United States or Benin ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
It afterwards declined in importance, being supplanted by Calicut, Goa, and eventually by Bombay. It was situated at the southern end of the coast of Malabar. Renaudot in a translation of The Travels of Two Mohammedan Traders, who wrote as far back as 851 and 915 respectively, has given us some account of this place; Ibn Batuta and Marco Polo give us interesting details.
For if a comparison is made between the narrative of Batuta and the traditional account given by Nuniz as to the events that preceded and led to the foundation of Vijayanagar, little doubt will remain in the mind that both relate to the same event.
Ibn Batuta gives an account of a certain Sheikh Said of Maskat being seized by Sokotran pirates, who sent him off empty-handed to Aden. Marco Polo describes the catching of whales for ambergris.
Ibn Batuta saw this curious relic early in the fourteenth century; but both the mosque and the stone have since disappeared. On the eastern side of the Jordan a Bedouin tribe, called the Adwân, worship the print left on a stone by the roadside by a prophetess while mounting her camel, in order to proceed on a pilgrimage to Mecca.
He crossed to the other side of the Indian peninsula, and again embarked. But his vessel was seized by pirates, and Ibn Batuta arrived at Calicut almost without clothes, robbed, and worn out with fatigue. No misfortune could damp his ardour, his was one of those great spirits which seem only invigorated by trouble and disasters.
It is well known that from Mecca, caravans are continually starting for the surrounding country, and it was in company with some of these bold merchants that Ibn Batuta was able to visit the towns of Yemen. He went as far as Aden, at the mouth of the Red Sea, and embarked for Zaila, one of the Abyssinian ports.
The return journey, not merely to India but to Zebid, which Abulfeda and Alberuni call the principal port of Yemen, seems to take but thirty-four days. Ibn Batuta says about Aden: "It is situated on the sea-shore and is a large city, but without either seed, water, or tree. They have reservoirs in which they collect the rain for drinking.
We might then get in touch with the Indian Rope trick and Ibn Batuta's character might be vindicated. I offer Rs. 5000. This amount will be payable to anyone who will arrange that the trick is performed for my benefit, in my presence. The trick must be similar to the description given by Ibn Batuta, and must be brought to a successful conclusion before the reward can be claimed.
Ibn speaks with great admiration of these junks which are like floating gardens, where ginger and herbs are grown on deck; they are each like a separate village, and some merchants were the possessors of a great number of these junks. At last the wind changed; Ibn Batuta chose a small junk well fitted up, to take him to China, and had all his property put on board.
Ibn Batuta speaks also of large bearded apes, forming a considerable item in the population of the island, and said to be under a king of their own, crowned with leaves. We can give what credit we like to such fables as these, which were propagated by the credulity of the Hindoos. From Ceylon, the traveller made his way to the Coromandel coast, but not without experiencing some severe storms.
Word Of The Day