…and Lybia, he calleth Sarra, for so the Arabians call a desert.
-Samuel Purchas (1577-1626), Purchas His Pilgrimage, 1613
The OED gives the first English language use of the word Sahara, albeit misspelled, to Samuel Purchas, although he is quoting the “Moore” (also misspelled) Leo Africanus’ Descrittione dell’Africa, from the Italian, but if he had wanted to be perfectly correct, he’d have called it Sara, la Bella Deserta, because in Arabic it is a feminine noun.