NE by E is taken as a bearing then one meets
land at cAruba U the coast is then followed to Bali Shuraik
dJis* and then to Sind. This piece of the coast is then given in
I more detail by Sulaiman who states that from the Cape of Jash to
*! Karachi is E by S according to the ancients but actually from Jash
I to Hasht-i-Ldr p) cuia, a place also mentioned in the Fawa’id, is
' ii E^E by S and then to ‘Aryafin it is E by S, the latter being the
western cape of the Bay of Malan ubL. is. From cAryafin to the
island of Farik dlj vj>- it is a little south of E by S and the final
bearing to Karachi is not given. Karachi to Zajd was then SE.
None of these names appear in modern Pilot guides but Horsburgh
gives a good idea of this area. Hasht-i Lar is, in his guide, the island
of Astola, Aptalla or Singadib, some distance off Pasni point and
between this place and Kalmat, now called Astalu and spelled »jiIsJ
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i 101 The textual references for this area are the same as for the west coast of
& India, note 107, p. 450. Tomaschek adds also the places Sahbar, Tiz, Bandar
Gwadar and Kalmat from Sidi Qelebi.
102
The Persian k appears in the plural dJL-i^Ll, which occurs several times in
the texts.
103 Kammercr: pi. cxlix, clxiv.
I ,u< f. 74v, 1. 14; trans. p. 233.
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THE TOPOGRAPHY OF THE NAVIGATIONAL TEXTS 449 ■I!
by Qutami. However it is impossible to sail from Jask to Astalu I
on one bearing one must change course in the neighbourhood of
Gwadar. Ibn Majid’s ‘Aruba is the same as Sulaiman’s Aryafin i
which should probably read ‘Arubapatan for oyb^), the
town of ‘Aruba, and this appears as Aruba in Horsburgh and is the 1,1 *
equivalent of Ormara peninsula. The Bay of Malan survives in
Qutami as «L>bL <s and in Horsburgh as Ras Malan a cape between
Ormara and the Hinglah river. Thus Sulaiman’s bay must represent
the bay between Ormara and Ras Malan although keeping in mind ;
his bearings it may possibly be the whole bay between Ormara and
C. Monze near Karachi including Somniani Bay. !,■ \
Finally Bali Shuraik must be the same as Sulaiman’s Farik Island !\
and this must be some feature between Hinglah and Cape Monze ,
(Muari), although perhaps it may be Cape Monze itself as its .*
distance and bearing from Karachi is not given. j
Karachi was the important rendezvous of the Arab navigators in •T.
Sind. It was written Karashi and was, according to Sulaiman, ::
a cape of the bay of Diul al-Sind -u-Jl Apart from this sentence .i. -
no exact relationship between the two places is given. Sometimes i I
Karashi is mentioned and sometimes Diul al-Sind but never to­ :•
gether. Ibn Majid in the Fawa’id never refers to either but only to
Sind jlJI. Portuguese and early European maps and charts never ' I
refer to Karachi but only to Diulsinde, dulcinde etc.105 The position }
given by them to the place would seem to indicate that this was the
same as Karachi. Perhaps Diul al-Sind was the bay which was in
actual fact an estuary of the Indus delta and Karachi was the town
on the estuary—nothing is certain. Diul al-Sind is ll£° P.S. in the
‘ Umda. J
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6. The Indian Peninsula and Arakan
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(a) The West Coast of India
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India proper according to the navigators begins at Zajd -u-j the ;|
Portuguese Pun to de jaquete and the equivalent of Cape Dwarka
and named from the great shrine near the cape called Jagat Mandir.106
This was the key point for reaching the Indian coast for it was on !
the same latitude as Ra’s al-Hadd, hence as long as one remained \
south of this latitude (11° P.S. Minhaj but 104° P.S. in the ‘Umda) ,
one remained free of the dangers of Sind and the Persian coast and f
at the other end one was not blown up into the Persian Gulf.
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10S Kammerer: La Mer Rouge in the maps cited in note 82 on p. 440. t
100 Kammerer: La Mer Rouge, tome III, 3e ptie., pi. clxiv, cxlix. Qutami spells
the word ciCi-l. ii
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