page_title: Madagascar
section_title: Arab and Portuguese contacts
hierarchical_section_title: Madagascar / History / Arab and Portuguese contacts
caption_attribution_description: English: Diogo Dias's ship, detail from depiction of the 2nd Portuguese India Armada (fleet of Pedro Alvares Cabral, 1500) from the Livro das Armadas (Academia de Ciencias de Lisboa)
context_page_description: Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, and previously known as the Malagasy Republic, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately 400 kilometres off the coast of East Africa. At 592,800 square kilometres Madagascar is the world's second-largest island country. The nation comprises the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Following the prehistoric breakup of the supercontinent Gondwana, Madagascar split from the Indian subcontinent around 88 million years ago, allowing native plants and animals to evolve in relative isolation. Consequently, Madagascar is a biodiversity hotspot; over 90% of its wildlife is found nowhere else on Earth. The island's diverse ecosystems and unique wildlife are threatened by the encroachment of the rapidly growing human population and other environmental threats.
  The archaeological evidence of the earliest human foraging on Madagascar may date up to 10,000 years ago. Human settlement of Madagascar occurred between 350 BC and 550 AD by Indianized Austronesian peoples, arriving on outrigger canoes from Indonesia.
context_section_description: Madagascar was an important transoceanic trading hub connecting ports of the Indian Ocean in the early centuries following human settlement.
  The written history of Madagascar began with the Arabs, who established trading posts along the northwest coast by at least the 10th century and introduced Islam, the Arabic script (used to transcribe the Malagasy language in a form of writing known as sorabe), Arab astrology, and other cultural elements.
caption: European contact began in 1500 when Portuguese explorer Diogo Dias recorded the island while participating in the 2nd Portuguese India Armadas.
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