Page 102 - Arabian Studies (I)

88 Arabian Studies I

The remaining coasts of the Arabian peninsula can be divided into
two parts, the southern coast as far as Cape Musandam and the
coasts of the Persian Gulf. The southern coasts are dealt with in their
proper place in the navigational treatises in approximately the same
detail as the other coasts of the Ocean, except for the fact that there
is a separate poem on sailing in the Gulf of Berbera (Aden) in which
Ibn Majid gives supplementary information. The Persian Gulf was
omitted by all the navigators in their general works of a roteiro
nature, but, as I have stated above, a poem has survived written by
Ibn Majid giving information about this Gulf and this must be
described in detail later. In addition Ibn Majid’s Fawa’id gives
encyclopaedic accounts of Bahrain, Qishm and Hormuz, and his brief
tour of the coasts of the world gives a vague outline of the Gulf.
The Arab navigators term the coasts of Arabia Barr al-Arab and
differentiate them from the coasts on the other side which are
known collectively as the Barr al-'Ajam. Thus this latter term stands
for the Somali and Sudanese coasts as well as the Persian coast of the
Gulf. In addition all coasts were divided into regions. Beginning from
Bab al-Mandam (as it was usually known to the navigators) eastwards
to Fartak the coast was known asArcl al-Juzr, a phrase which occurs
in other contemporary texts but seems not to be used at the present
time. Serjeant3 states that al-Juzr (or Juzur, lit. ‘islands’) were the
islands around Husn al-Ghurab but this does not seem satisfactory
for naming the whole coast from the mouth of the Red Sea to
Fartak, especially as Ibn Majid insists on using the classical plural,
Jaza’ir al-Qana, when referring to these islands instead of his more
usual form of juzur. It is possible that the islands referred to are
Soqotra and those neighbouring it, as these were always regarded by
the Arabs as appendages of this coast. From Fartak to MasTrah the
coast was called Barr al-Ahqaf, a name which survives as areas of sand
in the south of the Rub‘ al-KhalT. As a coastal region the word Ahqdf
is mentioned in Ibn Battutah in connexion with the neighbourhood
of Zafar, but to the navigators it includes the whole of this coast as
well as Zafar. Beyond MasTrah as far as Ra’s al-Hadd the coast was
known as the Barr al-Atwah, a name which does not seem to be used
by other writers and can only mean something like the coast of
dangerous places. Beyond Ra’s al-Hadd, the region is known as Oman
as far as Musandam. In the Persian Gulf the only regional name
mentioned apart from Qatar and Bahrain is al-Hasa, the general name
of that part of the coast which is now in Saudi Arabia.
The tribe of Mahrah is also mentioned in the texts. They are the
people of Sulaiman al-Mahrl and were mentioned as being politically
dominant in Soqotra. Today they reside on the coast between
MasTlah and Fartak and inland behind the Zafar region.

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