(34) Beyond it, and near the entrance to the Persian Gulf, occurs, according to the Periplûs, a group of many islands, which lie in a range along the coast over a space of 2,000 stadia, and are called the islands of Kalaiou. Here our author is obviously in error, for there are but three groups of islands on this coast, which are not by any means near the entrance of the Gulf. They lie beyond Maskat [lat. 23° 38´ N. long. 58° 36´ E.] and extend for a considerable distance along the Batinah coast. The central group is that of the Deymâniyeh islands (probably the Damnia of Pliny) which are seven in number, and lie nearly opposite Birkeh [lat 23° 42´ N. long. 57° 55´ E.]. The error, as Müller suggests, may be accounted for by supposing that the tract of country called El Baṭinah was mistaken for islands. This tract, which is very low and extremely fertile, stretches from Birkeh [lat. 23° 42´ N. long. 57° 55´ E.] onward to Jibba, where high mountains approach the very shore, and run on in an unbroken chain to the mouth of the Persian Gulf. The islands are not mentioned by any other author, for the Calacou insulae of Pliny (VI. xxxii. 150) must, to avoid utter confusion, be referred to the coast of the Arabian Gulf. There is a place called El Kilat, the Akilla of Pliny [lat. 22° 40´ N. long. 59° 24´ E.]—but whether this is connected with the Kalaiou islands of the Periplûs is uncertain [Conf. Ind. Ant. vol. IV. p. 48. El Kilhat, south of Maskat and close to Ṣûr, was once a great port.]
35. Near the last headland of the islands of Kalaiou is the mountain called Kalon (Pulcher),[20] to which succeeds, at no great distance, the mouth of the Persian Gulf, where there are very many pearl fisheries. On the left of the entrance, towering to a vast height, are the mountains which bear the name of Asaboi, and directly opposite on the right you see another mountain high and round, called the hill of Semiramis. The strait which separates them has a width of 600 stadia, and through this opening the Persian Gulf pours its vast expanse of waters far up into the interior. At the very head of this gulf there is a regular mart of commerce, called the city of Apologos, situate near Pasinou-Kharax and the river Euphrates.
(35) Before the mouth of the Persian Gulf is reached occurs a height called Kalon (Fair Mount) at the last head of the islands of Papias—τῶν Παπίου νήσων. This reading has been altered by Fabricius and Schwanbeck to των Καλαιου νησων. The Fair Mount, according to Vincent, would answer sufficiently to Cape Fillam, if that be high land, and not far from Fillam are the straits. The great cape which Arabia protrudes at these straits towards Karmania is now called Ras Mussendom. It was seen from the opposite coast by the expedition under Nearkhos, to whom it appeared to be a day’s sail distant. The height on that coast is called Semiramis, and also Strongylê from its round shape. Mussendom, the ‘Asabôn akron’ of Ptolemy, Vincent says, “is a sort of Lizard Point to the Gulf; for all the Arabian ships take their departure from it with some ceremonies of superstition, imploring a blessing on their voyage, and setting afloat a toy like a vessel rigged and decorated, which if it is dashed to pieces by the rocks is to be accepted by the ocean as an offering for the escape of the vessel.” [The straits between the island of Mussendom and the mainland are called El Bab, and this is the origin of the name of the Papiæ islands.—Miles’ Jour. R. A. Soc. N. S. vol. x. p. 168.]
The actual width of the straits is 40 miles. Pliny gives it at 50, and the Periplûs at 75. Cape Mussendom is represented in the Periplûs as in Ptolemy by the Mountains of the Asabi which are described as tremendous heights, black, grim, and abrupt. They are named from the tribe of Beni Asab.
We enter now the Gulf itself, and here the Periplûs mentions only two particulars: the famous Pearl Fisheries which begin at the straits and extend to Bahrein, and the situation of a regular trading mart called Apologos, which lies at the very head of the Gulf on the Euphrates, and in the vicinity of Spasinou Kharax. This place does not appear to be referred to in any other classical work, but it is frequently mentioned by Arabian writers under the name of Oboleh or Obolegh. As an emporium it took the place of Terêdôn or Diridôtis, just as Basra (below which it was situated) under the second Khaliphate took the place of Oboleh itself. According to Vincent, Oboleh, or a village that represents it, still exists between Basra and the Euphrates. The canal also is called the canal of Oboleh. Kharax Pasinou was situated where the Karûn (the Eulæus of the ancients) flows into the Pasitigris, and is represented by the modern trading town Muhammarah. It was founded by Alexander the Great, and after its destruction, was rebuilt by Antiokhos Epiphanes, who changed its name from Alexandreia to Antiokheia. It was afterwards occupied by an Arab Chief called Pasines, or rather Spasines, who gave it the name by which it is best known. Pliny states that the original town was only 10 miles from the sea, but that in his time the existing place was so much as 120 miles from it. It was the birth-place of two eminent geographers—Dionysius Periegetes and Isidôros.
