to the west of Suagros, and has been identified with +Koshîn+
[lat. 15° 21´ N. long. 51° 39´ E.]. Our author, though correct in his
description of the coast, may perhaps have erred in his nomenclature;
and this is the more likely to have happened as it scarcely admits
of doubt that he had no personal knowledge of South Arabia beyond
+Kanê+ and Cape +Suagros+. Besides no other author speaks
of an Omana so far to westward as the position assigned to the Bay of
that name. The tract immediately beyond +Moskha+ or Ausera is
low and fertile, and is called +Dofar+ or +Zhafâr+, after
a famous city now destroyed, but whose ruins are still to be traced
between Al-hâfâh and Addahariz. “This Dhafâr,” says Yule (_Marco Polo_
II. p. 442 note) “or the bold fountain above it, is supposed to be the
+Sephar+ of _Genesis_ X. 30.” It is certain that the Himyarites
had spread their dominion as far eastward as this place. Marco Polo
thus describes Dhafâr:—“It stands upon the sea, and has a very good
haven, so that there is a great traffic of shipping between this and
India; and the merchants take hence great numbers of Arab horses to
that market, making great profits thereby.... Much white incense is
produced here, and I will tell you how it grows. The trees are like
small fir-trees; these are notched with a knife in several places, and
from these notches the incense is exuded. Sometimes, also, it flows
from the tree without any notch, this is by reason of the great heat
of the sun there.” Müller would identify +Moskha+ with Zhafâr,
and accounts for the discrepancy of designation by supposing that our
author had confounded the name +Maskat+, which was the great seat
of the traffic in frankincense with the name of the greatest city
in the district which actually produced it. A similar confusion he
thinks transferred the name of Oman to the same part of the country.
The climate of the incense country is described as being extremely
unhealthy, but its unhealthiness seems to have been designedly
exaggerated.
33. From the port of +Moskha+ onward to +Asikh+, a distance
of about 1,500 stadia, runs a range of hills pretty close to the
shore, and at its termination there are seven islands bearing the
name of +Zenobios+, beyond which again we come to another
barbarous district not subject to any power in Arabia, but to Persia.
If when sailing by this coast you stand well out to sea so as to
keep a direct course, then at about a distance from the island of
+Zenobios+ of 2,000 stadia you arrive at another island, called
that of +Sarapis+, lying off shore, say, 120 stadia. It is about
200 stadia broad and 600 long, possessing three villages inhabited by a
_savage_ tribe of +Ikhthyophagoi+, who speak the Arabic language,
and whose clothing consists of a girdle made from the leaves of the
cocoa-palm. The island produces in great plenty tortoise of excellent
quality, and the merchants of +Kanê+ accordingly fit out little
boats and cargo-ships to trade with it.
(33) Beyond +Moskha+ the coast is mountainous as far as
+Asikh+ and the islands of Zenobios—a distance excessively
estimated at 1,500 stadia. The mountains referred to are 5,000 feet
in height, and are those now called Subaha. +Asikh+ is readily
to be identified with the +Hâsek+ of Arabian geographers. Edrisi
(I. p. 54) says: “Thence (from Marbat) to the town of Hâsek is a four
days’ journey and a two days’ sail. Before +Hâsek+ are the two
islands of +Khartan+ and +Martan+. Above +Hâsek+ is
a high mountain named +Sous+, which commands the sea. It is an
inconsiderable town but populous.” This place is now in ruins, but has
left its name to the promontory on which it stood [Râs Hâsek, lat. 17°
23´ N. long. 55° 20´ E. opposite the island of Hasiki]. The islands
of +Zenobios+ are mentioned by Ptolemy as seven in number, and
are those called by Edrisi +Khartan+ and +Martan+, now known
as the +Kuriyân Muriyân+ islands. The inhabitants belonged to an
Arab tribe which was spread from Hâsek to Râs-el-Ḥad, and was called
+Beit+ or +Beni Jenabi+, whence the Greek name. M. Polo in
the 31st chapter of his travels “discourseth of the two islands called
Male and Female,” the position of which he vaguely indicates by saying
that “when you leave the kingdom of +Kesmacoran+ (Mekran) which
is on the mainland, you go by sea some 500 miles towards the south,
and then you find the 2 islands Male and Female lying about 30 miles
distant from one another.” (See also _Marco Polo_, vol. II. p. 396
note.)
