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Though entitled the travels of two Mahomedans, the travels seem to have been mostly performed by one person only; the latter portion being chiefly a commentary upon the former, and appears to have been the work of one Abu Zeid al Hasan of Siraf, and to have been written about the 803d year of the Hegira, or A.D. 915.
Among the Indians, there are certain people who never eat two out of the same dish or even at the same table, on account of some religious opinion. When these come to Siraf, and are invited by our considerable merchants, were there a hundred of them more or less, they must each have a separate dish, without the least communication with the rest.
With regard to the Arabian commerce with Africa, the merchants settled at Omar traded to Sofala for gold, and to an island, which is supposed to be Madagascar, where they had established colonies. According to him, the most wealthy merchants resided at Siraf, where they traded very extensively and successfully in the commodities of India and China.
The district was obviously a distinct small kingdom, named Ormus from its capital city; which, from its insular situation, and great trade with India, long maintained a splendid independence. The two Mahometan travellers of the ninth century, give precisely the same account of the ships of Siraf, in the same gulf of Persia. Account of several other Countries, and their Principal Curiosities.
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