Vohemar

Vohemar was a Swahili trading port on Madagascar's northeast coast, probably founded around the thirteenth century. Its Islamized Rasikajy merchants mixed with the local Antankarana people.

After Mahilaka was abandoned, Vohemar became one of the island's leading commercial towns in the fifteenth century. Portuguese sailors called it Bemaro from 1514; in 1526 it was named Reis Bimar after Sultan Bimar. In 1557 Diogo de Couto described a haven visited by navigators of many origins, and the name Vohémar became common in the seventeenth century.