46 people live. This island is a long way inside the Persian sea and many ships laden with goods cross this sea in order to reach it. Around its shores grow a lot of seed-pearls together with excellent large pearls. The merchants of the island fish for them, making thus a great deal of profit from them. From this trade, the King of Hormuz extracts a large income in duties. This and the other islands bring him a great deal of money. The merchants of Hormuz come here to buy these seed-pearls and pearls in order to send them to India. Here they obtain a huge profit. They also go there to buy for the kigdom of Vijayanagara and for the whole of Arabia and Persia. These seed-pearls and pearls can be found throughout the Sea of Persia in Bahrein and even in Hormuz. However, the largest quantities are to be found in Bahrein. The Lands of Sheikh Ismael Leaving the islands of Bahrein behind and going further into this sea, one comes to many villages and places of respectable Moors. These are very rich and peaceful lands. From this island on, this is no longer the land of Hormuz because it ends there. It belongs to other peoples about whom we do not have so much information and news. We can only say that, from that point onwards, Sheik Ismael commands and controls everything. He is a young Muslim who in recent times has subdued a large part of Arabia and Persia as well as many Moors’kingdoms and lands. He is neither a king nor the son of a king. Merely the son of a Sheik descending from Ali, who died when Ismael was still a boy. Wandering around, he came upon an Armenian friar who brought him up. When aged twelve, he ran away from him fearing of being killed because he was a Muslim. He then went to live in a big city, where he settled in with a great lord. Who eventually became such a close friend to him that he would bring him on a horse and gave him a fine position. Then, by starting to arouse other young people, many started to gather round him and gradually he started taking villages and offering
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