Beyond +Asikh+ is a district inhabited by barbarians, and subject
not to Arabia but to Persis. Then succeeds at a distance of 200 stadia
beyond the islands of +Zenobios+ the island of +Sarapis+,
(the Ogyris of Pliny) now called Masira [lat. 20° 10´ to 20° 42´ N.,
long. 58° 37´ to 58° 59´ E.] opposite that part of the coast where
Oman now begins. The _Periplûs_ exaggerates both its breadth and its
distance from the continent. It was still inhabited by a tribe of
fish-eaters in the time of Ebn Batuta, by whom it was visited.
On proceeding from +Sarapis+ the adjacent coast bends round, and
the direction of the voyage changes to north. The great cape which
forms the south-eastern extremity of Arabia called +Ras-el-Had+
[lat. 22° 33´ N. long. 59° 48´ E.] is here indicated, but without
being named; Ptolemy calls it +Korodamon+ (VI. vii. 11.)
34. If sailing onward you wind round with the adjacent coast to the
north, then as you approach the entrance of the Persian Gulf you
fall in with a group of islands which lie in a range along the coast
for 2,000 stadia, and are called the islands of +Kalaiou+. The
inhabitants of the adjacent coast are cruel and treacherous, and see
imperfectly in the daytime.
(34) Beyond it, and near the entrance to the Persian Gulf, occurs,
according to the _Periplûs_, a group of many islands, which lie in a
range along the coast over a space of 2,000 stadia, and are called the
islands of +Kalaiou+. Here our author is obviously in error, for
there are but three groups of islands on this coast, which are not by
any means near the entrance of the Gulf. They lie beyond Maskat [lat.
23° 38´ N. long. 58° 36´ E.] and extend for a considerable distance
along the Batinah coast. The central group is that of the Deymâniyeh
islands (probably the Damnia of Pliny) which are seven in number,
and lie nearly opposite Birkeh [lat 23° 42´ N. long. 57° 55´ E.].
The error, as Müller suggests, may be accounted for by supposing
that the tract of country called El Baṭinah was mistaken for islands.
This tract, which is very low and extremely fertile, stretches from
Birkeh [lat. 23° 42´ N. long. 57° 55´ E.] onward to Jibba, where high
mountains approach the very shore, and run on in an unbroken chain
to the mouth of the Persian Gulf. The islands are not mentioned by
any other author, for the +Calacou insulae+ of Pliny (VI. xxxii.
150) must, to avoid utter confusion, be referred to the coast of the
Arabian Gulf. There is a place called +El Kilat+, the Akilla of
Pliny [lat. 22° 40´ N. long. 59° 24´ E.]—but whether this is connected
with the +Kalaiou+ islands of the _Periplûs_ is uncertain [Conf.
_Ind. Ant._ vol. IV. p. 48. El Kilhat, south of Maskat and close to
Ṣûr, was once a great port.]
35. Near the last headland of the islands of +Kalaiou+ is the
mountain called +Kalon+ (Pulcher),[20] to which succeeds, at no
great distance, the mouth of the Persian Gulf, where there are very
many pearl fisheries. On the left of the entrance, towering to a vast
height, are the mountains which bear the name of +Asaboi+, and
directly opposite on the right you see another mountain high and round,
called the hill of +Semiramis+. The strait which separates them
has a width of 600 stadia, and through this opening the Persian Gulf
pours its vast expanse of waters far up into the interior. At the very
head of this gulf there is a regular mart of commerce, called the city
of +Apologos+, situate near +Pasinou-Kharax+ and the river
Euphrates.
