Note {3} — Chapter XXXII

Note 3.—As far back as the 10th century Socotra was a noted haunt of pirates. Mas’udi says: “Socotra is one of the stations frequented by the Indian corsairs called Bawárij, which chase the Arab ships bound for India and China, just as the Greek galleys chase the Mussulmans in the sea of Rúm along the coasts of Syria and Egypt” (III. 37). The Bawárij were corsairs of Kach’h and Guzerat, so called from using a kind of war-vessel called Bárja. (Elliot, I. 65.) Ibn Batuta tells a story of a friend of his, the Shaikh Sa’íd, superior of a convent at Mecca, who had been to India and got large presents at the court of Delhi. With a comrade called Hajji Washl, who was also carrying a large sum to buy horses, “when they arrived at the island of Socotra ... they were attacked by Indian corsairs with a great number of vessels.... The corsairs took everything out of the ship, and then left it to the crew with its tackle, so that they were able to reach Aden.” Ibn Batuta’s remark on this illustrates what Polo has said of the Malabar pirates, in ch. xxv. supra: “The custom of these pirates is not to kill or drown anybody when the actual fighting is over. They take all the property of the passengers, and then let them go whither they will with their vessel” (I. 362–363).