I
n July 1516, a Portuguese fleet under the command of Lopez Suarez Alberguiera seized Zaila and burned the town. The Book of Duarte Barbosa has thus recorded this historic event.“After the destruction of Zaila in 1517, Lopo Soares d’Albergaria had intended to attack Berbera also, but owing to the heavy losses he had incurred, he was not able to do so. Next year (1518) Antonio de Saldanha was sent from Portugal with a fleet in order to attack the Arabs at the entrance of the Red Sea. Soares d’Albergaria, who had now become Governor of India, sent Saldanha to the Gulf of Aden with six ships, and he took Berbera without resistance. These events are related in full by de Barros in Dec.III, I, Cap.I0. He distinctly states that these events took place the year after the taking of Zaila, but as Saldanha did not arrive in India till September 1517, and was not despatched to the Red Sea until after the return of Lopo Soares from Hurmuz, which was not till a month or two later, it is probable that his attack on Berbera was really in the beginning of 1518.” The dates of the taking of Zeila and Berbera have been given by the editors of the Portuguese text as 1517 and 1518, instead of 1516 and 1518. It is probable, however, that the passages mentioning these events were added after the completion
of Duarte Barbosa’s work and the writing of his preface in 1516 (although there can be (no ) certainty of the correctness of this date).
Duarte Barbosa writes about Brava:
“Yet further along the coast, beyond these places, is a great town of Moors, of very fine stone and mortar houses, called Brava. It has no king, but is ruled by elders, and ancients of the land, who are the persons held in the highest esteem, and who have the chief dealings in mer-chandise of divers(sic) kinds. And this place was des-troyed by the Portuguese, who slew many of its people and carried many into captivity, and took great spoil of gold and silver and goods. Thenceforth many of them fled away towards the inland country, forsaking the town; yet after it had been destroyed the Portuguese again settled and peopled it, “so that now it is as prosperous as it was before.” It was an important town when the Portuguese appeared on the scene.The attack on it mentioned by Barbosa was that of Tristao d’Acunha, who proceeded thither after sacking Oja, and demanded payment of the tribute promised to Saldanha in 1503, by certain chief men of the town whom he had captured off Malindi. This contention was repudiated and payment was refused.
About Mogadishu, Duarte Barbosa wrote:
“Proceeding coastwise towards the Red Sea there is a very great Moorish town called Magadoxo; it has a king over it; the place has much trade in divers kinds, by reason whereof many ships come hither from the great kingdom of Cambaya, bringing great plenty of cloths of many sorts, and divers other wares, also spices; and in the same way they come from Aden. And they carry away much gold, ivory, wax and many other things, whereby they make exceedingly great profits in their dealings.
In this country is found flesh-meat in great plenty, wheat, barley, horses and fruit of divers kinds so that it is a place of great wealth.
They speak Arabic. The men are for the most part brown and black, but a few are fair. They have but few weapons, yet they use herbs on their arrows to defend themselves against their enemies.
The town of Makdashau was probably the first im-portant settlement made by the Arab traders when they began to push southwards along the East Coast of Africa from Cape Guardafui. Although it is not mentioned by Mas’udi or Idrisi, it was found by Ibn Batuta in the early part of the fourteenth century, to be a wealthy and im-portant place under a Sultan, who was, however, locally known as Sheikh. No doubt the gradual southern ex-tension of the Arabs deprived it of its importance as an a outpost of trade. The predominance of the darker element in the population, the lack of weapons, and the use of poisoned arrows, all point to the gradual absorption of the Arab element in the African. Nevertheless Vasco da Gama, who arrived here on his return from Calicut in 1499, found it according to the Roteiro a fortified town with fine houses. Cabral,* describes it in 1500 as “a very rich and beautiful town of Moors,” but does not seem to have landed. Tristao d’Acunha passed it without landing in 1506, being eager to arrive at Socotra after his fighting at Brava. The Portuguese rule was never consolidated as far north as Magadoxo. It fell into the hands of the Turkish raider Ali Bey in 1586, but Turkish rule did not last long. Sayyid Sa`id of Maskat took possession of it in 1828, and the town continued to form part of the Maskat and Zanzibar dominion till modern times.”