(35) Before the mouth of the Persian Gulf is reached occurs a height
called +Kalon+ (Fair Mount) at the last head of the islands of
Papias—τῶν Παπίου νήσων. This reading has been altered by Fabricius
and Schwanbeck to των Καλαιου νησων. The Fair Mount, according to
Vincent, would answer sufficiently to Cape Fillam, if that be high
land, and not far from Fillam are the straits. The great cape which
Arabia protrudes at these straits towards Karmania is now called Ras
Mussendom. It was seen from the opposite coast by the expedition under
Nearkhos, to whom it appeared to be a day’s sail distant. The height
on that coast is called Semiramis, and also Strongylê from its round
shape. Mussendom, the ‘Asabôn akron’ of Ptolemy, Vincent says, “is a
sort of Lizard Point to the Gulf; for all the Arabian ships take their
departure from it with some ceremonies of superstition, imploring
a blessing on their voyage, and setting afloat a toy like a vessel
rigged and decorated, which if it is dashed to pieces by the rocks
is to be accepted by the ocean as an offering for the escape of the
vessel.” [The straits between the island of Mussendom and the mainland
are called El Bab, and this is the origin of the name of the Papiæ
islands.—Miles’ _Jour. R. A. Soc._ N. S. vol. x. p. 168.]
The actual width of the straits is 40 miles. Pliny gives it at 50, and
the _Periplûs_ at 75. Cape Mussendom is represented in the _Periplûs_
as in Ptolemy by the Mountains of the Asabi which are described as
tremendous heights, black, grim, and abrupt. They are named from the
tribe of +Beni Asab+.
We enter now the Gulf itself, and here the _Periplûs_ mentions only
two particulars: the famous Pearl Fisheries which begin at the straits
and extend to Bahrein, and the situation of a regular trading mart
called +Apologos+, which lies at the very head of the Gulf on the
Euphrates, and in the vicinity of +Spasinou Kharax+. This place
does not appear to be referred to in any other classical work, but it
is frequently mentioned by Arabian writers under the name of Oboleh
or Obolegh. As an emporium it took the place of +Terêdôn+ or
+Diridôtis+, just as +Basra+ (below which it was situated)
under the second Khaliphate took the place of +Oboleh+ itself.
According to Vincent, Oboleh, or a village that represents it, still
exists between Basra and the Euphrates. The canal also is called
the canal of Oboleh. +Kharax Pasinou+ was situated where the
+Karûn+ (the +Eulæus+ of the ancients) flows into the
+Pasitigris+, and is represented by the modern trading town
+Muhammarah+. It was founded by Alexander the Great, and after
its destruction, was rebuilt by Antiokhos Epiphanes, who changed its
name from Alexandreia to Antiokheia. It was afterwards occupied by an
Arab Chief called Pasines, or rather +Spasines+, who gave it the
name by which it is best known. Pliny states that the original town
was only 10 miles from the sea, but that in his time the existing
place was so much as 120 miles from it. It was the birth-place of two
eminent geographers—Dionysius Periegetes and Isidôros.
36. If you coast along the mouth of the gulf you are conducted by a
six days’ voyage to another seat of trade belonging to Persia, called
+Omana+.[21] Barugaza maintains a regular commercial intercourse
with both these Persian ports, despatching thither large vessels
freighted with copper, sandalwood, beams for rafters, horn, and logs of
sasamina and ebony. Omana imports also frankincense from Kanê, while
it exports to Arabia a particular species of vessels called _madara_,
which have their planks sewn together. But both from +Apologos+
and +Omana+ there are exported to Barugaza and to Arabia great
quantities of pearl, of mean quality however compared with the Indian
sort, together with purple, cloth for the natives, wine, dates in great
quantity, and gold and slaves.
(36) After this cursory glance at the great gulf, our author returns
to the straits, and at once conducts us to the Eastern shores of the
æErythræan, where occurs another emporium belonging to Persis, at a
distance from the straits of 6 courses or 3,000 stadia. This is Omana.
It is mentioned by Pliny (VI. xxxii. 149) who makes it belong to
Arabia, and accuses preceding writers for placing it in Karmania.
The name of +Omana+ has been corrupted in the MSS. of Ptolemy
into Nommana, Nombana, +Kommana+, Kombana, but Marcian has
preserved the correct spelling. From Omana as from Apologos great
quantities of pearl of an inferior sort were exported to Arabia and
Barugaza. No part however of the produce of India is mentioned as
among its exports, although it was the centre of commerce between that
country and Arabia.
