Colombo

Notes

A port in Sri Lanka. Today it is the capital of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. The island of Sri Lanka is generally referred to in Geniza documents as Silān (Ceylon), but two letters refer to the Alexandrian merchant Ismāʿīl al-Fāṣid's trip from Aden to Kalambu. If Colombo on the southwestern coast of Sri Lanka is intended here, then these would be our only known references to a specific port in Sri Lanka rather than the island as a whole. Alternatively, these letters might refer to Sri Lanka as a whole as Kalambu. (Goitein previously suggested that Kalambu might refer to Quilon)