Pearls from Sofala of the Zanj
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Masawayh: Kitab al-Jawahir wa-sifatiha; (The Book of Gemstones and their Properties) (d857)
………… the pearl fisheries of the gulf of Zendj are also part of Oman; one fishes only small quantities and finds hardly anything; if a pearl is found, it is big as a umani (1) or a bid less: there are no balbal (2).
(1) Umani (pearl): from Oman.
(2) Balbal pearl: literally from an oyster-shell.
Al-Biruni: Kitab al-Jamahir fi ma’rifat al-Jawahir. (The Book most Comprehensive in Knowledge on Precious Stones.) (1050)
Sites for Diving
....These places not only have nacreous shells (2), but one can occasionally get mahars (3) as well while journeying between the coast and the sea, and precious pearls can rarely be found in them. The Bahr-al-Akhdar is specifically marked for this. Its depths and bays have celebrated maghasat (4), e.g., in the deep of (the sea around) Serandib (1) as the Persian Gulf, and Bahrayn, Dihlak (5) and Clysma (6), or as a new diving side which has been recently discovered in Sufalah-i-Zanj.
(1) Serandibi: Sri Lanca.
(2) nacreous shells: also known as mother of pearl
(3) mahars: Oyster type containing the best peals, found in deep water.
(4) Maghasat: locations of the pearl – field.
(5) Dihlak: Dahlak island of the Eritrean coast.
(6) Clysma: was an ancient city and bishopric in Egypt. It was located at the head of the Gulf of Suez.
Al-Biruni (1050) (Teareikh al-India) (book on India)
In former times there were pearl-banks in the bay of Serandib (Ceylon), but at present they have been abandoned. Since the Sarandib pearls have disappeared, other pearls have been found at Sufala in the country of the Zanj, so that people say the pearls of Sarandib have migrated to Sufala.
Al Idrisi (1150) (Kitab Ruyar) (Book of Roger)
Opposite the Zanj coast are the Zaledj islands (1); they are numerous and vast; their inhabitants are very dark in color, and everything that is cultivated there, dorrha, sorghum, sugar-cane and camphor trees, is black in
color. Among the number of the islands is Sribuza (Jazirat Sharbua min az zanj) which is said to be 1,200 miles round; and pearl fisheries and
various kind of aromatic plants and perfumes are to be found there, which attract the merchants.
(on the map the island is situated right off mount Naked (Jabal Ajrad) between al Banas and Tohnet)
(1) Zaledj: This should be Zenoudj according to Charles Guillain p216. Meaning of the Zanj; and the inscriptions on the islands in the maps prove him right.
Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Hibatullah Al Aftasi; Al Majmue al Llifif (Total Rabble) (d1121)
(When talking of the coast as a place to find pearls)
(The sun) has also influenced the bay of Zinj and Oman, but there is only little. Hardly there is anything in it, ………
Al Umari (1349) Masalik al-absar fi mamalik al-amsar. (Pathways of vision in the realms of the Metropolises)
As for the Indian Ocean it has to be mentioned: as for the islands of Alranj (1) they border the coast of the country of Zinj,and from the islands of Alranj (17) the island of Cherboh (2) it is said that it is a thousand and two hundred miles in circumference. With a fertile planting conditions, and plenty of water, and it has pearl bancs, and the products for perfume, and it has a mountain called Wabra, to which its worshipers take refuge.
(1) Alranj: literraly: the wind. Most probably mistake for Al Zanj.
(2) Cherboh: : an island Cherboua (Sribuza or Sharbua) is found with Idrisi (1150); Yakut (1220) has Sribuza; Ibn Said (1250) Serira; Al Umari (1349) Cherboh; Qoutb al-Din al-Chirazi (1311) Sribua.
Al-Dimashqi (1325) Nukhbat ad-dahr (Wonders of the world).
The big group of islands of Zendja, situated according to Ptolemy at a longitude of 95 deg and latitude of 2 deg, consists of 700 islands, one close to the other, inhabited by the Zendjs, who feed on chicken peas and millet. On one of those islands, one dives for very expensive pearls. One day when a ship was there, a merchant who had with him a half bag of chicken peas, offers them for sale, he sells them at one pearl for each pea, his companions seeing this, sell their stuff at the same price, they make big profits.
End of the Middle-Ages view on Pearls in Sofala by the Portuguese.
Taken from: Ethiopia oriental, Volume 1 By João dos Santos.
P150
Chapter XXVII
From the woman and pearl fish that are raised on the islands of Bocicas.
Fifteen leagues of Sofala are the islands of Bocicas along the coast to the southern part of the sea where there is a lot of fish that the natives of the same islands fish and catch with thick lines and large hooks with iron chains made just for this purpose. and from its meat they make smoke-cured dishes that look like pork dishes. This meat is very good and very fatty and we eat it in Sofala, often cooked with cabbage and seasoned with its sauce. This fish is very similar to the men and women of belly to the neck where it has all the features and parts that women and men have. The female raises her children on her breasts which she has exactly like a woman. ………
P153
…… the female fish that is created and lives in the Bocicas Sea, as I have said. Which they call mother of pearls that lie at the bottom of the sea on sandy land. The natural people fish for them by diving and before going under they throw a basket attached to the sea into the sea with a stone inside so that it sinks to the bottom.
P154
They go diving tied by the belt with a rope attached to the boat because they deviate from it and to go faster to the bottom they carry a stone in their arms which they drop when they get there and so they walk along the bottom of the sea looking for the oysters and putting them in the basket and when it is full they pull it under by the rope with which they are tied to the boat and the fishermen who are in it lift them up (empty it) and throw it down again. And when the fishermen who walk on the bottom of the sea get fed up and no longer retain (air); They come up, guided by the ropes with which they are tied, and put themselves on the boat, after they rested, they dive again and continue their fishing, and in this way they go down many times and catch many oysters and are so used to diving that they often they are under water for half a quarter of an hour and they make a lot of bets on who will be there longer. The depth in which they fish will be from ten twelve to fifteen fathoms. One finds two three and four small pearls and other times none. And the main reason why these Kaffirs and Moors fish oysters is to eat the meat because they don't pay much attention to the pearls and for that reason they sell it very cheaply ……………
Note: this must be the place in Sofala where pearls were found mentioned by Arab writers for centuries.
Note2: The Book of Duarte Barbosa (1516) also mentions the pearls of the islands but puts them in the Bazaruto Islands, way further south. Here João dos Santos says 15 leagues south of Sofala; that is 83km what brings us strait up to the mouth of the Safe river were the small vciques are. For the Bazaruto Islands see my webpage on: Charbuh or Sadbuwah islands (Chibuene).
Taken from: The Book of Duarte Barbosa (1516).
The islands called the Great Hucicas.
Further along the coast past Cape Saint Sebastian and heading towards India, there are some islands called the Great Hucicas lying just off the mainland. There are some Mouros villages on these islands which trade with the gentiles on the mainland and have agreements with them. There is plenty of ambergris of good quality in these Hucicas, which the Mouros collect and sell to others. There are also plenty of pearls and small seed-pearls, which are found in oysters in the sea, however they do not know how to collect them or fish, those they get are from roasting the oysters and the seed-pearl comes out ruined and burnt. There is not much doubt that there are good ones there if they knew how to collect them and fish as they do in other places, which I shall mention later.