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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tonguez" data-source="post: 9380381" data-attributes="member: 1125">Translations are available for "The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea" a 1st century Koine Greek manuscript listing trading ports around the Erythraen Sea (Red Sea-Arabian Sea- Horn of Africa). Notably it mentions Aksum, Opone (in Somalia), Azania (speculated to extend south of Somalia possibly to Mozambique) and also the island of Menuthias (probably Madagascar, possibly Zanzibar). At the time the people of this area were primarily Cushitic, as it was before the Bantu Expansion had reached the area.By early medieval times the area of Mozambique - Madagascar - South Africa gained the name Zanji Coast as it was the home of the Zanj (Black) - one theory is that Zanji is an Arabic form derived from the Javanese word Jenggi, the old Javanese name for Zanzibar.</blockquote>