COMMERCE OF INDIA. 



243 



ships with iron nails came near that magnet, the iron nails 

 would be drawn from the ship's planks and the vessel with 

 its unfortunate crew sink to the bottom. From Siraf the 

 ship sailed first to Maskat in Oman at the southern end of 

 the Persian Gulf and reached then the second sea Larevi 

 which represents the northern part of the Indian Ocean. 

 Kulam Mali (Quilon) was the next harbour to be visited ; 

 from there a month's journey took them to the Nicobar 

 Islands. The sea between Ceylon and the Nicobars and 

 Andamans was called Harkand. The Andamans were not 

 omitted in their voyage and from there they steered to Kalah 

 (Kalahbar) then the great emporium of Malacca, which the 

 Arabian traveller, the famous prince Abulfeda (1331) men- 

 tions as the most important trading place between Arabia and 

 China, and where many foreigners, as Mahomedans, Persians, 

 Hindus and Chinese flocked together. Malacca itself was 

 then dependent on the king of Java, whose riches and splend- 

 our are described in the most glowing terms. Java, or Zabej 

 as it was then called, is said to have been so densely inha- 

 bited, that when a cock began to crow in one village, the cry 

 was taken up by the cocks in the next, and was soon heard all 

 along the Island. The fourth and fifth seas, named Shalahat 

 and Kidrang are the next, but their position is difficult to fix, 

 as the reports are so confused. The sixth sea Senef compre- 

 hending the Gulf of Tonquin and a part of of the Sunda sea 

 lay on the east of Kochin-China and was separated from the 

 seventh sea Sanji, by the Straits of Hainan, which were 

 regarded to be the gate of China. The last named sea 

 washed the East coast of China and there was situated that 

 famous Arabo- Chinese harbour, Gampu. We see, therefore, 

 that however limited was the knowledge of the Arabs of the 

 real nature and position of the lands and seas they visited, 

 their participation in the Eastern, and especially in the Indian 

 trade was very considerable. 



