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ACCOUNTS OF CHINA AND INDIA: THE FIRST BOOK

1.1.1 The Sea of Lārawī ¹

… like a sail.² It often raises its head above the water, and then you can see what an enormous thing it is. It also often blows water from its mouth, and the water spouts up like a great lighthouse.³ When the sea is calm and the fish shoal together, it gathers them in with its tail then opens its mouth, and the fish can be seen in its gullet, sinking down into its depths as if into a well.⁴ The ships that sail this sea are wary of it, and at night the crews bang wooden clappers like those used by the Christians, for fear that one of them will blunder into their ship and capsize it.⁵

1.1.2

In this sea there is also a kind of fish that reaches twenty cubits in length.⁶ We caught one of these and split open its belly. Inside it was another fish of the same genus. We took this second fish out then split its belly open too—and there inside it was yet another fish of the same type! All of them were alive and flapping about, and they all resembled each other in form. This great fish is called the wāl. Huge though it is, there is another fish called the lashak, about a cubit in length, and if the wāl fish becomes so excessively greedy as to endanger the survival of the other fish in the sea, this small lashak fish is sent to overcome it. This it does by entering the inner ear of the wāl and not letting go until it has caused the wāl’s death. The lashak also attaches itself to ships, so the great fish do not go near ships, for fear of these smaller fish.

1.1.3

In this sea there is also a kind of fish whose face resembles that of a human and that flies over the water. The name of these fish is mīj. Another kind of fish watches out for it from beneath the surface of the water, and when the mīj falls back into the water, this second fish swallows it. It is called ʿanqatūs. All fish eat each other.

THE SEA OF HARKAND

1.2.1 The islands of al-Dībājāt and Sarandīb

The third sea is the Sea of Harkand. Between it and the Sea of Lārawī there are many islands. They are said to be 1900 in number, and they are the boundary between these two seas, of Lārawī and Harkand. These islands are ruled by a woman. Ambergris of enormous size is washed up on the shores of these islands, and a single piece of it can be as big as a room, or thereabouts. This ambergris grows on the seabed as a plant does, and if the sea becomes rough, it is cast up from the bottom as if it were mushrooms or truffles.⁷ These islands that the woman rules are planted with coconut palms. The distance between one island and the next is two, three, or four farsakhs, and all of them are inhabited and planted with coconuts. They use cowries for money, and their queen stores them up in her treasuries. It is said that there are no people more skilled in manufacturing than the people of this island group and that they can even produce a finished shirt on the loom, woven complete with sleeves, gores, and a placket at the neck. In their construction of ships and houses, too, as in all their other work, they reach the same level of technical perfection. The cowries, which have an animal spirit,⁸ come to them on the surface of the water. A coconut-palm frond is used to collect them: it is placed on the surface of the water, and the cowries attach themselves to it. They call them kabtaj.

1.2.2

The last of these islands is Sarandīb, in the Sea of Harkand. It is the chief of all these islands, which they call al-Dībājāt. At Sarandīb is the place where they dive for pearls.⁹ The sea entirely surrounds the island.¹⁰ In the territory of Sarandīb is a mountain called al-Rahūn. It is on this that Adam descended, eternal peace be upon him, and his footprint is on the bare rock of the summit of this mountain, impressed in the stone. There is only one footprint at the summit of this mountain, but it is said that Adam, eternal peace be upon him, took another step into the sea. It is said, too, that the footprint on the summit of this mountain is about seventy cubits long.¹¹ Around this mountain lies the area where gems are mined—rubies, yellow sapphires, and blue sapphires. In this island there are two kings.¹² It is a large and extensive island in which aloewood,¹³ gold, and gems are to be found, while in the sea surrounding it there are pearls and chanks, which are those trumpets that are blown and which they keep in their treasuries.¹⁴

1.2.3 The islands of the Sea of Harkand

Crossing this sea to Sarandīb, one finds islands that, although not many, are so great in extent that their exact size is unknown. One of them is an island called al-Rāmanī. It is ruled by several kings, and its extent is said to be eight hundred or nine hundred farsakhs. It has places where gold is mined and, in an area known as Fanṣūr, sources from which the high-grade sort of camphor comes.¹⁵

