' Zanzibar: 



123 



Second to none in importance is Zanzibar, and 

 the future promises it a still higher destiny. 



And first, of the name, which does not occur 

 in Strabo, Pliny, or the Periplus. The log-book 

 attributed to Arrian, of Mcomedia, calls the whole 

 shore, ' Continent of Azania; ' probably an adapta- 

 tion, like Azan,and even Ajan, of the Arabic, Barr 

 el Khazain, or the Land of Tanks, 1 the coast 

 between Ra'as Hafun and Ra'as el Khayl. So 

 Pliny (vi. 28 and 34) speaks of the c Azanian Sea ' 

 as communicating with the ' Arabian Gulf.' 

 Ptolemy, however (I. 17, sec. iv. 7), has the fol- 

 lowing important passage: 'immediately following 

 this mart (Opone) is another bay, where Azania be- 

 gins. At its beginning are the promontory Zin- 

 gis (#yyis, Zingina promontorium), and the tree- 

 topped Mount Phalangis.' The name may have 

 extended from the promontory to the coast, and 

 from the coast to the island. Dr Krapf speaks 

 of a tribe of the 6 Zendj ' near the Eufiji river, 

 but I could not hear of it. It is easy to show 

 that the Pelusian geographer's Opone is the bay 

 south of Ra'as, or Jurd Hafun. Like Pomponius 



1 Dr Krapf (112, Missionary Travels) tells us 1 the Somali 

 coast, from Cape Guardafui southwards, is designated by the 

 Arabs "Dar Ajam," not "Ajan" or "Azan," as the maps 

 wrongly have it, because no Arabic is spoken in it.' Dar Ajam 

 is, I believe, a modern and incorrect phrase. 



