The name of this place on the east coast (of Madagascar) has been read in various ways due to the absence of diacritical letters due to the ignorance of the copyist. Tibbetts hesitates between Naytam, Tanatam and Tamtam (?). Before him and according to Sidi Celebi, Tomaschek had proposed Nusim which would have been the abbreviation of Nosy Ibrahim; we would then return, with this toponym, to Sainte Marie Island. This interpretation does not take into account the fact that the abbreviation is not a mechanism of Arabic and that only two or three cases of it are known for often repeated religious formulas. With Khoury and Grosset-Grange, we prefer the Nasim “breeze” reading. Khoury sees this Nasim at Foulpointe, while calculations lead Grosset-Grange to place him further south, near Vatomandry; we are not able to decide the question. Finally, it may be necessary to place it at the islet of Lake Nosive, south of Tamatave; this lake must once have communicated with the sea and a village was established on the islet.

Taken from: Early Settlement in the Region of Fenoarivo Atsinanana. 2011 Henry T Wright

Flacourt, writing in 1658, provides the first overview of the coast. He reports that Fenoarivo, which he knows under the name of "Ghallemboule" (Flacourt 1995:130) has an anchorage sheltered by an island, but dangerous because of rocks and winds, whence rice can be loaded, the region being very rich with two or three rice harvests each year. All the people of this place up to Antongil and on the Island of Sainte Marie have similar customs and dress, are ruled by 'filoha' or chiefs, under a paramount chief or 'filohabe'. These ranking figures called themselves 'Zaffehibrahim'.

Note: the exact place of the harbor of Nasim has not been found yet. But two km south of Fenoarivo on the coast of the village of Lakaria is the only place in this part of the coast where XVth century sherds were found (fragments of blue-and white Chinese porcelain).

A date somewhere between the XIIth and XVth centuries is given for the Lakaria Phase. Lakaria potsherds and chlorite schist fragments occurred over an area of at least 1.3 ha.

The evidence from the surface surveys allows to say something about the occupants of the Fenoarivo area during the XIIIth to XVth centuries. The two known sites with Lakaria Phase ceramics are located on to the coast near small streams. Both are near beaches where canoes could be pulled up, and close to areas of marshy ground which could be used for either root crop or rice cultivation. These people produced a range of ceramic jars, of which the most common is a simple hole mouth form with wavy combed decoration, and bowls, as well as chlorite schist vessels. There is no evidence of iron working.