The Pyralax Islands and the Channel
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Notes on Periplus of the Erythraean Sea
(part concerning East African coast)
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Periplus: Greek word meaning circumnavigation
Erythraean Sea: The Indian Ocean
The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea: Is a merchant guide for the coasts of the Indian Ocean.
Paragraph 12
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"cinnamon and frankincense"
North of Azania at Cape Guardafui (Cape of Spices) is the spice country, or cinnamon country. Two spices are mentioned, cinnamon: the oldest spice used by men and till today much used. The
second being frankincense which is a resin extruded from the frankincense tree,( see paragraph 29) and in ancient times, a very expensive article. It was used as an incense, in religious
ceremonies. There are several references to its use in the bible. In Egypt it was also employed in funeral rites.
Cinnamon however does not grow in Africa or Arabia. It is imported from India. For that reason it seems necessary that the Indians had at least a foothold in the area as middleman to sell
the cinnamon to the Greek-Egyptian -Arab-Roman vessels.
Paragraph 13
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"marked town called Opone"
We can safely say that this place was in the southern bay of the promontory of Ras Hafun. Also, further south there is no other place usable as harbor.
Paragraph 14
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"month of July"
From June to September one has a favorable wind blowing from the North to descend the Red Sea. Halfway October one then catches at the Cape of Spices the North eastern monsoon.
"Ariaca and Barygaza"
this is the north-west coast of India, the modern Cutch, Kathiawar and Gujerat.
"clarified butter"
also called ghee, (Samli in Swahili). It is formed by heating butter for a whole day and taking of the oil, after the water has been evaporated. It is stored in earthen pots while it is still
hot. It can easily remain usable for several months.
"honey from the reed called sacchari"
Here an indication that sugarcane was already imported in east Africa early on.
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"the small and great bluffs of Azania"
Bluffs means cliffs.
The small bluffs are now known as El Hazin
The great bluffs are now known as Sif El Tanil
The periplus is originally written in Greek, but also Latin copies are found. They give the word Apocopes for bluffs.
"small and great beach"
The small beach is now known as Barr Ajjan
The great beach is now known as Benadir coast
"and this course is of six days"
a course is the distance a boat sails in one day till it reaches the next safe place to land.
Idrissi, a thousand years later took 100 miles as the average course for a ship (in 24 hours sailing).
Captain M. Guillain, a ship captain send by the French government in 1846 to survey the East-African coast was able to calculate more exact figures.
When the monsoon wind blows in the right direction, from Ras Hafun on, one can count on a speed of 2,5 to 3 miles an hour to which you can add the speed of the current in the water of 1,5 miles.
Making the boat move at 4 miles an hour (or 48 miles a day) And this figure counts for the first 12 days of the trip (starting from Opone) After that the current in the water gets stronger,
reaching 2 to 3 miles an hour. Ships then move at 5 miles an hour or 60 miles a day.
"Sarapion"
M Guillain puts it at the ruins of Quarcheikh, well north of Merka. He also gives a sketch of the ruins and harbor (abandoned) that he found there. Other Authors put the place way closer to
Merca.
Captain M.Guillain surveyed the east coast of Africa in 1846-1848 for the French government In the neighborhood of present day Italia he found a couple huts and ruins of a medieval town. He suspects that this must have been the place of the old Saerapion. In his days the place was called Quarcheikh, and in Portugees days it was known as Bandel-Velho (old harbor). One of the people on his ship made this drawing.
"two courses of a day and night"
This means that in this stretch the coast has no commercial value, compared with the previous section: the channel, seven anchorages...
Pemba is 170 nautical miles from Lamu where the channel of the Pyralax islands ends.
Zanzibar is 240 nautical miles from Lamu,
With a speed of 60 miles a day, for two days and two nights, the boats make 240 miles. That would make Zanzibar to be Menuthias island.
"until the Pyralax islands and what is called the channel"
The Pyralax islands are Pate, Manda, Lamu and some smaller ones. The channel is nowadays called the Siyu channel. It is understandable that the boots took the channel instead of passing through
the ocean as it is mentioned in the text that they traded while sailing along the coast.
"along the ausanitic coast"
The supremacy of South Arabia over the East African coast started about 1000 BC. The first nation to rule was the Arabian state of Auson which went into eclipse before 600 BC.
"is the island Menuthias, about 300 stadia from the mainland"
This island is Pemba or Zanzibar. Pemba is 50 km from the coast while Zanzibar 36km.
There were in the Greek world three different definitions of Stadia:
-The Olympic (or standard) being 185 meters
-The stade of Eratosthenes being 153 meters
-The stade of Dio Cassius (AD 180) 197.3 meters
This makes that Menuthias is 55.5 km or 45.9 km or 59.2 km from the coast. According to this criteria then Pemba would be the island.
"mountain tortoise"
The giant land turtle from Madagascar is by now extinct in the islands off the east African coast.
"crocodiles, but they do not attack"
Most probably is meant the giant lizard. (Kenge in Swahili) It is over 5 feet long and harmless. And lives indeed in the islands. While the crocodile does not.
"there are sewed boats, and canoes"
(Swahili Mtebe) in use till recently in Lamu. They are called sewed boats because the planks are sewed together instead of being nailed.
The sixth century Byzantine historian Procopius wrote the following about these boats.
All the boats which are found in India and on this sea (the Red Sea) are not made in the same manner as are other ships. For neither are they smeared with pitch, nor with
any other substance, nor indeed are the planks fastened together with iron nails going through and through, but they are bound together by a kind of cording. The reason is not as most persons
suppose, that there are certain rocks there which draw the iron to themselves , for witness the fact that when the roman vessels sail from Aelas into the sea, although they are fitted with much
iron, no such thing has ever happened to them. But rather because the Indians and the Aethiopians (this is the Greek word for all black-African people) possess neither iron nor any other thing
suitable for such purposes. Furthermore they are not even able to buy any of these things from the Romans since this is explicitly forbidden to all by law.
Note also that the ones used on the African coast had sails made from palm leaves.
"in wicker baskets"
This fish trap ( Swahili: dema) is still commonly used today.
A mtepe; the traditional east-african craft here in Zanzibar 1888 (taken from the official Zanzibar website)