Accounts of China and India. Abu Zayd al-Sirafi

other than in Arab lands.²⁶ It can happen too that the wind forces them to land in Yemen or elsewhere, and they end up selling their goods there. They might also have to put in somewhere for a long time to repair their ships, or for some other reason.

       1.3.2

      Sulaymān the Merchant reported that, in Khānfū, the meeting place of the merchants, there was a Muslim man appointed by the ruler of China to settle cases arising between the Muslims who go to that region, and that the Chinese king would not have it otherwise. At the time of the ʿĪds, this man would lead the Muslims in prayer, deliver the sermon, and pray for the sultan of the Muslims.²⁷ The Iraqi merchants, Sulaymān added, never dispute any of the judgments issued by the holder of this office, and they all agree that he acts justly, in accordance with the Book of God, mighty and glorious is He, and with the laws of Islam.

       1.3.3 Sīrāf in the Arabian/Persian Gulf

      Regarding the ports where the merchants regularly go ashore, they have said that most of the China ships²⁸ take their cargoes on board at Sīrāf. Goods are carried from Basra, Oman, and elsewhere to Sīrāf and loaded there onto the China ships. The reason for this is that, at the other ports on this sea,²⁹ the water is often too rough and too shallow for the bigger vessels to put in.

THE SEA ROUTE FROM SĪRĀF TO KHĀNFŪ

       1.4.1 From Basra to Muscat via Sīrāf

      The sailing distance from Basra to Sīrāf is 120 farsakhs. Once the goods have been loaded at Sīrāf, they take on board freshwater there, then they “take off”³⁰ (an expression used by seamen meaning “set sail”) for a place called Muscat. This is at the end of the territory of Oman, the distance there from Sīrāf being about two hundred farsakhs. At the eastern end of this sea, the territories between Sīrāf and Muscat include Sīf Banī l-Ṣaffāq and the Island of Ibn Kāwān. Also in this sea are the rocks of Oman.³¹ Among them is the place called “the Whirlpool,” which is a narrow channel between two rocks through which small ships can pass but not the China ships.³² Among the rocks of Oman are also the two rocks known as Kusayr and ʿUwayr, of which only small parts appear above the surface of the water. When we have passed all these rocks we reach a place called Ṣuḥār of Oman. Then we take on board freshwater at Muscat, from a well that is there. There are also sheep and goats in plenty for sale, from the land of Oman.

       1.4.2 From Muscat to Kūlam Malī

      From Muscat the ships set sail for the land of India, making for Kūlam Malī. The distance from Muscat to Kūlam Malī is a month, if the wind is constant.³³ At Kūlam Malī there is a guard post belonging to that country that exacts customs duty from the China ships, and there is also freshwater to be had from wells. The sum taken from the China ships is a thousand dirhams, and from other ships it ranges from ten dinars down to one dinar. The distance between Muscat and Kūlam Malī and the start of the Sea of Harkand is about a month. In Kūlam Malī they take on freshwater.

       1.4.3 From Kūlam Malī to Lanjabālūs

      Next, the ships “take off”—that is, they set sail—into the Sea of Harkand. When they have crossed it, they reach a place called Lanjabālūs. Its inhabitants do not understand the language of the Arabs or any other language known to the merchants. They are a people who wear no clothes and who have pale skins and sparse beards. The merchants have reported that they have never seen any of the women of this people. This is because it is their men alone who come out from the island in canoes, each hewn out of a single piece of wood, bringing with them coconuts, sugar cane, bananas, and coconut-palm drink. This last product is a whitish-coloured juice, which, if it is drunk as soon as it is tapped from the coconut palm, is as sweet as honey. If it is left for a while, however, it turns into an alcoholic drink; if this is then kept for a few days, it turns into vinegar.³⁴ All these products they sell in exchange for iron. They often find small amounts of ambergris, and this they also sell for pieces of iron. Their deals are struck entirely by gestures, and payment is made on the spot,³⁵ as they do not understand the language of the merchants. They are expert swimmers, and they often swim out and carry off the merchants’ iron and give them nothing in exchange for it.

       1.4.4 From Lanjabālūs to Kanduranj

      Then the ships set sail for a place called Kalah Bār. Both “kingdom” and “coast” are called bār. It is subject to the kingdom of al-Zābaj, which one reaches by veering southward from the land of India. All the people of these regions of Kalah Bār and al-Zābaj are under one king. The dress of the inhabitants consists of waist wrappers,³⁶ and both their nobles and their lower-class people wear a single wrapper. The crews take on freshwater there from sweet wells, and they prefer the wellwater to springwater and rainwater. The distance to Kalah Bār from Kūlam, which is near the Sea of Harkand, is one month.

      Then the ships go on to a place called Tiyūmah, where there is freshwater for anyone wanting it. The distance there from Kalah Bār is ten days. Next, the ships set sail for a place called Kanduranj, ten days distant. There freshwater is to be had by anyone wanting it, and this is the case for all the islands of the Indies—whenever wells are dug, sweet water is found in them. Here at Kanduranj is a mountain overlooking the sea, where fugitive slaves and thieves are often to be found.

       1.4.5 From Kanduranj to Khānfū

      Then the ships go on to a place called Ṣanf, a voyage of ten days. There is freshwater there, and from it the Ṣanfī aloewood is exported. It has a king, and the inhabitants are a brown-skinned people, each of whom wears two waist wrappers. When they have taken on freshwater there, they set sail for a place called Ṣandar Fūlāt, which is an island out to sea. The distance there is ten days, and freshwater is also to be had there. Next, the ships set sail into a sea called Ṣankhī, then on to the Gates of China. These are islets in the sea, with channels between them through which the ships pass.

      And if God grants a safe passage from Ṣandar Fūlāt, the ships set sail from there to China and reach it in a month, the islets through which the ships must pass being a seven-day voyage from Ṣandar Fūlāt. Once the ships have gone through the Gates and then entered the mouth of the river,³⁷ they proceed to take on freshwater at the place in the land of China where they anchor, called Khānfū, which is a city. Everywhere in China there is sweet water, from freshwater rivers and valleys, and there are guard posts and markets in every region.

ON TIDES, AND UNUSUAL PHENOMENA OF THE SEAS

       1.5.1

      In these seas the tide rises and falls twice a day. In the waters stretching from Basra to Banū Kāwān Island, however, high tide occurs when the moon is at its height, in the middle of the heavens, and low tide occurs when the moon rises or falls. Conversely, in the seas extending from near Ibn Kāwān Island to the region of China, high tide coincides with the rising of the moon, and low tide occurs when the moon is in the middle of the heavens: when the moon falls the sea rises, and when it returns to a point level with the middle of the heavens, the tide goes out.

       1.5.2

      Informants have reported that there is an island called Maljān, lying between Sarandīb and Kalah—in the Indies, that is, in the eastern part of the sea—in which there is a tribe of negroes who are naked and who, if they find anyone from outside their land, hang him upside down, cut him into pieces, and devour him raw. These people are many, and they inhabit a single island and have no ruler. They live on fish, bananas, coconuts, and sugarcane, and in their land are places resembling swamps and thickets.

       1.5.3