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15
tion,' 1 he said ; and smoothing the sand with the palm of his hand,
he drew on it a figure of the sea. It was neither a tailasan nor
a bird; and had the coast line broken by deeply indented sinuosities
and several arms. ' This,' he added, ' is the figure of this sea; ² it
has no other form.' I shall however represent it in a simple form
and lake no account of its arms and inlets, with the exception of the
gulf of Wailah [the Elanitic Gulf], in view of its importance, the
great necessity there is of knowing it and the freqaency of
voyages over it. All points of disagreement shall be left out and
these only taken in that are universally admitted. At all events
it is undoubted that this sea encircles the Peninsula of the Arabs
in three quarters of its bounds and that it has two arms, as
already mentioned, stretching by the side of Egypt. The point
at which, parting their waters, they run into the land, is called
Faran,³ and lies in the direction of Al-Hijaz. The sea is widest
and roughest between 'Adan and 'Uman, its width in this part
reaching as much as six hundred leagues. Thence it narrows into
a gulf penetrating to Abbadan. The places of danger in so far
as it is in the territory of Islam, are:—Jubailan, the place of
Pharaoh's drowning ; it is the abysmal part of the sea of al-Qulzum,
and ships have to proceed in it transversely in order to pass from
the desert side to the side of life and cultivation. Next is Faran,
a place where the winds blowing from the direction of Egypt and
Syria encounter each other and make of it a centre of destruction
to ships. 4 Navigators usually send off a party of men to watch
¹ Literally ' On the possessor of knowledge thou hast lighted,' a proverb
current among the Arabs.
² C: It is certain from all accounts that it has two arms running, the one
to Wailah and the other to al-Qulzum, and a gulf stretching on the other side
to 'Abbadan.
³ More correctly Taran. Yaqut (Vol. I, 811) describes Taran as an island
inhabited by a number of poor wretches who live in old boats and subsist
chiefly on fish. For fresh water they have to wait the chance of any passing
ship which may only happen once in many years. It is their love of country
or the necessity of feeding themselves that keeps them there say they.
4 This is said to be the most dangerous part of the sea j it is an eddy of
water at the foot of a mountain, where are two ravines with their openings
facing each other. When the wind falls upon the top of the mountain, it
rushes through the ravines and issues with great force from the opposite
openings, lashing the sea into fury. The island and gulf of Taran are
marked in K -J. under the name of Tiran.