Taken from: Joao de Barros 2e Décade, Liv. I, chap. II. 1553

Tristan d'Acunha 1506:

….. we took, among the many inhabitants of this place which we did not want to reduce in slavery, the sheikh who was head of the country. This led the Portuguese, the following night, to a half-populated island which was in a very cultivated bay in which flows a great river which the natives call Lulangane. This island was inhabited by Moors much more cultivated than those who were on the same coast. Their mosque and most of the houses were built of stone and lime and surmounted by terraces like those of Qiloa and Mombassa. When, the previous day, they saw the Portuguese ships, they took refuge at the bottom of the bay, abandoning the coast; and they went in the night to the main land. But as they were very numerous and had only a few canoes, the comings and goings between the island and the land took place very slowly. Before daybreak, the island was surrounded by the two flagships, one commanded by Tristan d'Acunha, and the other by his son, Nunho d'Acunha. After having entered this place, we seized more than five hundred people, composed in major part of women and children as well as twenty men among whom was the sheikh. He was an old man and he was trying to be a leader, almost all the men having fled to the mainland. During the crossing between the island and the land, more than two hundred people drowned. Fear had caused them to board the canoes in such large numbers that they sank with their passengers. Others also perished trying to resist us when we entered this place. We got there without much difficulty. Tristan d'Acunha and the captains were lodged in the best houses in the village. The following night was as gay for the Portuguese as sad for the captives. The next day, a large number of canoes arrived containing nearly six hundred men offering their lives to save their wives and children who remained on the island.

The Lulangane river would be, according to M. Codine (Geographical memory on the Indian sea, Paris, 1868, in-8°, p. 128), the Sofia river which flows into the bay of Mahajamba, on the north-western coast of Madagascar. This bay contains a small island called Nosy Longany, in which Mr. Marin-Darbel, commander of the sloop Le Boursaint, found in 1885 fairly well-preserved ruins of an ancient Arab settlement (Nautical Instructions on Madagascar and the Islands of the Indian Ocean, Paris, 1885, in-8°, p. 155). The discovery of these ruins, correspond quite exactly to the Moslem village recognized by the Portuguese.

Taken from: Instructions nautiques sur Madagascar et les iles de l'océan Indien, Paris, 1885, p. 155-6

(The ruins on the island). They consist of a large main building, connected by a walled alley to another main building consisting of three bedrooms; then an isolated building and finally, on the highest point of the island, the main house, consisting of four bedrooms, a small interior courtyard, an exterior courtyard closed by a surrounding wall with postern.

All these constructions are lined with loopholes. The walls, very thick, are made of coral stones and connected by cement of marvelous solidity. The roofs collapsed, but it is easy to recognize that they were formed of stones and mortar to a thickness of 40 cm and that they were supported by a bed of wooden beams; two of these roofs rose in an octagonal pyramid with a height of about 2 meters.

Vérin (1986, pp. 153-155, 173-183) recorded a number of tombs, an ensemble of three masonry tripartite residences, and a small mosque only 11.2 × 7.5 m decorated with Chinese blue-and-white porcelain bowls.

Taken from: Les Immigrations Arabes à Madagascar (A Jully)

In the bay of Mahajamba, opposite the village of Longany or Langany, on the small Mandza island, a few half-collapsed walls stand under the trees. In his work, Voyage of discovery to the coast of Africa, (London 1835), Boteler mentions these ruins: "Majambo bay seems to have been inhabited by Arabes since their tombs still exist on the top of the small island located near of the pass. Trees have grown in the middle of these tombs blackened by time and which will soon be nothing but ruins". Later, a naval lieutenant published a brochure under the title 'Ruins de l'ile Mandza'. The author, who had visited these ruins, had found in the ruins of the mosque a dish, originally fixed to the keystone, the remains of which had been carried away by him and checking with other similar ones allowed to attribute it to a period prior to the 16th century, we believe, "because we lack the work to verify this fact. Natives of the region, consulted by us, still traced the origin of these ruins to the Antalaotras. (= foreigners coming from oversees).

Taken from : Le capitaine Guillain dans ses Documents sur l'histoire, la géographie et le commerce de la partié occidentale de Madagascar, Paris, Impr. Royale, 1845, p. 202

The bay of Vienx-Masselage (=Mahajamba) ... was once inhabited by Arabs whose stone houses and some of their mosques can still be seen; it is beautiful and large and the ships are safe there... Three leagues in, there is a small island on the east side of the river, we found a very beautiful village built of stones ...

This passage is taken by Guillain from the Archives of the depot of maps and plans: state of the ports and bays of the Dauphine Island. This document might have been dated 1668 the time of Du Bois's voyage.

Taken from: Turkish Admiral Piri Re’is (1521)

The chief dwells in one of these towns,

One is called Saada, O wise man,

 Lankasika (Langany), which is the capital, is famous

They all follow the Shafi‘i school,