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.)
NOTE 2. - Frankincense presents a remarkable example of the obscurity which
so often attends the history of familiar drugs; though in this case the
darkness has been, like that of which Marco spoke in his account of the
Caraonas (vol. i. p. 98), much of man's making.
This coast of Hadhramaut is the true and ancient [Greek: chora
libanophoros] or [Greek: libanotophoros], indicated or described under
those names by Theophrastus, Ptolemy, Pliny, Pseudo-Arrian, and other
classical writers; i.e. the country producing the fragrant gum-resin called
by the Hebrews Lebonah, by the Brahmans apparently Kundu and Kunduru,
by the Arabs Luban and Kundur, by the Greeks Libanos, by the Romans
Thus, in mediaeval Latin Olibanum, and in English Frankincense, i.e.
I apprehend, "Genuine incense," or "Incense Proper."[1] It is still
produced in this region and exported from it: but the larger part of that
which enters the markets of the world is exported from the roadsteads of
the opposite Sumali coast. In ancient times also an important quantity was
exported from the latter coast, immediately west of Cape Gardafui
(Aromatum Prom.), and in the Periplus this frankincense is distinguished
by the title Peratic, "from over the water."
The Marasid-al-Ittila', a Geog.
