Ibn Abd al Hakam: Futuh Misr;
(Conquest of Egypt) (871AD)
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Taken from: Geography and Religious Knowledge in the Medieval World by Christoph Mauntel.
Abu al Qasim Abd al Rahman ibn Abdullah ibn Abd al Hakam told us, Muhammad ibn Ismail al Kabi told us, my father told me, on the authority of Harmla ibn Umran al Tajibi, on the authority of Abu Qabil, on the authority of Aubdullah ibn Amr ibn al As (4), who said: The world was created in five images: in the image of the bird (1) with its head, chest, wings and tail. The head is Mecca, Medina and Yemen, and the chest is Syria and Egypt and the right wing is Iraq, and behind Iraq is a nation called a Waq and behind Waq there is a nation called Waq Waq (5), and behind that of the nations is what only God Almighty knows. And the left wing is Sind, and behind Sind is India, and behind India is a nation called Nasik (6), and behind Nasik is a nation called Mansik (6), and behind that are nations that only God Almighty knows. And the rear of the same pigeon is towards the Maghrib of sunset and the worst part of the bird is its tail.
Taken from: From Byzantine to Islamic Egypt: Religion, Identity and Politics after the ... By Maged S. A. Mikhail
………..at times of prayer, many early Muslims prayed separately (2), the segregation persisting not only along tribal lines, but ethnic groupings as well (3).
(1) This got copied by Ibn al-Fakih al Hamadhani (903) Kitab al Buldan (Book of Countries) from Hamadan Iran's ancient capital.
Muhammad al-Husayni al-Din al Maqrizi (1441) In: Kitab al-Khitat (book of plans) has: lt has been said that the inhabited part of the Earth resembles a bird: its head is China, the right wing India and the Sind, the left wing (the land of) the Khazar (southeast Russia), its breast is (formed by) Mecca, the Iraq, Syria and Egypt, and its tail is the Maghrib.
(2) Futuh Misr 119,121, 122, 129
(3) Futuh Misr 122, 129; here there is mention of masjid al-zanj and masjid al-farisiyyin. (masjid = Mosque)
(4) Abd Allah ibn Amr ibn al-As was the son of Amr ibn al-As of Banu Sahm and was a companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He was the author of "Al-Sahifah al-Sadiqah", the first known hadith compilation document.
(5) in the books three different places are called Waqwaq: in South-East Africa; in Indonesia; around Japan. Here Japan must be mend.
(6) Tha'alibi (d1038) in his Qisas al Anbiya also mentions the places Mansik and Nasik but here inhabiting opposite ends of the " length " of the earth, and the places Hawil and Ta'wil occupying opposite ends of the earth’s width.