LEANITES SINUS
LEANITES SINUS (
Λεανίτης κόλπος), a bay on the western side of the Persian Gulf, so named from the Arab tribe
LEANITAE (
Λεανῖται, Ptol. 6.7.18), They are placed north of Gerrah, between the Themi and the Abucaei. Pliny states that the name was variously written: “Sinus intimus, in quo Laeanitae qui nomen ei dedere; regio eorum Agra, et in sinu Laeana, vel, at alii Aaelana; nam et ipsum sinum nostri Aelaniticum scripsere, alii Aeleniticum, Artemidorus Alaniticum, Juba Laeniticum” (6.28). Agra, which Pliny represents as the capital, is doubtless the “Adari civitas” (
Ἀδάρου πόλις) of Ptolemy, in the country of the Leanitae. Mr. Forster regards the name as an abbreviated form of “Sinus Khaulanites” or
Bay of Khaulan, in which he discovers an idiomatic modification of the name Haulanites, the Arabic form for Havileans,--identical with the
Beni Khaled,--the inhabitants of the Avâl or Havilah of Scripture [HAVILAH]. (
Geography of Arabia, vol. i. pp. 48, 52, 53, vol. ii. p. 215.)
The gulf apparently extended from the Itamus Portus (
Kedema) on the north, to the Chersonesi extrema (
Ras-el-Châr) on the south.
[
G.W]
