An excerpt from the Safar-nama of Nasir Khusraw:
“The town of ‘Aydhab is situated by the sea and has a Friday mosque and a population of some five hundred. It belongs to the Sultan of Egypt and is a customs station for ships coming from Abyssinia, Zanzibar, and the Yemen. From there goods are transported by camel across the desert, the same way we travelled here, to Aswan and thence by boat to Cairo.
To the right of this town, facing the Qibla, is a mountain beyond which is a large desert with many herbivorous animals and people called the Bajawas. This nation has many religions and no prophet or spiritual leader because they are so far from civilisation. They inhabit a desert more than one thousand leagues long and three hundred wide. In all this expanse there are not more than two small hamlets, one called Eahar al-Nuaam and the other ‘Aydhab.
The desert runs lengthwise from Egypt to Abyssinia, which is from North to South and across from the province of Nubia to the Red Sea, from West to East. The Bajawis, who live in this desert are not a bad people and do not steal or make raids but tend their flocks.”
Source: Thackston, W. Wheeler McIntosh, ed. trans., Nasir- i Khusraw’s Book of Travels (Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 2010), 85-86.
Aydhab was a medieval harbour on the African coast of the Red Sea. Now an abandoned site, its ruins still exist on a flat and waterless mound 12 miles North of Halayb. It is mentioned by Ya’qubi, a 9th century Muslim geographer, as a port linked to the Nile valley by caravan roads from Aswan and Qus, frequented by pilgrims to Mecca and merchants from Yemen. Originally a small village of huts, ‘Aydhab became an important harbour from the 5th AH / 11th CE century due to increase in commerce between Egypt and Yemen. It especially flourished in the period of the Karimi merchants, when it is described by Ibn Battuta in 725 AH / 1325 CE as a large town.
The local population was formed mainly of Muslim Buj̲ah (Bejas), whose ruling family, called by the Arabic name of al-Hadrabi (or Hadrubi), frequently clashed with the Egyptian representatives over their share in the control and revenues of the port. The port was destroyed during the reign of the Mamluk Sultan Barsbay (825-42 AH / 1422-38 CE), allegedly in retaliation for the pillage of a caravan proceeding to Mecca. Its place was taken by Sawakin, a port in the North-East of Sudan.
Citation:
Gibb, H.A.R. ‘Aydhab’. Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Brill Online, 2012.
http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/aydhab-SIM_0900?s.num=0&s.q=aydhab [accessed June 2013]
G. W. Murray, “Aidhab” The Geographical Journal , Vol. 68, No. 3 (Sep., 1926), pp. 235-240.
Hunsberger, Alice C. Nasir Khusraw, the ruby of Badakhshan. (London: I. B. Tauris, 2000).
Peacock, D. & Peacock, A., "The enigma of 'Aydhab: a medieval Islamic port on the Red Sea coast", International Journal of Nautical Archaeology (2008), vol 37 (1): 32-48.
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