The Arab navigator, Ahmad Bin Majid, visited Bahrain in 1489 prior to the Portuguese' arrival in the region and gave an account of the country: "In Awal (Bahrain) there are 360 villages and fresh water can be found in a number of places. A most wonderful al-Qasasir, where a man can dive into the salt sea with a skin and can fill it with fresh water while he is submerged in the salt water. Around Bahrain are pearl fisheries and a number of islands all of which have pearl fisheries and connected with this trade are 1,000 ships" (Majid, Arab Navigation in the Indian Ocean before the Coming of the Portuguese. Trans. G.R. Tibbetts. The Royal Asisatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 1981. page 222).