UNESCO Ancient Civilizations of Africa (Editor G. Mokhtar)

Ancient Civilizations of Africa
of Komr and the merchants of Maharadja [Djaviga] call there [in Zendj],
and are made welcome and trade with them'.
In the Arabic accounts Waqwaq and Komr sometimes seem to be
confused, but the fifteenth-centurycharts of Ibn Majid and Suleyman el
Mahri show unequivocally that the geographical term Komr denotes
Madagascar, and sometimes even the Comoro Islands and Madagascar
together. The confusion is interesting because it was probably the
Waqwaq who settled the country of Komr.
The end of Indonesian migration to the west
It is possible that it was the increased influence of Islam from the
beginning of the second millennium that put a stop to the voyages of the
Indonesians. A passage in Ibn el Mudjawir (thirteenth century) recounts
an interesting Arabian tradition on this subject. The passage has been
translated by Ferrand 35 and Deschamps rightly considers it to be
fundamental:
The site of Aden was inhabited by fishermen after the fall of the
empire of the Pharaohs [probably the Roman empire, with its eastern
capital of Alexandria]. The people of Al Komr invaded Aden and
took possession of it, driving out the fishermen and setting up stone
buildings on the mountains. They all arrived during a single monsoon.
Now these people are dead and their migrations are finished. From
Aden to Mogadiscio there is one monsoon, from Mogadiscio to
Kiloa there is a second monsoon, and from Kiloa to Al Komr there is
a third. The people of Al Komr had made use of these three as one,
and a ship from Al Komr had arrived this way in Aden in Hejira
626 [+1228]: it had been on its way to Kiloa and had arrived
in Aden by mistake. Their ships have outriggers because their seas are
dangerous and shallow. But the Barabar drove them out of Aden, and
now no one knows of the sea voyages of this people, or can tell how
they lived and what they had done.
The Indonesian voyages to the coast of Africa ceased quite early, but
this does not mean that relations were broken off between the Far East
and the west Indian Ocean. On the contrary, there are indications of the
expansion of Indian Ocean trade that was probably largely in the hands of
the Muslims who became more and more familiar with the traderoutes.
Ibn Majid's chart gives precise latitudes for the towns on the African
coast and for the Indonesian territories and entrepôts across the ocean,
which could, in those times, be crossed in thirty to forty days.
It is not inconceivable that though the Indonesians had stopped
frequenting the coast of Africa, they continued to sail straight to
35. G. Ferrand, 1913-14.
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