Ma ʿ bar (Mabar) is the name given by the Muslims to the Coromandel Coast, in Tamil Nadu, India, from at least the sixth/twelfth century, appearing in Muslim chronicles, along with the name of its capital city, Madura, from the beginning of the seventh/thirteenth. The high official, historian, and physician of Īlkhānid Iran Rashīd al-Dīn (c. 645-718/1247-1318) mentions Maʿbar as "the key to India," with a distance of 300 parasangs (about 1,680 kilometres) from the Malabar port of Kaulam (Quilon or Kollam) to