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Tira Raga (Mascarene islands)

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Ibn Majid (1470) and Alberto Cantino (1502) are the only two authors to mention these islands.

An anonymous map from 1502 smuggled out of Portugal by a diplomat called Alberto Cantino. In it is reproduced part of an Arab map. This map depicts a group of three small islands south east of Madagascar that bear Arabic-Sanskrit names: Dina Mozare, a corruption of Diva Mashriq, (Eastern Isle) for Rodrigues, Dina Margabim, a corruption of Diva Maghrebin or Western Isle, for Reunion, Dina Arobi, from Diva Harab, ("Desert Isle"- Others translate this as "Square Isle") for Mauritius. Other maps list the island under the names Dinaarobin and Dina Margabin. It is also unclear whether it is Mauritius that was called Dina Arobi or Rodrigues and vice-versa for Rodrigues. (The Portuguese had not yet traveled to those islands.)

1507: Portuguese sailors discover the island on their way from the Cape of Good Hope to India and use it as a port of call and a source of fresh foods. The captain at the time was named Don Pedro Mascarenhas, hence the name of the archipelago (Mauritius, Rodrigues and Reunion together form the Mascarenes).

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.

Perhaps we should have Tiri-Raga. Tomaschek has read Tir-i raha according to the Persian construction and for Tibbetts it is Tiri-Zaha; the correct lesson seems to be that adopted here which is from Khoury. Joined to the problem of the diacritism of consonants is that of the meaning of the appellation. In Persian the expression tir-i raga means "arrow of hope", raga being Arabic. In astronomy tir, arabized in al-Tir, designates Sirius and its rhumb. But nothing yet authorizes taking this compound name for Persian; it may very well be that raga is of Indonesian origin (?). On the other hand, we cannot say to which of the Mascarenes this name is given, but strong presumptions incline towards the island of Reunion, as being the closest to Madagascar. In the following excerpt, Ibn Majid places this island at three finger heights from Big Dipper whereas, according to where he gives all the headings, he places it at four finger heights, at the latitude of bandar Kus. Ibn Majid says it is an extension of the Maldives and Laccadives (al-Fal or al-Falat or al-Dibagat); the last name is taken from diva (from the Sanskrit dvipa “island”) Arabicized in diba (comp. Sarandib, Ceylon).