37. After leaving the district of +Omana+ the country of the
+Parsidai+ succeeds, which belongs to another government, and
the bay which bears the name of +Terabdoi+, from the midst of
which a cape projects. Here also is a river large enough to permit the
entrance of ships, with a small mart at its mouth called +Oraia+.
Behind it in the interior, at the distance of a seven days’ journey
from the coast, is the city where the king resides, called Rhambakia.
This district, in addition to corn, produces wine, rice, and dates,
though in the tract near the sea, only the fragrant gum called
bdellium.
(37) The district which succeeds Omana belongs to the +Parsidai+,
a tribe in Gedrosia next neighbours to the +Arbitae+ on the
East. They are mentioned by Ptolemy (VI. xx., p. 439) and by Arrian
(_Indika_ xxvi.) who calls them +Pasirees+, and notes that they
had a small town called +Pasira+, distant about 60 stadia from
the sea, and a harbour with good anchorage called +Bagisara+. The
Promontory of the _Periplûs_ is also noted and described as projecting
far into the sea, and being high and precipitous. It is the Cape
now called +Arabah+ or +Urmarah+. The Bay into which it
projects is called +Terabdôn+, a name which is found only in our
author. Vincent erroneously identifies this with the +Paragôn+
of Ptolemy. It is no doubt the Bay which extends from Cape Guadel to
Cape Monze. The river which enters this Bay, at the mouth of which
stood the small mart called +Oraia+, was probably that which
is now called the Akbor. The royal city which lay inland from the
sea a seven days’ journey was perhaps, as Mannert has conjectured,
+Rambakia+, mentioned by Arrian (_Anab._ vi. 21) as the capital
of the +Oreitai+ or +Horitai+.
38. After this region, where the coast is already deeply indented by
gulfs caused by the land advancing with a vast curve from the east,
succeeds the seaboard of Skythia, a region which extends to northward.
It is very low and flat, and contains the mouths of the +Sinthos+
(Indus), the largest of all the rivers which fall into the Erythræan
Sea, and which, indeed, pours into it such a vast body of water that
while you are yet far off from the land at its mouth you find the sea
turned of a white colour by its waters.
The sign by which voyagers before sighting land know that it is near
is their meeting with serpents floating on the water; but higher up
and on the coasts of Persia the first sign of land is seeing them of
a different kind, called _graai_. [Sansk. _graha_—an alligator.] The
river has seven mouths, all shallow, marshy and unfit for navigation
except only the middle stream, on which is +Barbarikon+, a trading
seaport. Before this town lies a small islet, and behind it in the
interior is +Minnagar+, the metropolis of Skythia, which is
governed, however, by Parthian princes, who are perpetually at strife
among themselves, expelling each the other.
(38) We now approach the mouths of the Indus which our author
calls the +Sinthos+, transliterating the native name of
it—+Sindhu+. In his time the wide tract which was watered by this
river in the lower part of its course was called +Indoskythia+.
It derived its name from the Skythian tribes (the +Śâka+ of
Sansk.) who after the overthrow of the Graeco-Baktrian empire
gradually passed southward to the coast, where they established
themselves about the year 120 B. C., occupying all the region
between the Indus and the Narmadâ. They are called by Dionysios
Periegetes +Notioi Skythai+, the Southern Skythians. Our author
mentions two cities which belonged to them—+Barbarikon+ and
+Minnagar+; the former of which was an emporium situated near the
sea on the middle and only navigable branch of the Indus. Ptolemy has
a +Barbarei+ in the Delta, but the position he assigns to it,
does not correspond with that of +Barbarikon+. +Minnagar+
was the Skythian metropolis. It lay inland, on or near the banks of
the Indus.
39. Ships accordingly anchor near +Barbarikê+, but all their
cargoes are conveyed by the river up to the king, who resides in the
metropolis.
The articles imported into this emporium are—Ἱματισμὸς ἁπλους
ἱκανὸς—Clothing, plain and in considerable quantity.
