NOTE 1.—­Dufar.  The name [Arabic] is variously pronounced Dhafar, DHOFAR, Zhafar, and survives attached to a well-watered and fertile plain district opening on the sea, nearly 400 miles east of Shehr, though according to Haines there is now no town of the name.  Ibn Batuta speaks of the city as situated at the extremity of Yemen ("the province of Aden"), and mentions its horse-trade, its unequalled dirt, stench, and flies, and consequent diseases. (See II. 196 seqq.) What he says of the desert character of the tract round the town is not in accordance with modern descriptions of the plain of Dhafar, nor seemingly with his own statements of the splendid bananas grown there, as well as other Indian products, betel, and coco-nut.  His account of the Sultan of Zhafar in his time corroborates Polo’s, for he says that prince was the son of a cousin of the King of Yemen, who had been chief of Zhafar under the suzerainete of that King and tributary to him.  The only ruins mentioned by Haines are extensive ones near Haffer, towards the western part of the plain; and this Fresnel considers to be the site of the former city.  A lake which exists here, on the landward side of the ruins, was, he says, formerly a gulf, and formed the port, “the very good haven,” of which our author speaks.

A quotation in the next note however indicates Merbat, which is at the eastern extremity of the plain, as having been the port of Dhafar in the Middle Ages.  Professor Sprenger is of opinion that the city itself was in the eastern part of the plain.  The matter evidently needs further examination.

This Dhafar, or the bold mountain above it, is supposed to be the Sephar of Genesis (x. 30).  But it does not seem to be the Sapphara metropolis of Ptolemy, which is rather an inland city of the same name:  “Dhafar was the name of two cities of Yemen, one of which was near Sana’a ... it was the residence of the Himyarite Princes; some authors allege that it is identical with Sana’a” (Marasid-al-Ittila’, in Reinaud’s Abulfeda, I. p. 124).

Dofar is noted by Camoens for its fragrant incense.  It was believed in Malabar that the famous King Cheram Perumal, converted to Islam, died on the pilgrimage to Mecca and was buried at Dhafar, where his tomb was much visited for its sanctity.

The place is mentioned (Tsafarh) in the Ming Annals of China as a Mahomedan country lying, with a fair wind, 10 days N.W. of Kuli (supra, p. 440).  Ostriches were found there, and among the products are named drugs which Dr. Bretschneider renders as Olibanum, Storax liquida, Myrrh, Catechu(?), Dragon’s blood.  This state sent an embassy (so-called) to China in 1422. (Haines in J.R.G.S. XV. 116 seqq.; Playfair’s Yemen, p. 31; Fresnel in J.  As. ser. 3, tom.  V. 517 seqq.; Tohfut-ul-Mujahideen, p. 56; Bretschneider, p. 19.)