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    Al Fazari (722) an astronomer in Baghdad.
    -----------------------------
    Taken from : Journal of near eastern studies 1970

 

His work got lost; only pieces scattered in other works remain. The following piece is taken from Masudi (and is repeated later in Masudi's extract). The reason why Al Fazari is treated separately is because his mention is the first geographical mention of the land of the Zanj

 

As illustration only: a very beautiful world map of al Sharaf al Sifaqsi 1551

 

 

 

 

 

 

The territory of Ghana, the land of gold, 1000 farsakh's by 80 farsakh's.
The territory of Waram (1) 200 farsakh's by 80 farsakh's.
The territory of Nakhla (2) 120 farsakh's by 60 farsakh's.
The territory of Wah 60 farsakh's by 40 farsakh's .
The territory of Buja (3) 200 farsakh's by 80 farsakh's.
The territory of Nuba by al-Najashi (the ethiopian king) in the west 1,500 farsakh's by 400 farsakh's.
The territory of Zanj in the east 7,600 farsakh's by 500 farsakh's...........
  
These distances are enormous, it has been suggested that there is here a mix up between the farsakh or parasang about 6 km long and the Arabic mil about 2 km long.

(1) Waram: the area of the lower Senegal river.

(2) Nakhla: Kanem in West Africa.

(3) Buja: Beja in N Sudan. The Egyptians leaving from Aswan;  the southern border town on the Nile; have to cross their territory to reach the harbors on the Red Sea.