"تاريخ أئمة وأسياد عُمان بقلم سليل ابن رزيق، من ٦٦١-١٨٥٦ م، مترجم من الأصل العربي، ومُحرّر بملاحظات وملاحق ومقدمة تواصل التاريخ حتى سنة ١٨٧٠، بقلم جورج بيرسي بادجر، عضو في الجمعية الجغرافية الملكية والقس الراحل في رئاسة بومباي." [‎٤‎١‎٤] (٦١٢/٥٧٥)

414
postscript.
[meaning, not Maskat, but the southern shore of the Persian
Gulf].
Whether owing to political or other causes operating upon the
mainland, it seems tolerably certain that the maritime trade was
shortly after suddenly transferred to the island from Siraf. Ben
jamin of Tudela, who was in those parts fifteen years after el-Idrisy
wrote, does not mention the latter place, but gives the following
account of el-Kais :—
" From thence I returned to the country of Khuzistan, which
lies on the Tigris; this runs down and falls into the Indian Sea
[Persian Gulf] in the vicinity of an island called Kish. The ex
tent of this island is six miles, and its inhabitants do not carry on
any agriculture, principally because they have no rivers, nor
more than one spring in the whole island, and are consequently
obliged to drink rain water. It is, however, a considerable
market, being the point to which the Indian merchants and those
of the islands bring their commodities; while the traders of
Mesopotamia, Yemen, and Persia import all sort of silk and
purple cloths, flax, cotton, hemp, mdsh, wheat, barley, millet, rye,
and all sorts of comestibles and pulses, which articles form objects
of barter. Those from India import great quantities of spices,
and the inhabitants of the island live by what they gain in their
capacity of brokers to both parties. The island contains about
five hundred Jews." 1
A century later. a.d. 12G8, the island of el-Kais retained its
position as the principal mart of the eastern trade, for el-Kazwiny
describes it in a passage already quoted (see ante, p. 410) as " a
haven for Indian and Persian ships, and a market of trade and
commerce to the Arabs and Persianswhereas this is all he
says about Siraf:—" Siraf is a noble city, eligibly situated, occu
pying a large space, having many gardens, and also many springs
which flow thereto from the mountains ;" 2 but not a word about
its being a maritime place of trade.
Abulfeda, on the other hand, ( a.d . 1273-1331), who was con
temporary with Marco Polo, reverses the respective character of
the two places, makes little of the island of el-Kais, but describes
Siraf as the great mart in that quarter. This is what he writes
of the former .—
his Arabic version, in the foot-note to p. iii, after the words in the fifteenth
line, " twelve miles wide and twelve miles long."
1 Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela, by A. Asher, vol. i. pp, 13G-7.
2 Kosmographic, vol. ii. p. 136.