Taken from: Taken from: Madagascar, Comores et Mascareignes à travers la Hawiya d'Ibn Magid (866 H. /1462). Par François VIRE et Jean-Claude HEBERT.

According to lbn Majid, it is necessary to distinguish this (bandar) Haduda located at the latitude of Big Dipper by five fingers in height from another Haduda raised to only two fingers. Khoury assumes the first at Nosy Varika and the second between Manantenina and Sainte Luce. Tibbetts ignores the problem of their whereabouts. If the etymology of this toponym is Arabic, it should be read Hududa in the double sense of “rumble of the sea” and “very sloping ground”, which would evoke a place where the sea breezes or an establishment clinging to the side from a steep shore.

Ambohabe is the only place where sherds of imported pottery were found in that long stretch of coast surveyed by William D. Griffin.

Ambohabe, at the mouth of the Matitanana (or Sandrananta) river, was a large village located at the interface between maritime and terrestrial networks which rely on the agrarian wealth of the valley. The Muslims arriving from the Nord-Ouest constitute themselves as aristocrats within the framework of an Antemoro kingdom which they help to found in the 16th century.

The Moors of Nord-Ouest (of Madagascar) knew the region of Matatana since they incited the Portuguese to go there. Ruy Pereira arrived in Ambohabe in 1506 and used as an interpreter "a Moor called Bogima, who lived [in Mozambique] and who, having been in Matatane, spoke the language of the natives". Regular contacts therefore existed between Matatana and Mozambique before the arrival of the Portuguese. Ambohabe was part of a whole series of small trading centers mentioned by Arabic texts which testify to the activity of Muslims on all the coasts of Madagascar.

Note: it is this text that makes me think that Maqarah mentioned by Ibn Majid in his Sufaliyya at four fingers should be here at five fingers.  The importance of this place is that it is the closest place to take off going to Tira Raga islands (Réunion and Mauritius).

As to Maqarah: JOUANNES Claude says maybe Manakara but William D. Griffin (2009) searched several hundred sites on that part of the coast and none of those in and around Manakara (town founded in colonial days) included even one sherd on imported pottery. But lots of iron was produced (for export?) at the former mouth of the Manakara river. Iron was a big export product of Madagascar (see Idrissi 1150).

Taken from: The Matitanana Archaeological Project: Culture History and Social Complexity in the Seven Rivers Region of Southeastern Madagascar by William D. Griffin 2009.

Site 7 Ambohabe 4

- 2 imported ceramics (55g, white porcelain ring bases)

Site 8 Ambohabe 5

- 2 imported ceramics (1 brown stoneware and 1 celadon base)

Site 9 Ambohabe 6 (Mangarivotra)

- 1 fragment of green glass <.05g (which Ramilisonina suggests is similar to kohl jars from Vohemar).

Site 46 Marovahiny (Ambohabe)

The radiocarbon date of a charcoal sample from levels 13 and 14 of sondage 3 returned a likely calibrated date of AD 940 to 1260. A thermoluminescence date (Aitken 1985) on a sherd from level 14 of sondage 3 gave a likely date of AD 960 to 1360.

The site yielded 4 imported sherds: 2 were Chinese blue and white, crackled under clear glaze, and 1 imported sherd was a thin “celadon” rim, not crackled, dark green, with a leaf design on the exterior of a straight rim.

Sondage 3 L1 had 3 Celadon imports. And L9 has imported “Black on Yellow” (or yellow brown sgraffiato, 1050 – 1250 AD)