the older name of Aelanitic, derived from the harbor of Aela, had effaced the name Laeanitic. Pliny does not state that the Leḥjân were settled in his time in the town of Hagra (al-Ḥeǧr), which in the middle of the first century of our era belonged to the Nabataean kings. The sources from which Pliny derived his information correspond to the other historical records cited above, and it is not therefore necessary for us to assume that he confused the Laeanitic Bay in the Persian Gulf with the Aelanitic Gulf in the Red Sea, as was done by Ptolemy, who connects the trading center of al-Haǧar, situated to the west of the al-Baḥrejn islands not far from the modern town of al-Hufhûf, with the town of al-Ḥeǧr, four hundred kilometers southeast of Aela.
Ptolemy, Geography, VI, 7: 43, places the island of Ainu at long. 65° 45’, lat. 27° 20’ N., and, op. cit., VI, 7: 29, the settlement of Aina at long. 75° 40’, lat. 27° 20’ N. Thus, as he assigns the island of Ainu and the settlement of the same name the same geographical latitude but an entirely different longitude, I conclude that the latter has been badly recorded and that the two places are identical. If this is so, the island of Ainu must be located west of the southeastern corner of the Gulf of al-ʻAḳaba (Aila) at the spot where the modern islet of Tîrân (or Târân) is situated. Ptolemy recorded its name as Ainu, which in Nabataean was probably pronounced Ḥâinu.
From the third and fourth centuries of our era we have no information about the northern part of the Red Sea and the Gulf of al-ʻAḳaba. Malchus of Philadelphia (Müller), pp. 112 ff., was the first to explain that in the year 473 A. D. Peter, bishop of the Christian Arabs dwelling in tents and known as Saracens, came to Constantinople for the purpose of asking the Emperor Leo to grant the rank of a Roman phylarch to Amorkesos, chief of the clan of the Nokalians. The chief in question had pitched his tents originally in Persian territory; but, whether he enjoyed little esteem there or whether he preferred the Roman territory to the Persian, he migrated from Persian territory and encamped in Arabia near the Persian frontier, whence he was perpetually making raids, not against the Romans but against the Saracens. His influence became so extensive that he even obtained possession of an island which was a Roman dependency. From this island, called Iotabe, he drove away the toll gatherers, collected taxes for himself, and became particularly rich also by plundering other settlements in the vicinity. Finally he wished to become an ally of the Romans and phylarch of the Roman Saracens encamping in Arabia Petraea. He accordingly sent Peter, bishop of his tribe, to the Emperor Leo. The latter immediately summoned Amorkesos to Constantinople, although, according to the conditions of the peace treaty concluded with the Persians, no Saracen fugitive from the Persian territory was to be allowed to stay in the Roman Empire. Amorkesos, under the pretext that he wished to become a Christian, was received at Constantinople with great honors. He obtained valuable gifts, was appointed phylarch, and was allowed to retain not only the above-mentioned island but also numerous other settlements.
From the following account given by Procopius, the island of Iotabe is identical with the duck or seal island and hence also with the modern island of Tirân (or Târân). We do not know when a customhouse was established there. The actual territory of Amorkesos is likewise unknown