1.2.4

These large islands have other smaller islands in their vicinity. One of these is an island called al-Niyān, whose inhabitants have much gold. They live on coconuts, also using them as a condiment and as the source of an oil to apply to their skin. If one of them wishes to marry, he is only allowed to do so in return for a skull taken from one of their enemies. If he kills two of the enemy, he marries two women. Similarly, if he kills fifty, he marries fifty woman in return for the fifty skulls. The reason for this is that they have so many enemies that the more of them a man dares to kill, the more desirable they find him. In this island—I mean al-Rāmanī—there are many elephants, and also sapan wood and rattans.¹⁶ There is also a tribe who eat people. The island faces two seas, those of Harkand and Salāhiṭ.

1.2.5

After al-Rāmanī lies a group of islands called Lanjabālūs. In them live a numerous people who are naked, both the men and the women, except that the women have the leaves of trees covering their pudenda. When the merchants’ ships pass by, these people come out to them in boats both small and large to barter with the crews, exchanging ambergris and coconuts for iron and such coverings as they need for their bodies, as it is neither hot nor cold in their land.¹⁷

Beyond these people are two islands separated by a sea that is called Andamān. Their inhabitants eat people alive. They are black and have frizzy hair,¹⁸ hideous faces and eyes, and long feet—the foot of one of them is about a cubit long (meaning his penis)¹⁹—and they are naked. They have no boats, and if they did, they would eat anyone who passed by them.²⁰ It sometimes happens that ships make a slow passage and are delayed in their voyage because of unfavorable winds. As a result, the ships’ water runs out, and their crews make for these people’s islands to get water. When this happens, the islanders often catch some of the crew, although most of them get away.

1.2.6

After this island group, there are some rocky islets lying off the route the ships follow. It is said that there are silver mines in them. They are uninhabited, and not every ship that makes for them is able to find them. In fact they were only discovered when a ship passed one of the islets, which is called al-Khushnāmī, spotted it, and made for it. When day broke, the crew went ashore in a boat to gather firewood. They kindled a fire, and molten silver flowed from the ground, at which they realized that it was a source of the metal. They carried off with them as much as they wanted. When they set sail, however, the sea grew stormy, and they had to throw overboard all the silver they had taken. After this, people equipped expeditions to this islet but could not locate it. The sea is full of countless stories like this, of forbidden islands that the sailors cannot find, and of others that can never be reached.

1.2.7 Dangers in the Sea of Harkand

In this sea a white cloud may often be seen casting a shadow over the ships. From it a long thin tongue of vapor emerges and descends until it meets the water of the sea, at which the water boils up like a whirlwind. If this whirlwind makes contact with a ship, it swallows it up. Then the cloud rises, and from it falls rain containing debris from the sea. I do not know if the cloud draws up water from the sea, or how this happens.²¹

In each of these seas there is a wind that blows up and stirs the water, whipping it up until it seethes like cauldrons on the boil. When this happens, it casts up what it contains on to the islands that are in it, wrecking ships and casting ashore huge great dead fish. At times it even casts up boulders and entire outcrops of rock, as if they were arrows shot from a bow.

The Sea of Harkand, however, has another wind that blows from a bearing between the west and the Big Dipper.²² This makes the sea seethe like boiling cauldrons and causes it to cast up large quantities of ambergris. The deeper the sea and the lower its bottom lies, the better the ambergris is in quality. And when the waves of this sea—I mean Harkand—grow big, the water seems to you like a blazing fire.²³ In this sea there is a fish called lukham, a predator that swallows people …²⁴

MARITIME COMMERCE BETWEEN THE ARABS AND THE CHINESE

1.3.1 The Chinese port of Khānfū

… in their hands …²⁵ so that the goods are in short supply. One of the reasons for such a shortage is the frequent outbreak of fire at Khānfū, the port of the China ships and entrepôt of Arab and Chinese trade, and the resulting destruction of goods in the conflagration. This is because their houses there are built of wood and split bamboo. Another reason for shortages is that outbound or returning ships might be wrecked, or their crews might be plundered or forced to put in to some place en route for long periods and thus end up selling their goods somewhere 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