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Proceeding roughly south to north, the seven islands ceded by the
Portuguese to the British were
- Colaba: whose name is a
corruption of the
Koli name Kolbhat.
- Old Woman's Island:
(alternatively, Old Man's Island) a small rock between Colaba and
Bombay, whose name is a corruption of the Arabic name Al-Omani,
after the deep-sea fishermen who ranged up to the Gulf of Oman.
- Bombay: the main harbour and the nucleus of the British
fort from which the modern city grew; it
stretched from Dongri on the east to
Malabar Hill on the west.
- Mazagaon: a Koli settlement to the
east of Bombay island was seperated from it by Umarkhadi and
Pydhonie.
- Worli: north of Bombay was seperated
from it by the Great Breach, which extended westwards almost to Dongri.
- Parel: North of Mazagaon and called
by many other names, including Matunga, Dharavi and Sion. The original
population was predominantly Koli.
- Mahim: to the west of Parel and north
of Worli, took its name from the Mahim river and was the capital of a
13th century kingdom founded by
Raja Bhimdev.
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