CHAP. II.] INDIAN, AKABIAN, PERSIAN AUTHORITIES. 



587 



Ibn Wahab, his informant, appears to have looked back 

 with singular pleasure to the delightful voyages wliich 

 he had made through the remarkable still-water channels, 

 elsewhere described, which form so peculiar a feature on 

 the seaborde of Ceylon, and to which the Arabs gave 

 the obscure term of "gobbs." 1 Here months were 

 consumed by the mariners, amidst flowers and over- 

 hanging woods, with the enjoyments of abundant food 

 and exhilarating draughts of arrack flavoured with 

 honey. The natives of the island were devoted to 

 pleasure, and their days were spent in cock-fighting 

 and games of chance, into which they entered with so 

 much eagerness as to wager the joints of then' fingers 

 when all else was lost. 



But the most interesting passages in the narrative of 

 Abou-zeyd are those relating to the portion of Ceylon 

 which served as the emporium for the active and opulent 

 trade of wliich the island was then, in every sense of the 

 word, the centre. Gibbon, on no other ground than 

 its "capacious harbour," pronounces Trincomalie to 

 have been the port which received and dismissed the 

 fleets of the East and West. 2 But the nautical grounds 

 are even stronger than the historical for regarding 

 this as improbable ; the winds and the currents, 

 as well as its geographical position, render Trinco- 

 malie difficult of access to vessels coming from the 

 Eed Eea or the Persian Gulf; and it is evident from 

 the narrative of Soleyman and Ibn Wahab, that 



But besides the discrepancy of the 

 names, the Imaum died in the year 

 A. D. 953, and was interred at Shiraz, 

 where Ibn Batuta made a visit to his 

 tomb. (Travels, transl. DEFREMERY, 

 &c., torn. ii. p. 79.) 



EDRISI, in his Geography, writing 

 in the twelfth century, confirms the 

 account of Abou-zeyd as to the 

 toleration of all sects in Ceylon, and 

 illustrates it by the fact, that of the 

 sixteen officers who formed the coun- 

 cil of the king, four were Buddhists, 

 four Mussulmans, four Christians, 



and four Jews. GILDEMEISTER, 

 Script. Arabi, $c., p. 53; EDRISI, 1 

 Clim. sec. 6. 



1 " Aghbab," Arab. For an ac- 

 count of those of Ceylon, see Vol. I. 

 Pt. i. ch. i. p. 42. The idea enter- 

 tained by the Arabs of these Gobbs, 

 will be found in a passage from 

 Albyrouni, given by REINAUD, Frag- 

 ment Arabes, $<?., 119, and Journ. 

 Asiat. vol. xlv. p. 261. See also 

 EDRISI, Geoff., torn. i. p. 73. 



2 Decline 'and Fall, ch. xl. 



Q Q 2 