Ἱματισμὸς νόθος οὐ πολὺς—Clothing, mixed, not much.
Πολύμιτα—Flowered cottons.
Χρυσόλιθον—Yellow-stone, topazes.
Κοράλλιον—Coral.
Στύραξ—Storax.
Λίβανος—Frankincense (_Lôbân_).
Ὑαλά σκεύη—Glass vessels.
Αργυρώματα—Silver plate.
Χρῆμα—Specie.
Οἰνος οὐ πολύς—Wine, but not much.
The exports are:—
Κόστος—Costus, a spice.
Βδέλλα—Bdellium, a gum.
Λύκιον—A yellow dye (_Ruzot_).
Νάρδος—Spikenard.
Λίθος καλλαïνος—Emeralds or green-stones.
Σάπφειρος—Sapphires.
Σηρικὰ δέρματα—Furs from China.
Ὀθόνιον—Cottons.
Νῆμα Σηρικὸν—Silk thread.
Ἰνδικὸν μέλαν—Indigo.
Ships destined for this port put out to sea when the Indian monsoon
prevails—that is, about the month of July or Epiphi. The voyage at this
season is attended with danger, but being shorter is more expeditious.
(39) Ships did not go up to it but remained at +Barbarikon+,
their cargoes being conveyed up the river in small boats. In Ptolemy
(VII. i. 61) the form of the name is +Binagara+, which is less
correct since the word is composed of _Min_, the Indian name for the
Skythians, and _nagar_, a city. Ritter considers that +Ṭhaṭha+
is its modern representative, since it is called +Saminagar+ by
the Jâḍejâ Rajputs who, though settled in Kachh, derive their origin
from that city. To this view it is objected that Ṭhaṭha is not near
the position which Ptolemy assigns to his +Binagara+. Mannert
places it at +Bakkar+, D’Anville at +Mansura+, and Vincent
at +Menhabery+ mentioned by Edrisi (I. p. 164) as distant two
stations or 60 miles from +Dabil+, which again was three stations
or 90 miles from the mouth of the Indus, that is it lay at the head
of the Delta. Our author informs us that in his time +Minagar+
was ruled by Parthian princes. The Parthians (the Parada of Sanskrit
writers) must therefore have subverted a Skythian dynasty which
must have been that which (as Benfey has shown) was founded by
+Yeukaotschin+ between the years 30 and 20 B.C., or
about 30 years only after the famous Indian Æra called _Śâkâbda_
(the year of the Śâka) being that in which Vikramâditya expelled the
Skythians from Indian soil. The statement of the _Periplûs_ that
Parthian rulers succeeded the Skythian is confirmed by Parthian coins
found everywhere in this part of the country. These sovereigns must
have been of consequence, or the trade of their country very lucrative
to the merchant as appears by the presents necessary to ensure his
protection—plate, musical instruments, handsome girls for the Harem,
the best wine, plain cloth of high price, and the finest perfumes.
The profits of the trade must therefore have been great, but if
Pliny’s account be true, that every pound laid out in India produced a
hundred at Rome, greater exactions than these might easily have been
supported.
40. After the river +Sinthos+ is passed we reach another gulf,
which cannot be easily seen. It has two divisions,—the Great and
the Little by name,—both shoal with violent and continuous eddies
extending far out from the shore, so that before ever land is in sight
ships are often grounded on the shoals, or being caught within the
eddies are lost. Over this gulf hangs a promontory which, curving from
+Eirinon+ first to the east, then to the south, and finally to the
west, encompasses the gulf called +Barakê+, in the bosom of which
lie seven islands. Should a vessel approach the entrance of this gulf,
the only chance of escape for those on board is at once to alter their
course and stand out to sea, for it is all over with them if they are
once fairly within the womb of +Barakê+, which surges with vast
and mighty billows, and where the sea, tossing in violent commotion,
forms eddies and impetuous whirlpools in every direction. The bottom
varies, presenting in places sudden shoals, in others being scabrous
with jagged rocks, so that when an anchor grounds its cable is either
at once cut through, or soon broken by friction at the bottom. The sign
by which voyagers know they are approaching this bay is their seeing
serpents floating about on the water, of extraordinary size and of a
black colour, for those met with lower down and in the neighbourhood of
Barugaza are of less size, and in colour green and golden.
