The Arab Traders

There is a great deal of evidence, some of it admittedly conjectural, that the Seychelles were visited by a number of early voyagers.  These early explorers and traders were aware of the existence of some of these islands and may have noted their position in the ships log or roughly charted them on a map.  They were most certainly visited first by the Arab.  There are Arabic manuscripts, the earliest dated 810 AD, describing voyages by Arab merchants across the Indian Ocean.  The Arabian historian, Al Masoudy, is credited with having visited Madagascar in 916 AD.  He writes of calling at the "high islands beyond the Maldives" in one of his manuscripts and possibly identifiable with the mountainous Mahe group of islands of the Seychelles.

On one old Arab chart, a group of islands in the Indian Ocean is shown as "Islands of the Rukh".  The rukh, or roc, was described by Marco Polo as a gigantic eagle with a wing span of 150 feet and capable of carrying off an elephant.  When the Great Kublai Khan heard of this fabulous bird, he dispatched one of his envoys to find the rukh.  Alas, the envoy returned with only a quill as proof of its existence.  Ibn Batuta, an Arab who travelled up the East African coast in the 14th century and also visited the Maldives, also describes having seen the rukh.

The quill brought back by Kublai Khan's envoy was probably a palm frond, perhaps a coco-de-mer palm frond.  As for Ibn Batuta having seen the rukh......a mirage at sea, an island lifted from the sea by refraction, a phenomena of nature.  Though the rukh is a myth, the islands are not.  Looking to the probable route followed by Ibn Batuta, the Islands of the Rukh were most probably the islands now recognized as the Mahe Group of islands.

In addition to Arab merchants, historians, and travelers who may have visited the islands, there is the less reputable class of visitor that also left their mark.  The profession of piracy in Eastern waters is as old as seafaring itself.  It is known that from very early times, Arab pirates used the Seychelles as a rendez-vous.  They continued to do so intermittently until the establishment of the Dutch in Mauritius (1638 to 1712) when steps were taken to clear them from the seas.  Marks engraved on rocks on North and Fregate Islands, allegedly Arabic inscriptions are pointed out as proof of their having been there.  To this day no one has been able to decipher them or even to confirm their origin.