Socotra

سقطرى

A large island with many trees, mostly aloe, which the islanders harvest. Al-Idrisi says its people are Christian, through an old tradition he attributes to Alexander's time, when Greeks were settled there to tend the aloe ¹. Earlier, al-Hamdani counts the island near eighty farsakhs with some ten thousand Mahra fighting men, all Christians — its own tradition saying Romans were cast ashore there in Kisra's time, settled by Mahra who partly converted; rich in palms, cast-up amber, dragon's-blood and aloes. The Aden version denies the Romans ever entered, holding hermits inhabited it then died out ².

Overview

Socotra is a large island with many trees, most of its vegetation being the aloe (sabr) tree, and its people live by harvesting it. Al-Idrisi mentions that its people are Christians, because of ancient traditions transmitted to them. He also says that Alexander ordered a people of the Greeks transferred there to preserve the aloe tree. ³

Al-Hamdani, who came earlier, counted it at about eighty farsakhs, with about ten thousand fighting men of the Mahra tribes, who are Christians. Its people relate that a group of people from the land of the Romans were cast there in the time of Kisra, and the Mahra lived alongside them, and some of them became Christians. It has many palms, ambergris, dam al-akhawayn (dragon's blood) and much aloe. The people of Aden say that the Romans did not enter it, but that monks settled there and then died out. ⁴

Sources

Al-Idrisi, Nuzhat al-Mushtaq fi ikhtiraq al-afaq (Cairo: Maktabat al-Thaqafa al-Diniyya, 2002), 2 vols., p. 50-51

Sifat Jazirat al-Arab of al-Hamdani (Müller ed.), p. 36

Al-Idrisi, Nuzhat al-Mushtaq fi ikhtiraq al-afaq (Cairo: Maktabat al-Thaqafa al-Diniyya, 2002), 2 vols., p.50-51

Sifat Jazirat al-Arab of al-Hamdani (Müller ed.), p.36

Socotra

At a glance

Overview

Sources

Place