(40) The first place mentioned after the Indus is the Gulf of
+Eirinon+, a name of which traces remain in the modern
appellation the +Raṇ+ of Kachh. This is no longer covered with
water except during the monsoon, when it is flooded by sea water or
by rains and inundated rivers. At other seasons it is not even a
marsh, for its bed is hard, dry and sandy; a mere saline waste almost
entirely devoid of herbage, and frequented but by one quadruped—the
wild ass. Burnes conjectured that its desiccation resulted from an
upheaval of the earth caused by one of those earthquakes which are so
common in that part of India. The +Raṇ+ is connected with the
Gulf of Kachh, which our author calls the Gulf of +Barakê+.
His account of it is far from clear. Perhaps, as Müller suggests, he
comprehended under +Eirinon+ the interior portion of the Gulf
of Kachh, limiting the Gulf of +Barakê+ to the exterior portion
or entrance to it. This gulf is called that of Kanthi by Ptolemy,
who mentions +Barakê+ only as an island, [and the south coast
of Kachh is still known by the name of Kantha]. The islands of the
_Periplûs_ extend westward from the neighbourhood of +Navanagar+
to the very entrance of the Gulf.
41. To the gulf of +Barakê+ succeeds that of +Barugaza+ and
the mainland of +Ariakê+, a district which forms the frontier of
the kingdom of +Mombaros+ and of all India. The interior part of
it which borders on +Skythia+ is called +Aberia+, and its
sea-board +Surastrênê+. It is a region which produces abundantly
corn and rice and the oil of sesamum, butter, muslins and the coarser
fabrics which are manufactured from Indian cotton. It has also numerous
herds of cattle. The natives are men of large stature and coloured
black. The metropolis of the district is +Minnagar+, from which
cotton cloth is exported in great quantity to +Barugaza+. In this
part of the country there are preserved even to this very day memorials
of the expedition of Alexander, old temples, foundations of camps, and
large wells. The extent of this coast, reckoned from +Barbarikon+
to the promontory called +Papikê+, near +Astakapra+, which is
opposite +Barugaza+, is 3,000 stadia.
(41) To +Barakê+ succeeds the Gulf of +Barugaza+ (Gulf of
+Khambhât+) and the sea-board of the region called +Ariakê+.
The reading of the MS. here ἡ πρἡὸς Ἀραβικῆς χώρας is considered
corrupt. Müller substitutes ἡ ἤπειρος τῆς Ἀριακῆς χώρας, though
Mannert and others prefer Λαρικῆς χώρας, relying on Ptolemy, who
places +Ariakê+ to the south of +Larikê+, and says that
+Larikê+ comprehends the peninsula (of Gujarât) Barugaza and the
parts adjacent. As +Ariakê+ was however previously mentioned in
the _Periplûs_ (sec. 14) in connexion with Barugaza, and is afterwards
mentioned (sec. 54) as trading with Muziris, it must no doubt have
been mentioned by the author in its proper place, which is here.
[Bhagvanlâl Indraji Pandit has shewn reasons however for correcting
the readings into Αβαρατικη, the Prakrit form of +Aparântikâ+, an
old name of the western sea board of India.—_Ind. Ant._ vol. VII., pp.
259, 263.] Regarding the name +Larikê+, Yule has the following
note (_Travels of M. Polo_ vol. II., p. 353):—“+Lâr-Deśa+,
the country of Lar,” properly Lât-deśa, was an early name for the
territory of Gujrat and the northern Konkan, embracing Saimur (the
modern Chaul as I believe) Thaṇa, and Bharoch. It appears in Ptolemy
in the form +Larikê+. The sea to the west of that coast was in
the early Muhammadan times called the sea of Lâr, and the language
spoken on its shores is called by +Mas’udi+, +Lâri+.
Abulfeda’s authority, Ibn Said, speaks of Lâr and Gujarât as identical.