“Sous le gouvernement de Mohammed, le roi de l’ile du Rubis (Djezyret-Alyacout) offrit a Hadjadj des femmes musulmanes qui avaient recu le jour dans ses etats, et dont les peres, livres a la profession du commerce, etaient morts.  Le prince esperuit par la gagner l’amitie de Hadjadj; mais le navire ou l’on avait embarque ces femmes fut attaque par une peuplade de race Meyd, des environs de Daybal, qui etait montoe sur des burques.  Les Meyds enleverent le navire avec ce qu’il renfermait.  Dans cette extremite, une de ces femmes de la tribu de Yarboua, s’ecria:  ‘Que n’es-tu la, oh Hadjadj!’ Cette nouvelle etant parvenue a Hadjadj, il repondit:  ‘Me voila.’  Aussitot il envoya un depute a Daher pour l’inviter a faire mettre ces femmes en liberte.  Mais Daher repondit:  ’Ce sont des pirates qui ont enleve ces femmes, et je n’ai aucune autorite sur les ravisseurs.’  Alors Hadjadj engagea Obeyd Allah, fils de Nabhan, a faire une expedition contre Daybal.”—­P. 190.

The “Island of Rubies” was the Persian name for Ceylon, and in this particular instance FERISHTA confirms the identical application of these two names, vol. ii. p. 402.  See Journal Asiat. vol. xlvi. p. 131, 163; REINAUD, Mem. sur l’Inde, p. 180; Relation des Voyages, Disc. p. xli ABOULFEDA, Introd. vol. i. p. ccclxxxv.; ELPHINSTONE’S India, b. v. ch. i, p. 260.]

From the eighth till the eleventh century the Persians and Arabs continued to exercise the same influence over the opulent commerce of Ceylon which was afterwards enjoyed by the Portuguese and Dutch in succession between A.D. 1505, and the expulsion of the latter by the British in A.D. 1796.  During this early period, therefore, we must look for the continuation of accounts regarding Ceylon to the literature of the Arabs and the Persians, and more especially to the former, by whom geography was first cultivated as a science in the eighth and ninth centuries under the auspices of the Khalifs Almansour and Almamoun.  On turning to the Arabian treatises on geography, it will be found that the Mahometan writers on these subjects were for the most part grave and earnest men who, though liable equally with the imaginative Greeks to be imposed on by their informants, exercised somewhat more caution, and were more disposed to confine their writings to statements of facts derived from safe authorities, or to matters which they had themselves seen.

In their hands scientific geography combined theoretic precision, which had been introduced by their predecessors, with the extended observation incident to the victories and enlarged dominion of the Khalifs.  Accurate knowledge was essential for the civil government of their conquests[1]; and the pilgrimage to Mekka, indispensable once at least in the life of every Mahometan[2], rendered the followers of the new faith acquainted with many countries in addition to their own.[3]