36. If you coast along the mouth of the gulf you are conducted by a six days’ voyage to another seat of trade belonging to Persia, called Omana.[21] Barugaza maintains a regular commercial intercourse with both these Persian ports, despatching thither large vessels freighted with copper, sandalwood, beams for rafters, horn, and logs of sasamina and ebony. Omana imports also frankincense from Kanê, while it exports to Arabia a particular species of vessels called madara, which have their planks sewn together. But both from Apologos and Omana there are exported to Barugaza and to Arabia great quantities of pearl, of mean quality however compared with the Indian sort, together with purple, cloth for the natives, wine, dates in great quantity, and gold and slaves.
(36) After this cursory glance at the great gulf, our author returns to the straits, and at once conducts us to the Eastern shores of the æErythræan, where occurs another emporium belonging to Persis, at a distance from the straits of 6 courses or 3,000 stadia. This is Omana. It is mentioned by Pliny (VI. xxxii. 149) who makes it belong to Arabia, and accuses preceding writers for placing it in Karmania.
The name of Omana has been corrupted in the MSS. of Ptolemy into Nommana, Nombana, Kommana, Kombana, but Marcian has preserved the correct spelling. From Omana as from Apologos great quantities of pearl of an inferior sort were exported to Arabia and Barugaza. No part however of the produce of India is mentioned as among its exports, although it was the centre of commerce between that country and Arabia.
37. After leaving the district of Omana the country of the Parsidai succeeds, which belongs to another government, and the bay which bears the name of Terabdoi, from the midst of which a cape projects. Here also is a river large enough to permit the entrance of ships, with a small mart at its mouth called Oraia. Behind it in the interior, at the distance of a seven days’ journey from the coast, is the city where the king resides, called Rhambakia. This district, in addition to corn, produces wine, rice, and dates, though in the tract near the sea, only the fragrant gum called bdellium.
(37) The district which succeeds Omana belongs to the Parsidai, a tribe in Gedrosia next neighbours to the Arbitae on the East. They are mentioned by Ptolemy (VI. xx., p. 439) and by Arrian (Indika xxvi.) who calls them Pasirees, and notes that they had a small town called Pasira, distant about 60 stadia from the sea, and a harbour with good anchorage called Bagisara. The Promontory of the Periplûs is also noted and described as projecting far into the sea, and being high and precipitous. It is the Cape now called Arabah or Urmarah. The Bay into which it projects is called Terabdôn, a name which is found only in our author. Vincent erroneously identifies this with the Paragôn of Ptolemy. It is no doubt the Bay which extends from Cape Guadel to Cape Monze. The river which enters this Bay, at the mouth of which stood the small mart called Oraia, was probably that which is now called the Akbor. The royal city which lay inland from the sea a seven days’ journey was perhaps, as Mannert has conjectured, Rambakia, mentioned by Arrian (Anab. vi. 21) as the capital of the Oreitai or Horitai.
38. After this region, where the coast is already deeply indented by gulfs caused by the land advancing with a vast curve from the east, succeeds the seaboard of Skythia, a region which extends to northward. It is very low and flat, and contains the mouths of the Sinthos (Indus), the largest of all the rivers which fall into the Erythræan Sea, and which, indeed, pours into it such a vast body of water that while you are yet far off from the land at its mouth you find the sea turned of a white colour by its waters.
The sign by which voyagers before sighting land know that it is near is their meeting with serpents floating on the water; but higher up and on the coasts of Persia the first sign of land is seeing them of a different kind, called graai. [Sansk. graha—an alligator.] The river has seven mouths, all shallow, marshy and unfit for navigation except only the middle stream, on which is Barbarikon, a trading seaport. Before this town lies a small islet, and behind it in the interior is Minnagar, the metropolis of Skythia, which is governed, however, by Parthian princes, who are perpetually at strife among themselves, expelling each the other.