Sikandar-Nāmah of Nizāmī, by
Wilberforce Clarke, p. 104.
1298.—"Zanghibar is a great and noble Island, with a compass of some 2000 miles. The people ... are all black, and go stark naked, with only a little covering for decency. Their hair is as black as pepper, and so frizzly that even with water you can scarcely straighten it," &c., &c.—Marco Polo, ii. 215. Marco Polo regards the coast of Zanzibar as belonging to a great island like Madagascar.
1440.—"Kalikut is a very safe haven ... where one finds in abundance the precious objects brought from maritime countries, especially from Habshah (see [HUBSHEE], [ABYSSINIA], [Zirbad], and Zanzibar." Abdurrazzāk, in Not. et Exts., xiv. 436.
1498.—"And when the morning came, we found we had arrived at a very great island called Jamgiber, peopled with many Moors, and standing good ten leagues from the coast."—Roteiro, 105.
1516.—"Between this island of San Lorenzo (i.e. Madagascar) and the continent, not very far from it are three islands, which are called one Manfia, another Zanzibar, and the other Penda; these are inhabited by Moors; they are very fertile islands."—Barbosa, 14.
1553.—"And from the streams of this river Quilimance towards the west, as far as the Cape of Currents, up to which the Moors of that coast do navigate, all that region, and that still further west towards the Cape of Good Hope (as we call it), the Arabians and Persians of those parts call Zanguebar, and the inhabitants they call Zanguy."—Barros, I. viii. 4.
" A few pages later we have "Isles of Pemba, Zanzibar, Monfia, Comoro," showing apparently that a difference had grown up, at least among the Portuguese, distinguishing Zanguebar the continental region from Zanzibar the Island.
c. 1586.
"And with my power did march to Zanzibar