Amitav Ghosh - In an Antique Land - History in the Guise of a Traveler's Tale

24 The word is dhimma:In Islamic law, members of tolerated religious groups are known as the dhimmi.

25 In the twelfth century … Qus:Cf. J-C. Garcin, ‘Un centre musulman de la Haute-Égypte médiévale: Qû ’ (Cairo, IFAO, 1976) and W. J. Fischel’s ‘The Spice Trade in Mamluk Egypt’, pp. 162–4. The twelfth-century Arab geographer, Al-Idrisi wrote of Qus that it was a big mercantile city with many resources, but its air was unhealthy and few strangers escaped the insalubriousness of the climate ( Kitâb , p. 127).

26 ‘a station for the traveller’:The quotation is from R. J. C. Broadhurst’s translation of the Ra la of Abu al- asan ibn Jubair (published as The Travels of Ibn Jubair , Jonathan Cape, London, 1952).

27 Over the next seventeen days:The crossing took Ibn Jubair only seventeen days, but Al-Idrisi asserts that it generally took at least twenty days ( Kitâb , p. 132).

28 Ibn Jubair remarked … ‘whoso deems it lawful’:R. J. C. Broadhurst, Travels , p. 60.

29 The area … inhabited by a tribe:This was one of the Beja tribes of Sudan and southern Egypt who are referred to frequently by medieval Arab geographers and travellers (e.g. Al-Idrisi, Kitâb , p. 133). See also Paul Wheatley’s article, ‘Analecta Sino-Africana Recensa’, p. 82 (in East Africa and the Orient , ed. H. Neville Chittick and R. I. Rotberg, Africana Publishing Co., New York and London, 1975).

30 ‘Their men and’:R. J. C. Broadhurst, Travels , p. 66.

31 ‘A sojourn in’:Ibid., p. 67.

32 ‘It is one’:Ibid., p. 63. for the maritime routes of the Red Sea, see G. R. Tibbetts, ‘Arab Navigation in the Red Sea’, pp. 322–4 ( Geographical Journal , 127, 1961).

33 For about five hundred years Aidhab functioned:See, for example, H. A. R. Gibb’s article on ‘Aydhâb (in the Encyclopaedia of Islam) , and G. W. Murray’s article ‘Aidhab’ (in The Geographical Journal , 68, pp. 235–40, 1926).

34 In any case, all that remains:Cf. J-C. Garcin, ‘Jean-Léon l’Africain et ‘Aydab’, p. 190 ( Annales Iskmologiques , XI, 1972).

35 ‘The carrier of this letter’:T — S N.S. J 1, recto, lines 13–16.

36 But the writing … is clear:Cf. Shaul Shaked, Tentative Bibliography , p. 134.

37 ‘Shaikh Abraham Ibn Yijû bespoke’:T — S 13 J 24, fol. 2, recto, lines 9–22 and margins.

38 ‘For the affair of Shaikh Makhluf’:T — S MS Ov. 1081 J 3, recto, margin.

39 The first … a legally attested deed:Cf. S. D. Goitein, Letters , p. 202.

40 The second … is a rough draft:T — S 12.458 verso, lines 5–13. I would like to thank Dr Geoffrey Khan for translating the Aramaic words in this document for me.

41 ‘concubinage is permitted’:Al-Idrisi, Kitâb p. 179.

42 ‘Let us thank God,’:Cf. G. Ferrand, Voyage du Marchand Arabe Sulayman en Inde et en Chine , p. 124 (Paris, 1922).

43 ‘Public women are everywhere’:‘The Travels of Nicolo Conti in the East in the Early Part of the Fifteenth Century’, p. 23 (translated from the original of Poggio Bracciolini by J. Winter Jones, in India in the Fifteenth Century; Being a Collection of Narratives of Voyages to India , ed. R. H. Major, Hakluyt Society, London, 1857).

44 ‘Immediately after midday’:‘Narrative of the Voyage of Abd-er-Razzak, Ambassador from Shah Rukh, A.H. 845, A.D. 1442’, p. 29 (translated by R. H. Major from the French translation of the Persian by M. Quatremère, in India in the Fifteenth Century , ed. R. H. Major).

45 ‘I have also sent’:T — S N.S. J 1 recto, line 11.

46 The connection seems so obvious:S. D. Goitein, Letters , p. 202.

47 In a set of accounts … the name Naîr:T — S 20.137, verso, line 19 (account no.2). The word of Ben Yiju used was sahrî, ‘brother-in-law’ or male affine. It is worth noting that in Ben Yiju’s circle this term was generally used in a specific sense, and not as a portmanteau kinship term (for a case to point see p. 178 of S. D. Goitein’s article ‘The Beginnings of the Kârim Merchants’).

48 The lucky accident … links her … to the Nairs:This squares well with what is known of the social composition of Mangalore at the time, for it is recorded in contemporary inscriptions that a community of Nairs was indeed resident in the area around that time. Accounts left by later travellers suggest that the Nairs of that region had developed particularly close links with foreign traders. See P. Gururaja Bhatt’s Studies in Tu uva History and Culture , pp. 234–5 (Manipal, Karnataka, 1970).

49 ‘And throughout the [land]’:Benjamin of Tudela, The Itinerary , pp. 120–1 (ed. Michael A. Signer, 1983).

Mangalore

1 When Ben Yiju arrived:See Neville Chittick, ‘East Africa and the Orient: Ports and Trade before the arrival of the Portuguese’ (in Historical Relations Across the Indian Ocean , UNESCO, Paris, 1980).

2 ‘living in a suburb’:See Ibn Battúta Travels in Asia and Africa, 1325–1354 , p. 233 (trans. and selected by H. A. R. Gibb, Routledge & Sons, London, 1939).

3 ‘China, Sumatra, Ceylon,’:Ibid, p. 234.

4 ‘Arabs, Persians, Guzarates’:Duarte Barbosa, A Description of the Coasts of East Africa and Malabar in the beginning of the sixteenth century , p. 202 (trans. H. E. J. Stanley, The Hakluyt Society, London, 1856).

5 ‘[They] possess … wives’:Ibid., p. 202.

6 ‘They dress themselves’:‘Narrative of the Voyage of Abd-er-Razzak’, p. 17 (in India in the Fifteenth Century , ed. R. H. Major).

7 .… the Arabic name ‘Malabâr’:The name is spelt variously as Malabar and Malîbâr in the Geniza documents. It also sometimes occurs in plural forms, such as Malîbârât.

8 The language of Mangalore:See K. V. Ramesh, A History of South Kanara , xxiv-xxvi (Karnatak University Research Publications, Series 12, Dharwar, 1970); ‘Geographical Factors in Tuluva History’, p. 7 ( Academy Silver Jubilee Lecture , Academy of General Education, Manipal, Karnataka, 1981); U. P. Upadhyaya & S. P. Upadhyaya (ed.), Bhuta Worship: Aspects of a Ritualistic Theatre , p. 1 (Regional Resources Centre for Folk Performing Arts, M.G.M.College, Udupi, Karnataka, 1984); P. Claus, ‘Maynda a: A Legend and Possession Cult of Tu unâ ’, p. 96 ( Asian Folklore Studies , Vol. 38:2, 1979); and G. R. Krishna, Caste and Tribes of Fishermen , pp. 103–11 (Discovery Publishing House, New Delhi, 1990).