Then Barbosa’s book talks about Afum (Hafun) and Cape Guardafui. He describes Hafun as a small village having plenty of flesh-meat and food. Further on along the coast beyond Hafun, he found the “Cape of Guardafuy”
from which the coast folds backwards towards the Red
* Navegacao, Ed.1867, p. 116.
Sea. It is the mouth of the strait of Meca, so that as many ships as come from India and from the kingdom of Cambaya, and from Chaul, Dabul, Batical; from Malabar and all the coast of Bengala; also from Ceilam, Malaqua, Camatra, Pegu (Tancari and China); all make for it, and enter it from this cape with much merchandize. Some of them go towards the city of Adem and Zeilam and Barbora; and for these ships those of the King our Lord lie in wait at this spot and capture them with great booty,
“and with the goods they carry, inasmuch as they go thither contrary to the prohibition of His Highness.
The modern Arabic name is Ras Asir. The name Guardafui seems to have been first used by the Portu-guese, and belongs properly, not to the cape itself, but to a promontory sixty miles south of it, called by the Arabs Ras Hafun or Jard-Hafun. The name Hafun, the Opone of the Periplus, is still borne by the village of Hafun ...and it is most probable that this name applied originally to the whole coast, and not to any specific spot. Jard-Hafun was no doubt originally Gard-Hafun, following the well-known rule by which the g-sound of the Arabic has become j, except in Egypt, and some other African districts.
According to Barbosa, “there seems to be no Arabic word which gives any meaning corresponding to “cape” or
“turning point.” The writer added: “One possible ex-planation which has, I believe, not been suggested by any writer on the subject, is that the word is Persian and not Arabic. The expedition sent by Khusrau Anoshirvan along the coast of Hadhramaut to Aden, to re-establish a Himyarite prince in A.D. 576, show that the Persians under the Sassanian kings were accustomed to navigate these waters.* Gard in Persian is a common word, meaning “turn,” and the meaning of Gard-I-Hafun would be “the turn or bend of Hafun.” The name given in the
* See Tabari’s Chronicle, trans. Zotenberg, vol. II. pp. 210-215.
Spanish version is Guardafun.”
As soon as the Cape of Guardafui has been doubled, turning inwards towards the Red Sea, there is a town of Moors which they call Metee (Modern maps show an island called Mait or Maid and a village of the same name on the coast of Berbera, and this is probably Barbosa’s Metee. Muller’s map identifies this place with the Mundus of the Periplus where “ships lie at anchor more safely behind a projecting island close to the shore”. Schoff however prefers to identify this place with Bandar Hais still nearer to Berbera)
Beyond this town of Metee, and further inside the gulf, is a Moorish town which they call Barbora, wither go many ships carrying much merchandize from Adem and Camabaya. They carry away thence much gold, opium, ivory and divers other things. The merchants of Adem take much provender, flesh, honey and wax, for that land is exceeding fruitful. “This town was taken by force by a Portuguese fleet of which Antonio de Saldanha was Captain-in-Chief. He destroyed the whole place in the year 1518, and then departed with the fleet for Ormuz, where the ships which stood in need of it were repaired.
Further on thence along the coast, in the inner part (i.e. of the Gulf), is a Moorish town which they call Zeila, a place of great traffic. Hither sail many ships to dispose of their goods. It is a well-built place with right good houses, many of them built of stone and mortar with flat roofs. The people thereof both men and women are black for the most part; they have many horses and rear much cattle of all kinds, so that they have butter in plenty, milk and flesh: also in this land is great store of wheat, millet, barley and fruits of divers(e) sorts, all of which they carry to Aden.
This place was taken and destroyed by the Portu-guese, who were commanded by the Captain-in-Chief Lopo Soares.
* The Book of Duarte Barbosa. Vol.I-Mansel Longworth Dames-First published in 1812 by Royal Academy of Science in Lisbon.
According to Mas’udi, the Gulf of Aden is called the Gulf of Berbers (al-khalij al-Barbari).*